Nichole Nordeman Album

Oooooo...
It's well past midnight
And I'm awake with questions that won't
Wait for daylight
Separating fact from my imaginary fiction
On this shelf of my conviction
I need to find a place
Where You and I come face to face
Thomas needed
Proof that You had really risen
Undefeated
When he placed his fingers
Where the nails once broke Your skin
Did his faith finally begin?
I've lied if I've denied
The common ground I've shared with him

And I, I really want to know You
I want to make each day
A different way that I can show You how
I really want to love You
Be patient with my doubt
I'm just tryin' to figure out Your will
And I really want to know You still

Nicodemus
Could not understand how You could
Truly free us
He struggled with the image
Of a grown man born again
We might have been good friends
Cuz sometimes I still question, too
How easily we come to You

But I, I really want to know You
I want to make each day
A different way that I can show You how
I really want to love You
Be patient with my doubt
I'm just tryin' to figure out Your will
And I really want to know You still

No more camping on the porch of indecision
No more sleeping under stars of apathy
And it might be easier to dream
But dreamin's not for me

And I, I really want to know You
I want to make each day
A different way that I can show You how
I really want to love You
Be patient with my doubt
I'm just tryin' to figure out Your will
And I really want to know You still

I want to know you, I really want to know you
Hey yeah, yeah
I really want to know you, I really want to know you,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

When I met him on a sidewalk
He was preaching to a mailbox
Down on 16th Avenue
And he told me he was Jesus
Sent from Jupiter to free us
With a bottle of tequila and one shoe
He raged about repentance
He finished every sentence
With a promise that the end was close at hand
I didn't even try to understand
He left me wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
I was tongue tied, drawn by my conclusions
So I turned and walked away
And laughed at what he had to say
Then casually dismissed him as a fraud
I forgot he was created in the image of my God

When I met her in a bookstore
She was browsing on the first floor
Through a yoga magazine
And she told me in her past life
She was some plantation slave's wife
She had to figure out what that might mean
She believes the healing powers of her crystals
Can bring balance and new purpose to her life
Sounds nice

She left me wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
I was tongue tied, drawn by my conclusions
So I turned and walked away
And laughed at what she had to say
Then casually dismissed her as a fraud
I forgot she was created in the image of my God

Not so long ago, a man from Galilee
Fed thousands with His bread and His theology
And the truth He spoke
Quickly became the joke
Of educated, self-inflated Pharisees like me

And they were wide eyed in disbelief and disillusion
They were tongue tied, drawn by their conclusions
Would I have turned and walked away
And laughed at what He had to say
And casually dismissed Him as a fraud
Unaware that I was staring at the image of my God

I was certain that I knew You
At the tender age of twelve
You'd so often been described by those
Who said they knew You well
Dark and rugged in Your thirties
With a smile as bright as Your robe

Every teacher, every preacher
With the very best intent
Found new ways to hide the mystery
Replaced by common sense
And to know You was to keep You in my pocket
So easy to hold

I know I can't explain You
I would not even try to
And yet it's clear that You are here beside me
I marvel and I wonder
So near and somehow still so far
What makes You who You are?

It is easy to insist
On what is packaged and precise
And dismiss the clear suspicion
That You're bigger than we'd like
It is tempting to regard You as familiar
In so many ways

I've tried to draw these lines around You
A definition or an absolute
But I could not be satisfied with black or white
There is so much more
There is so much You

Bless the day
This restoration is complete
Dirty dusty something must be underneath
So I scrape and I scuff
Though it's never quite enough
I'm starting to see me finally

A gallery of paintings new and paintings old
I guess it's no surprise that I'm no Michael angelo
Every layer of mine hides a lovely design
It might take a little patience
It might take a little time

But you called me beautiful
When you saw my shame
And you placed me on the wall
Anyway

You who have begun this work will someday see
A portrait of the holiness you meant for me
So I polish and shine
til it's easier to find even an outline of mine

But you called me beautiful
When you saw my shame
And you placed me on the wall
Anyway
Anyway
And you placed me on the wall
Anyway

If I tried to tell you
If I tried to find a way
To explain this freedom
Of living underneath this grace
Would it be absurd?
Can a heart be heard?

To think you might see
A difference in me...
And I wish the same for you
Something to hold on to
I wish the same for you
A chance for love

We are not so different
Sons and daughters, you and i
Facing walls of questions
Fearing answers on the other side of eternity...
And what the day will bring

But I finally found
The safe and the sound...
To dance in the daylight
And not see my shadow
To run where I cannot hide
In the open wide...

Is it any wonder
That she would feel less than real
When she reveals what is clearer
In her mirror

Take a look around her
Magazines, glamour queens
Waist-line dreams in her diary
So inspiring

Nobody told her that little girls
Don't have to have the softest curls for love

So whatever's left inside her
Is gonna smile wider, shine brighter
Until she gets pulled under
Is it any wonder?

Is it any wonder
That he's obsessed with what is best
And nothing less... he's a hero
With six zeros

Take a look around him
His wallet size and what he drives
Will symbolise how he's made it
How they'll grade it

Nobody told him that little boys
Don't have to have the fastest toys to win

So whatever's left inside him
Is gonna keep on tryin' to keep on buyin'
Until he gets pulled under
Is it any wonder?

Will somebody tell her there's a love that can't be glamourized
Tell him there's a hope that won't be downsized
Someone tell them that the billboards lie
All the time

Cos whatever's left inside her
Is gonna smile wider
And whatever's left inside him
Is gonna keep on tryin'
Until they get pulled under
Is it any wonder?

Started rubbing sticks together
Thought a spark would take forever
Never dreamt this fire would appear

When Moses saw the bush in flames
And heard the branches speak his name
I wonder if he felt this kind of fear

Cause I'm burnin'
Yeah, I'm burnin'
And I know I'm gonna blister in these flames
And I'll stay here
Till this smoke clears
And I'll find you in the ashes that remain

Used to be that I could say
My faith was one arm's length away
From any flame that ever felt too warm

Asked for matches, but I received
A gallon full of gasoline
Now my cozy campfire days are gone

I'm burnin'
I'm burnin'
I know I'm gonna blister in these flames
But I'll stay here
Till this smoke clears
And I'll find you in the ashes that remain

Knock with caution at the door
They said, "Beware of what you're praying for"

So I'll stand here with my whole desire
In the middle of this forest fire
Till I've nothing left to show
And new life begins to grow

Cause I'm burnin'
Yeah, I'm burnin'
And I know I'm gonna blister in these flames
I'll stay here
Till this smoke clears
And I'll find you in the ashes that remain, remain

Do I dare even wear what I was thinking of
My true colors bleeding on my sleeve
Do I chance the romance that I've been dreaming of
Instead of wishing for it quiety

Always at a distance
I wish You'd safely stayed
Despite my resistance
You sought me anyway

[chorus]
Gone are the days
Of all that I was afraid of
I've left behind the traces of who I've been
I'm no longer able
To wrestle with this angel
And the closer You get
I can let You love me

I had found it was easier to dance around
The edges of who I could be
If I chose to expose what grows deep down
Would You still desire what You see

No more self-rejection
No longer paralyzed
This holy perfection
Is my inside Your eyes

[chorus]
Gone are the days
Of all that I was afraid of
I've left behind the traces of who I've been
I'm no longer able
To wrestle with this angel
And the closer You get
I can let You love me (You love me)

Nevermind this mirror hanging on the wall
Cause I could not pretend to be the fairest of them all
Took a hammer to the glass
To shatter all the pieces, the pieces of my past

[chorus]
Gone are the days
Of all that I was afraid of
I've left behind the traces of who I've been
I'm no longer able
To wrestle with this angel
And the closer You get
I can let You love me
[repeat until fade]

Hello, Mr. Darkcloud
Never thought that we would meet so soon
Never thought I'd bundle up in June
Funny how the fog rolls
Funnier that I'd know who to blame
Never thought I'd have to own this pain
If all that's good and true
comes from heaven
Then what's a girl to do
when it rains?

Chorus
And I'm sayin'
Why, why, why, why?
I'm shakin' a fist in the dark,
and I'm askin'
Why, why, why, why?
Why does it keep getting harder
To say thanks?
Tell me what's a girl to do...

Even fields of flowers
Dressing in their best because of You
Knowing they are blessed to be in bloom
But what about November
When the air is cold and wet winds blow
Do they understand why they can't grow?

Chorus

And I could not pretend
to know the difference
Between the storms You send
and those I find

Chorus till end

Rolling River God
Little Stones are smooth
Only once the water passes through
So I am a stone
rough and grainy still
Trying to reconcile this river's chill

Chorus
But when I close my eyes
and feel you rushing by
I know that time brings change
and change takes time
And when the sunset comes
my prayer would be this one
that you might pick me up
and notice that I am
just a little smoother in your hand

Sometimes raging wild
sometimes swollen high
never have I known this river dry
The deepest part of you
is where I want to stay
and feel the sharpest edges wash away

Chorus
And when I close my eyes
and feel you rushing by
I know that time brings change
and change takes time
And when the sunset comes
my prayer would be just this one
that you might pick me up
and notice that I am
just a little smoother in your hand