The closing track of Anberlin’s 2007 album Cities; also the longest song the band has made at 8:53. This song is based off four stories that affected singer and songwriter Stephen Christian’s faith in Christ when he was growing up.
[Verse 1]
Feels like you’re miles from here
In other towns with lesser names
Where the unholy ghost doesn’t tell
Mary or William exactly what they want to hear
You remember the house on Ridge Road
Told you and the Devil to both just leave me alone
If this is salvation, I can show you the trembling
You’ll just have to trust me. I’m scared
[Chorus]
I am the patron saint of lost causes
Are we all to you just mere lost causes?
Aren’t we all to you just lost
[Verse 2]
Tommy, you left behind
Something that will mean everything right before you die
What if you gained the whole world?
You’ve already lost four little souls from your life
Widows and orphans aren’t hard to find
They’re home missing daddy who’s saving the abandoned tonight
Wish your drinking would hurry and kill you
Sympathy’s better than having to tell you the truth
[Chorus]
That you are the patron saint of lost causes
All you are to them is now a lost cause
All you are to them is now, causes
[Verse 3]
Billy, don’t you understand?
Timothy stood as long as he could and now
You made his faith disappear
More like a magician and less like a man of the cloth
We’re not questioning God
Just those he chose to carry on His cross
We’re no better, you’ll see
Just all of us, the lost causes
[Chorus]
Are we all to you just lost causes?
Are we all to you lost?
Lost causes
So all we are to you
Is all we are, is all we are
All we are is all we are
[Bridge (Choir)]
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
(Lost causes, all we are is all we are)
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you? (To you, lost...)
[Bridge 2]
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
Patron Saint, are we all lost like you?
All is lost...
All is lost...
[Verse 4]
Take what you will, what you will and leave
Could you kill, could you kill me?
If the world was on fire and nothing was left of hope or desire
And take all that I could bring forth
Is this Hell? Or am I on the floor
Over-desperate hold hands
Streaming of blood again?
And then take full weight of me
Guard my dreams, figure this out
It's me on my own. Helpless, hurting, hell
Will you stay strong as you promised?
Cause I'm stranded and bare
Meanness has washed up in all that I am
Please God take this and all
Then grace takes me to a place
Of the father you never had
Bending and breaking and tearing apart
This is not heaven, this is my Hell
(*Fin) was written by Stephen Christian & Joseph Milligan.
(*Fin) was produced by Aaron Sprinkle.
I think I did have a massive catharsis on our record Cities with the song (*Fin) and the fact that it was kind of me in a way. I look at Psalms and I see David yelling at God a lot, and I think that was my “Psalms moment” where I just got to kind of unload on and God say, “Man these are all a bunch...