New Nation

[Chorus:]
I know the New Nation that we've been chasing
Isn't all for waste, and
I know You're here when I need You around
But maybe I'd be stronger if I stayed longer
Learning right from wrong, or
The other thousand things that I'm figuring out

[Verse 1:]
She loves the morning
She loves every part of the day, but especially the morning
I think it's in the artistic redemption—
The quiet call to lift eyelids & skylids
The second chances, the third chances
The fourth chances

And of all the people who might petition God for another chance
She has a case
A case of trophies boasting of the ways she used to move
Used to sing, used to
A case of empty bottles & ziplock backs
Testifying to the ways she had been used
A case of book after wisdom after book
Bought to be borrowed—and we do

Her name is J
For the joy that she gives
For the jewel that she is
For the Jazz that she lives
She's bright in every sense of the word;
She's bright because of The Word
And her Light is my Morning

[Chorus]

[Verse 2:]
How humbling it is that a third of our lifetime is untouchable
Are we so fragile that for every 16 hours of movement
We require 8 of stillness?
Is the world so heavy that by our dying day we cannot lift it?
Are we so in danger of thinking ourselves invincible
That we must be reintroduced to weakness on a nightly basis?

I think so
I think often about this
Especially as I watch her 24 hours trimmed further & further down
Until the ratio is flipped, leaving only one third for her use—
And a painful third

Still, that third in all its discomfort brings a comfort—
Better yet, a Life—
Like nothing I've seen in all my waking hours
From the heart of the storm
From the confusion of the worn
A Revolution has been born
One that will outlive every sunset
Until the day there is no sunset
And everything is as the Son said

[Chorus]