Three Days in the Dark

There were four of us

Sons of believers

Sons who would not believe

Listen

Verse 1

We rolled four deep through the believer towns

Hoods up, faces hard, tearing meetings down

I had the mouth on me, I had the words to use

Every line my father preached, I could break in two

Pull up to a sermon with a smirk and a stare

Crack a joke loud enough to hush the room down there

Watch the old men flinch, watch the mothers turn

Watch the gospel my father carried start to burn

I knew their hymns by heart, I'd learned them as a kid

Every chord, every line, every closing benediction

And I used them like a weapon, threw them back like a blade

Mocked the cadence of the choir, twisted everything they prayed

I was sharper than a knife, I was lighter than the air

I was every bit my father, just pointed the wrong way there

Verse 2

You want a reason?

Fine, I'll lay it out clean

The old man was a giant and there wasn't room between

Him and the door for another son to grow

He gave his nights to the strangers, gave his days to the row

Of widows on his calendar, the sick, the dispossessed

And I was the boy at the window with my forehead pressed

To the glass, watching him leave again, watching him go

Watching the calling take the only father I'd ever known

I learned to hate the flock

I learned to hate the church

I learned to hate the calling that kept his good hands busy

Somewhere else

Somewhere else

Somewhere else

I had his voice

I had his fire

I had every gift the old man had

And I turned them all around

I came back at him with his own knife

Cut deep into the thing he loved

Watched it bleed

And called it a life

Pre-Chorus

And then the sky opened

And then the sky opened

And then the sky opened

Chorus

The voice came down

The voice came down like a hammer

The voice said why

Why are you tearing down the thing your father built

Why are you persecuting the Lord

Why are you fighting against him

And I fell

And I fell

And I could not stand

Verse 3

Three days

Three days in the dark

Three days I could not move

Three days I could not speak

Three days the words I'd spent my whole life sharpening

Sat dead in my mouth

Every face came back

The old man I mocked at his prayer

The mother I cut down with a joke

The girl I made cry in the marketplace for clinging to her faith

The father I tried to break

The father I tried to break

The father I tried to break

And the worst part

The worst part

The thing I could not unsee

Was that I had not been fighting my father

I had been fighting the Lord

And the Lord knew my name

And said it

Like he had been waiting his whole life

For me to turn around

Bridge

And I saw what I had done

And I saw it all at once

And I could not bear it

I could not bear it

I could not bear it

Pre-Resurrection

And I remembered

I remembered the old man

Preaching about the One who is coming

The One who would take the weight of it

The One who would harrow us up

And set us back down

And I called his name

I called his name

I called Jesus Christ

Have mercy on me

Resurrection

And the weight came off

And the weight came off

And I stood up

I stood up

I stood up

I stood up

And I found my father

And I told him

I told him I see now

I see now what you were doing

I see now who you were doing it for

I see now

Final Section

And to the ones I called weak

You were never weak

And to the ones I called fools

You saw what I could not see

And to the ones I tried to break

Forgive me

Forgive me

I am one of you now

Final Chorus

The voice came down

The voice came down like mercy

The voice said son

Son, your sins are forgiven you

Son, your fathers are praying for you

Son, stand up and go

And I stood

And I stood

And I will not sit down

Outro

There were four of us

Four sons of believers

And we all stood up

We all stood up

And the people we tried to break

Welcomed us back in

Welcomed us back in

Like we had been gone too long