This song comes from my understanding of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. We’re all flawed. Every one of us has needed love and forgiveness we hadn’t earned, myself included. Nobody is better than anybody else, no matter how hard somebody tries to convince you otherwise.
Thank God mercy doesn’t depend on being better than the next person. If grace were only for people who got everything right, none of us would have much hope.
Lyrics
A man can spend his whole life tryin'
To outrun the things he's done
Wear a smile, hide the hurt
Keep on tellin' folks he's fine
But every mirror tells the truth eventually
And every heart knows where it's been
Funny how the older that I get
The less I think that any of us wins
None of us walks in or gets out clean
We've all got dust on our boots and dirt on our souls
Every one of us has needed somebody
To love us more than we deserved
Thank God mercy don't work that way
The older I get, the harder I try
To leave a little room for mercy
Life's a whole lot more complicated
Than I once believed it'd be
Funny how it's never just one thing
Life don't work that way
Sometimes the storm don't come in pieces
It all rolls in one day
None of us walks in or gets out clean
We've all got dust on our boots and dirt on our souls
Every one of us has needed somebody
To love us more than we deserved
Thank God mercy don't work that way
I quit keepin' score a long time ago
Mine wasn't pretty either
It's hard to look down on anybody
When you've spent your life lookin' up
Hopin' somebody'd understand
None of us walks in or gets out clean
We've all got dust on our boots and dirt on our souls
Every one of us has needed somebody
To love us more than we deserved
If grace only came for perfect people
There'd be nobody left to save
Thank God mercy don't work that way