Brother James
Somewhere else there’s someone better
Having coffee with another better else
Who I’d like to be
But I’m stuck here with you
(you) and I will hope snapshots of better people’s lives
Will hold at bay the will to die for another day
Cause I just want love
I just want to love
I just want to be loved
By someone better
I just need a better piece of glass
to give me happiness;
I’ll trade my hard-earned money
for a girl in a box and now
I’ll never need another friend or lover
She can be whoever I’d like her to be
Cause I just want love
I just want to love
I just want to be loved
By someone better
Make me a conduit of grace
Just to stare death in the face
Take up the surgeon’s knife and
Tear out his heart;
Make me an instrument of peace
Just to give more than receive
Be in the darkness light,
In hatred:
Love more than be loved
Cause I just want love
I just want to be loved
So teach me love to love
Love more than be loved
Cause I just want to love
Someone better
In an eastside LA suburb
There’s a man locked in his room
Who has learned to love all humans
But can’t seem to find a single one
On his desk next to his Bible
Is a notebook that contains
In peaceful poetry, the purpose
Of every tragedy and pain
He’d share the solution
But there’s none he cares to tell
Because he loves everybody
But the one in front of him
He was searching for the answers
To questions old as time
Like: are we human, are we dancer?
And do all songs need to have parallel structure?
And in the fog he found a hopeful
Jar full of why
Pulled his fist up with a handful
But his hand was stuck inside
He holds the theory
That he might learn to live it in time
Because he loves everybody
But the one in front of him
He gives his alms to the poor
As long as they don’t bug him anymore
And keep off my property
I just need a moment of peace
Cause I love everybody
I just want a little peace
He loves everybody
He loves every living thing
Yes I love everybody
But the one in front of me
We’re good country people, you and I
We’re keepin’ to the Bible’s teachin’
‘Least for most of the day.
By the time I leave I’ll have your arm and leg
Inside my bible briefcase and you’ll
Have the satisfaction:
Of knowing God don’t hate you.
(even though he wants to)
Rest easy sleep at night;
I don’t know why you try to fight
With the one who holds your life.
Us good country people do it right
Spurn evil keep to right lanes
People won’t infect our parade
We’re not needy people
Give to God, greedy people
Say we’re not good, we’re evil
And we still have too much but
Our Father hears our prayers.
(our father lord of liars)
I’ll rest easy sleep at night;
I’ll give just enough and never fight
With the one who holds my life.
I didn’t think that faith was what I needed, but faith is what I gained,
Cause when you stepped into my business all my questions seemed to change:
From those I knew I cannot be answered to mysteries unattained.
I thought that you were what I needed, but faith is what I gained.
I wish that I could prove that God wanted me to meet a pretty girl and fall in love
And though I can’t elaborate I know that it’s true.
Is it my virtue or my family’s or this awkward mystery:
That God’s work might find manifest glory in me.
I didn’t think that God was so excessive, or God was such a tease
That He would step into this world to give unnecessary things,
Or in His boundless loving mercy He’d lend a fighting chance
To We The People blind to suffering who rest within His plans.
I wished that it were true that God’s better beauty manifests in painful-looking ways
And though that’s laudable you cannot pin down Grace.
So though the cross is all I seek and though I’m wicked and I’m weak,
God alone decides to manifest glory in me.
I hoped that I might in you a treasure, and treasure’s what I found
But ain’t it funny when you ask of God for mystery He’s bound
To give you more than what you bargained and barter to the ground;
I thought that truth would end my seeking but beauty’s what I found.
I thought that it was cruel that my lot was full of comfort and of beauty unreserved
All while God was letting others waste away,
But may we harvest in the Spring, be poured out and ever bring
God’s work to show manifest glory in these.
I wish that I could prove that God wanted me to meet a pretty girl and fall in love
And though I can’t elaborate I know that it’s true.
Is it my virtue or my family’s or this awkward mystery:
That God’s work might find manifest glory in me.
Spirit-filled Socrates, live your life in me
May I protest a little less than James of Zebede.
Oh Brother James, The blessed saint; the first to be set free
By Herod’s sword he joined you Lord to reign a thousand years.
Oh Christ, live your life in me
Oh Jesus Christ, let me die with thee;
That I might rise, rise to life and be
Your brother, Christ, live your life in me.
Spirit-filled Socrates, make your home in me
We may not have a place to rest, but I’ll find my rest in thee.
Oh Brother James, the lucky saint to be your brother here:
May I be found to him a kin, and be your brother dear.
Oh Christ, live your life in me
Oh Jesus Christ, let me die with thee;
That I might rise, rise to life and be
Your brother, Christ, live your life in me.
So Brother James the third I’ll be, if you see fit for me
To live in Christ, and die to gain is all I ask for please.
So curb me now impatience vain to read thy veiled decree
And count it joy to suffer, Lord if so brought nearer thee
Oh Christ, live your life in me
Oh Jesus Christ, let me die with thee;
That I might rise, rise to life and be
Your brother, Christ, live your life in me.