Deathbed

(album: Five Score And Seven Years Ago - 2007)

I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can't believe this is the end

But this is my deathbed
I lie here alone
If I close my eyes tonight
I know I'll be home

The year was nineteen forty one
I was eight years old and far far too young
To know that the stories
Of battles and glory
Was a tale a kind mother
Made up for her son

You see
Dad was a traveling preacher
Teaching the words of the Teacher
But mother had sworn
He went off to the war
And died there with honor
Somewhere on a beach there

But he left once to never return
Which taught me that I should unlearn
Whatever I thought a father should be
I abandoned that thought
Like he abandoned me

By forty seven I was fourteen
I'd acquired a taste for liquor and nicotine
I smoked until I threw up
Yet I still lit 'em up
For thirty more years
Like a machine

So right there you have it
That one filthy habit
Is what got me where I am today

I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can't believe this is the end
I can hear those sad memories
Still haunting me
So many things
I'd do again

But this is my deathbed
I lie here alone
If I close my eyes tonight
I know I'll be home

Got married on my twenty first
Eight months before my wife would give birth
It's easier to be sure you love someone
When her father inquires with the barrel of a gun

The union was far from harmonious
No two people could have been more alone than us
The years would go by, and she'd love someone else
And I realized I hadn't been loved yet myself

From there it's your typical spiel
Yeah, if life was a highway
I was drunk at the wheel
I was helping the loose ends
All fall apart
Yeah, I swear I was destined to fail
And fail from the start

I bowled about six times a week
A bottle of Beam kept the memories from me
Our marriage had taken a seven-ten split
And along with my pride the ex-wife took the kids

I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can't believe this is the end
I can hear those sad memories
Still haunting me
So many things
I'd do again

But this is my deathbed
I lie here alone
If I close my eyes tonight
I know I'll be home

I was so scared of Jesus
But He sought me out
Like the cancer in my lungs
It's killing me now

And I've given up hope
On the days I have left
But I cling to the hope
Of my life in the next

Then Jesus showed up
Said, "Before we go up
I thought that we might reminisce.
See, one night in your life
When you turned out the lights
You asked for and prayed for My forgiveness.

You cried wolf.
The tears they soaked your fur.
The blood dripped from your fangs.
You said, 'What have I done?'
You loved that Lamb
With every sinful bone.
And there you wept alone.
Your heart was so contrite.

You said, 'Jesus, please forgive me of my crimes.
Sanctify this withered heart of mine.
Stay with me until my life is through.
And on that day please take me home with You.'"

I can smell the death on the sheets
Covering me
I can't believe this is the end
I can hear You whisper to me,
"It's time to leave.
You'll never be lonely again."

But this was my deathbed.
I died there alone.
When I closed my eyes tonight
You carried me home.

[Jon Foreman of Switchfoot sings as the voice of Jesus:]
I am the Way.
Follow Me
And take My hand.
And I am the Truth.
Embrace Me and you'll understand.
And I am the Life.
And through Me you'll live again
For I am Love,
I am Love,
I, I am Love.