Is this the resurrection, or is it a letdown?

Is the kingdom of heaven more than a ghost town?

Is there something further in, or only a way out?

Cuz if eternal life’s worth living, shouldn’t it start now?

If eternal life’s worth living, shouldn’t it start now?

Cuz I’m living like a dead man, I’m haunted by a ghost

I’m torn between the temple walls and reaching for a robe

I’m buried like a body in this God-forsaken ground

So if eternal life’s worth living, shouldn’t it start now?

If eternal life’s worth living, shouldn’t it start now?

So let silence sound like thunder, let mercy come in flood

Let justice flow like water, let the rivers turn to blood

Let the ancient be the young, let the humble be the proud

Cuz if eternal life’s worth living, shouldn’t it start now?

If eternal life’s worth living, shouldn’t it start now?

Yesterday the afternoon was dark

The rain became a river in the center of the yard

But after it was over, all the birds began to sing

Come and see, come and see, come and see

And oh, can you feel it all around

See it burning like a lamppost

Hear it growing in the ground

And oh, it’s the simplest of things

Let there be, let there be, let there be

I break every single song I write

I take all the words I ever sing and bury them alive

But even in my silence, still a voice calls out to me

Come and sing, come and sing, come and sing

And oh, can you feel it all around

See it burning like a lamppost

Hear it growing in the ground

And oh, it’s the simplest of things

Let there be, let there be, let there be

Some days I could curl up and cry

I couldn’t write another verse even if I tried

The ground is dry, and so am I; there’s nothing left to sing

Can’t you see, can’t you see

But something happens when the earth is empty

The silence is a canvas, and the dawn is gonna break

And my voice is not my own, but still it’s breaking out of me

Let there be, let there be, let there be

And oh, can you feel it all around

See it burning like a lamppost

Hear it growing in the ground

And oh, it’s the simplest of things

Let there be, let there be, let there be

Can you join him as he sings

Let there be, let there be

I’ve been bowing down and feeling low

And it feels like I’m surrendering my soul

Every time I take my phone out of my pocket

I start to die a little more

And they told me, but I guess I never learned

If you hold it to the flame, it’s gonna burn

And if you do it long enough, what you do

Begins to feel like who you are

Oh, can you hear me?

Oh, are you near me?

Oh, I’ve been singing an ambivalent song

Here in Babylon

Everything here’s easy to believe

But nothing has been satisfying me

And every time I think I’ve come a little closer

I trip over my own feet

And they told me, but I guess I never tried

If you wanna live, you’re gonna have to die

And if you’re captive long enough, the in your cell

You’ll start believing that you’re free

Oh, but are you free?

Oh, are you with me?

Oh, is this living?

Oh, I’m having trouble telling profit from wrong

Here it Babylon

Oh, can you hear me?

Oh, are you near me?

Oh, are you with me?

Oh, is this living?

Oh, I think maybe

Oh, you could save me

Oh, see I was born here, but I know I don’t belong

Here in Babylon

I woke up feeling like a failure

Like there’s nothing worth redeeming in my bones

Yesterday was everything I love to do

And still I woke up feeling like a failure alone

And my window looks over a garden

But these days all the weeds are overgrown

Yesterday I saw them laying flowers in the dirt

They’ll be dead before the winter comes along

And I try to take my time

But it’s not easy when you’re living in a lie

That the measure of a child

Is just how much he has to give to his father

And I don’t want to waste my life

But for every single second that goes by

It seems like everyone but me

Is doing better, making more, and going further

Last night I woke up from a nightmare

I was living in a city full of thieves

And we stole the things we wanted til we thought we had enough

But then we always wanted one last thing

See, no one ever tried to plant a garden

In the middle of a city full of weeds

Cuz it would never see the light, would hardly live before it died

And you’d be burying the fruit before the seed

And I try to take my time

But it’s not easy when you’re living in a lie

That the measure of a child

Is just how far he’s living now from where he started

And I don’t want to waste my life

But for every single second that goes by

It seems like everyone but me

Is doing better, making more, and going further

And I think I’ll try and plant a garden

But I don’t have the measure or the means

To ever know the end from where I started

To tell apart the flower from the seed

But someday I’ll move into a city

Where the streets aren’t made of gold, they’re growing green

And the king will know my name and we’ll remember all the days

I felt that garden city grow inside of me

I’ve never been to London

I’m sure that you can tell

But I’ve heard it described

By those who claim to know it well

They say St. Paul’s Cathedral

Stands as regal as a king

But since I’ve never been to London

I can’t tell you anything

I’ve never been to London

On the far side of the sea

All my friends have been there

But they’ve never gone with me

I’m pretty sure Big Ben

Still towers proudly keeping time

But since I’ve never been to London

Your guess is good as mine

I say it’s real

But I’ve never seen it

I have my faith

Sometimes I mean it

I’ve heard it’s beautiful and busy

Full of people passing through

There are those that don’t believe it

But please don’t think I’m going crazy if I do

I’ve heard a lot of stories

That are set on London’s streets

Been moved to tears by songs

That sing of London in the spring

And I know facts can seem like fiction

And doubt can feel like faith

But since I’ve never been to London

Don’t expect me to explain

Why I say it’s real

But I’ve never seen it

I have my faith

Sometimes I mean it

I’ve heard it’s beautiful and busy

Full of people passing through

There are those that don’t believe it

But please don’t think I’m going crazy if I do

I might never see it

If it is a real place

And I might not even know it

If it looked me in the face

And it could be conspiracy’s

All this has ever been

But even if there is no London

I think it’s worth believing in

Even if there is no London

I think it’s worth believing in

Drove to Ohio, it was

Barely raining, but the

Wedding happened anyway

We sat apart, and I think

Saw each other, but then

A second later looked away

And they said their vows in spite of us

And walked back down the aisle

Looking hopeful

By 9:00 PM I’d had enough

But I stuck it out, cuz I

Was feeling hopeful

We sent them off with all our

Expectations, saying

“Must be easy, must be nice”

The crowd was pulling us in

Different directions, and do

You went yours, and I went mine

And they drove away in front of us

And waved back through the window

Looking hopeful

And I hate to think that some of us

Just don’t have what it takes

To be that hopeful

Cuz something tells me hope

Is not as easy as it looks

At a wedding sitting twenty feet away

And something tells me hope

Is not as simple as it feels

When you’re watching thinking, I’ll get there someday

And something tells me hope

Is twice as hard as seeing someone

That you loved dancing slow with someone new

And something tells me hope

Is twice as painful as the self-inflicted doubts

That made it hard to be hopeful

For you

I wanna be hopeful for you

I tried to be hopeful

Drove to Ohio, it was

Barely raining, but the

Wedding happened anyway

Another year

Another pair of stunted wings

Another turn of this kaleidoscope of broken things

Another year

Another push that came to shove

Another arrow in the wall the place the target was

And it didn’t go the way I

Planned it out, it was

Just a whisper that

Became a shout

And with anyone else

I’d be fine just leaving it here

But with you, my love

It wasn’t just

Another year

Another hard love to believe

Another poison that, alone, I would’ve never seen

Another year

Another morning in the park

Another slow and sure reminder of the better parts

And it didn’t go the way I

Thought it would, it was

Half as comfortable and

Twice as good

And with anyone else

I’d be fine just leaving it here

But with you, my love

It wasn’t just

Another year

Another year

Another year

And there’ll be plenty more to come

And they’ll be full of my mistakes, just like the other ones

Another year

Another treasure in the ground

Another price we have to pay to keep the love we found

And it won’t be easy, I

Think you know it takes

Years of dying

For things to grow

And with anyone else

I’d be fine just leaving it here

But with you, my love

I just can’t wait for

We used to make our way to Pennsylvania

On a highway running gray below the sky

Stop for gas in little towns

With funny names we can’t pronounce

Then get back in and finish up the drive

We used to go vacation at Rehoboth

In a yellow motel room that felt like home

And drive across the bay

A hundred feet above the waves

And wave down to the people in the boats

And oh, it’s so intrinsic in the moment

It’s funny how the whole thing

Will be gone before you know it

Oh, we broke down beside the Blue Ridge

Somehow, we got through it

And acted like we knew that things would change

But I guess that that’s just how it always feels

Seeing big things from far away

I remember meeting Jesus at the altar

How it felt like I could look into his eyes

How I almost heard his voice

Above a hundred teenage boys

And it felt like God was kneeling at my side

I remember when my grandmother was dying

How she couldn't even call me by my name

How between the sterile walls

Faith felt like nothing at all

Just a hollow feeling following the ache

And oh, it’s so intrinsic in the moment

It’s funny how the whole thing

Will be gone before you know it

Oh, I don’t have anything to prove it

Except that we got through it

And somehow we just knew that things would change

But I guess that that’s just how it always feels

I guess that that’s just how it always feels

I guess that that’s just how it always feels

Seeing big things from far away

This is the valley of the shadow of the truth

And I can feel it; can you feel it too?

This is the chorus of the silent song

And like a lion, it’s slowly on the move

And it gets so hard to believe sometimes

When you’re aching with a hope

For a world that’s not your home yet

And it gets so hard to believe sometimes

There’s something wrong that’s waiting to be right

It’s a mirror, it’s a glass

A reflection of what hasn’t yet come to pass

It’s a blessing and curse to understand

That we are walking in the shadowlands

This is a journey that is sure to reach an end

We’re getting closer with every final breath

This is a kingdom that we can’t defend

For resurrection, there has to be some kind of death

And it can get so hard to believe sometimes

When you’re aching for the break

Of that never-ending daylight

And it gets so hard to believe sometimes

There’s something wrong that’s waiting to be made right

Oh, it’s a mirror, it’s a glass

A reflection of what hasn’t yet come to pass

It’s a blessing and curse to understand

That we are walking in the shadowlands

This is the whisper of a changing tide

A budding flower right where the seed had died

This is a rumor of eternal life

I hear it coming, and I feel it like it’s already arrived

And it gets so hard to believe sometimes

When you’re waiting in the wings

For the blossoming of springtime

And it gets so hard to believe sometimes

That the dead are being told to come alive

Oh, it’s a mirror, it’s a glass

A reflection of what hasn’t yet come to pass

It’s a blessing and curse to understand

That we are walking in the shadowlands

It’s a mirror, it’s a glass

A reflection of what hasn’t yet come to pass

It’s a blessing and curse to understand

That we are walking in the shadowlands

Yeah we’re just walking in the shadowlands

Yeah you and I

We’re walking in the shadowlands

When my brothers and I were younger

In the basement living room

We would dump out all the legos

And start building to the moon

And we’d write entire histories

For a world bright and new

And just because they didn’t happen

Doesn’t mean it wasn’t true

I was in my fourth-grade classroom

In the little reading nook

When I finished Harry Potter

But I didn’t close the book

And I cried about the ending

And the first time that I knew

That just because it didn’t happen

Doesn’t mean it isn’t true

I have heard a million stories

I have sung a million songs

I have gotten all the details right

And still got something wrong

And I won’t dare to explain it

Or to offer any proof

But just because it didn’t happen

Doesn’t mean it isn’t true