Own Light (What Hearts Are For)

(album: All The Beauty In This Whole Life - 2017)

You're not using your heart for
What hearts are for

They've been trying to shut us down our whole life
I thank God for healing
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
Thank God for listening, listen
You've been trying to build me up my whole life
I thank God for building
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
I thank God I'm living

Sometime I feel like a stranger, maybe I ain't from here
World going crazy, how could that be unclear?
Know that I'm a soldier, heart's on my battleground
Sword in the holster, had to come back around
I ain't trying to hide away, I just had to meditate
I ain't got a lot to say but the ancestors may
Speaking to the whole globe, numbers don't occur to me
You can listen solo 'cause you're the whole world to me
I jump in with both feet nothing low key
You can find me where I'm s'posed be, where my folks be
If you listen very closely you know who chose me
Nothing that I own owns me and so I'm so free
I remember being hungry needing groceries
Nighttime getting no sleep 'til my nose bleed
Got a message to the police:
You're not using your heart for what hearts are for

They've been trying to shut us down our whole life
I thank God for healing
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
Thank God for listening, listen
You've been trying to build me up my whole life
I thank God for building
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
I thank God I'm living

Not for one second I believe what you're telling me
I know you invented disease and sell the remedy
Universe is sending me centuries of memories
So the very breath that I breathe is all I ever need
I got that Muhammad Ali up in my pedigree
Yes I be speaking my peace up in my seventies
Ain't worry bout ya threatening me, I'm just being honest
I ain't buying fear just because it's all you got left
We just want to make love 'til we wake up
I believe whoever made us envisioned greatness
And you know they want to paint us with the same brush
Wanna enterchain us 'til we fill our grave up
Alright okay but when it's all said and it's all done
And I look back at the trophies I won
I will only count one
I'm using my heart for what hearts are for

They've been trying to shut us down our whole life
I thank God for healing
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
Thank God for listening, listen
You've been trying to build me up my whole life
I thank God for building
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
I thank God I'm living

And I know who I am
I know whose I am
On your wings, I fly and your shoes, I stand
I'm animated by love, I don't move by chance
Any stage I touch or any place I stand
There y'all land, living in the world as it is
Cracked vessel, I am no more and no less than a man
Any po-sessions that I have are just in my hand
I'm balancing the best that I can
I'm not making no claims but
I'm using my heart for what hearts are for

All the beauty in this whole life (uh)
I thank God for healing
And You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
I thank God for listening, listen
You've been trying to build me up my whole life
I thank God for building
You ain't got to get me lit, I got my own light
I thank God I'm living
Just reflecting all the beauty in this whole life