Let It Cost Me

God, You gave it all; let my faith cost me.

Put some calluses on what I say I believe.

There’s a man beside the road I could leave behind;

Let me see a brother through the dirt and signs.

Make Your people worth my time when time runs thin;

Give me room for someone I would not let in.

You met me on a floor I couldn’t rise above;

Now get me off this couch and teach my hands to love.

Take the comfort I keep guarding like a throne;

Send me where somebody’s hurting all alone.

Let forgiveness cost the last word in a fight;

Let compassion interrupt my plans tonight.

I can’t earn the grace You freely gave to me;

But this life can show what mercy has set free.

Get my heart right, put these hands to work;

Give me love that stays when loving starts to hurt.

When I stand up for the flag, let my life stand true;

You know this grateful heart bleeds red, white, and blue.

Those before me gave up years they couldn’t spare;

Some came home with wounds the rest of us don’t wear.

America deserves a man who follows through,

Who will shoulder what he says we ought to do.

Let me thank that aging soldier, pull a chair;

When his story gets too heavy, keep me there.

Spend my Saturday repairing someone’s stairs;

Turn “I’ll pray for you” to showing up prepared.

Let my table lose an empty seat tonight;

Help me own the wrong I’ve dressed up as being right.

Give me backbone with a heart that still can bend;

Make me slow to write somebody off again.

When another broken promise makes me stop,

Show me who needs help before I count the cost.

Give the blind their sight; first open up my eyes.

Wake the sleeping heart I’ve hidden deep inside.

Jesus, raise the dead to life; breathe through this town.

Call the names that shame has taught us to count out.

Send me through the jailhouse door with hope to share;

Help me hear the man beyond what put him there.

I can bring the bread; Your hands can break the chains.

Keep me serving when I cannot see a change.

When I’m done, let me be a dirty rag,

Worn from serving people underneath that flag.

Let these knees bear dirt from kneeling at their side;

Let these hands show where I laid my ease aside.

May the ones who bought my freedom find me true

To the duty that their sacrifice passed through.

Keep the cross before me when the colors fly;

Make me worth the trust of those who stand nearby.

Leave my boots beside the door, ready to go;

Put a face upon the need I claim to know.

You already paid the debt I couldn’t pay;

I can spend the life You spared another way.

When obedience gets expensive, hold me fast;

Let somebody’s new beginning be what lasts.

When the bill comes due for who I claim to be—

Lord, I’ve sung it long enough.

Let it cost me.