Jordan Mentz

I want to tell you guys a story, about the love and glory
I didn’t ask for permission, all He asks for is submission
Wanted to let you know how the story goes
In the darkness of the alley, He already knows
Have you met my friend who walked in the heat of the day
There were people who thought there was a better way
I want to state the truth in the Bible
Just between you and me we are both held liable
Have you heard of my savior
He doesn’t just love you based on behavior
You tell us to care for the hungry,
But what are we thinkin’ ignorin’ the needy
Locked inside my own realm of reality
Forgetting the road in the end leads to fatality
I want people to be aware that this life isn’t fair
I want to let others know by this song that I care
Have you examined the life that you are livin’
I am free to be, because eachday I remember that I’ve been forgiven
I didn’t know what it meant to live til I was taught how to die
Sometimes I want to curl up and cry
Looking around me I see as if nobody loved thee
I didn’t want to admit that the one with the problem turned out to be me
So many times people speak against hypocrisy
Then they think we are crazy setting up a type of bureaucracy
If we could make a make a difference in this world by changing ourselves
There could be books written that wouldn’t be stored up on shelves
We can let God take all the sorrow, pain and hurt away
Saving us from a life that rots and decays.
Stop a moment and think about the decisions you make
The life that you live is not yours to take
Wanted to be cool and drop out of school then I realized that it wasn’t going to easy
Resting up and sleeping all day is making me weezy
Wanting to be someone but turning up empty
Falling off the wall like little Ol Humpty
I wanted to bust out all of my moves
Only to sit back and watch me lose
I am so thankful that by my savior’s blood I have been redeemed
Then I realized there was more to life than it had seemed
I don’t like being stuck up, but I am just about fed up with the lies of the media
I want to take a stand and shutdown the Wikipedia
I am floatin’ amidst the stormy sea waiting for you
I see no light, but I am longing to be rescued
From the waves of life that are crushing me
Then I looked up and all I could see
Is a reminder of love a rainbow above me.

So many people hurting beneath the scaly surface
A skewed version of what is happening in the world
Media wants to ignore the tragedies, pain and the trauma
It doesn’t affect America becuase it isn’t happening here
People are crying, starving and dying in our world
Kind of hard to ignore it, but so many times we do
Pretending that we live in a false reality that our world isn’t full of tragedies
There are disasters, earthquakes, fires, floods, disease, crime, oppression, and dictators
We try to tell the stories, but no one seems to listen
People seem to say “that stinks” but go on with their daily lives
Nothing to worry about, because we live in America and that is overseas
So I see so many people hurting, but in our heart we feel like we should help
Then we get so caught up in our lives that we make no effort to make a difference
Focused on the next thing, not wanting to slow down, because it seems so hard to imagine
what life is going to be like in the future, what we are going to eat, and what we will wear
Can’t describe the notion, there are starving nations but we choose to do nothing
We live in America, and the poverty is still there and there aren’t many people who care
I didn’t want to recognize the fact of the matter, but then God opened my eyes to people who are hurting
I will strive to make a difference, and focus on one second at a time, because I don’t know if you realize
We aren’t guarenteed are next breath, step in the right direction, and still we put things off til tomorrow
We  are in a rut, where the only remedy is love and compassion, and we fail to see the people hurting around us
I hurt for the nations who have never experienced joy, and yet they are happy
With each passing moment they realize they are one step closer to dying
They find a way to persevere and take another step
I don’t know how they do it, but I hear the stories and it makes me cry
Why is it there are so many people who are neglected and infected in this hurting world
I came to tell you about the hope that God offers to us, a freedom from sin, a life filled with healing from hurts and pains, a past that you have kept hidden from everyone because it hurts so bad to dig it up again.
Healing is just a prayer away, and there is joy for those who put their trust in God, yet so many people want to continue to live in the illusion that there is no healing for the pain in this fallen world

I have been searching for so long
Thinking to myself there must be something more
Wanting to move closer to you, but falling away
Trying to figure out your call for my life,
Looking for something to sustain my deepest pain

So I turn to you, and lay it down at the foot of the cross
I have felt so far away, but trying to inch my way back
Never realizing that God was my closest friend
Failing to let Him change my heart, and mind from the inside
Having so many distractions to leave you, and so easily enticed

Didn’t know what God wanted to show me,
I seem to be swayed by the winds that seem to shake me
I didn’t want to say it, but it was bound to happen
I turned my back on you, and chose to walk away
Coming back knowing that you will hold me and embrace me

So many times there are things in this life that trip us up
Can’t see it coming, but somehow I know it will become an obstacle
Trying to gain our footing on something that is firm
Only to find out there were things that were keeping me from you

I keep on falling for things that aren’t of you
wanting to be held by the arms of this world
will only leave us more desperate looking for something more
Teach me what it means to fall for you into your perfect love

Can’t describe the joy inside when I am on something solid
No fear in slipping up, because I have been firmly grounded
I tried to find something but it was filled with imperfections
I wanted something that will hold me, and never let me go.

Inspired by Steven Potaczek falling during the concert at CCF on 2/23/08 at VU, at the end of the 30 hour famine.

Want to tell you guys a story
About God gettin’ a hold of my life for His glory
Can’t believe that I wanted to disappear from society
Got a picture in my mind of shaded reality
Didn’t know the reason that I breathed
But there are times in our lives when it hurts to bleed
I didn’t want to let others into my life and let others see
There was something different about the man I was created to be
I wanted to stay hidden out of the mainstream,
But I realized I had been pushed into the jetstream
God’s love is different no need to push and shove,
All you gotta know is the man up above
Easy to say, easy to talk but so many times it is hard to walk
We want to move in the world but we’re standin’ on a moving sidewalk
Can’t explain the emotion that I feel when I am rappin’
Happens so fast words spoken so fast you can’t understand them if you are nappin’
I wanted to try to describe this heart inside of me,
Nobody around wanna cry myself to sleep
Each night praying to the Lord, my soul to keep
Try to stop me from preachin’ the message
My message is blunt and to the point, trying to tell you can’t get a massage
I want you to know the blessing, not sayin’ you need to stop cussing
But where you are at, I am asking you to step up to plate
Walk through the open gate, trying to hook up with the ladies on a date
won’t bring you true satisfaciton and if not done right will become a distraction
From your one true love, the one who gave you life the one who wants you to be His
Now I am asking you the question are you cool with this
Doesn’t matter if you are but if you aren’t I want you to know the outcome
Heaven is real, and so is hell but God wants to see you in kingdom come
Didn’t want to hurt your feelings, but I will shoot with you straight
My past so messed up it seems like it doesn’t have a single human trait
I used to be living in sin, would fall down repent and do it again
This is the real thing, I didn’t want to live my life in sin but now I have the answer
I don’t need no pills or some pole dancer to make me happy
I can have the time of my life without becoming nappy
Didn’t know what it meant to live above the rest,
Trying to be cool and ending the night getting arrested
You trying to blame me for the way I am
Wanting to tell you my homeboy grew up in Bethlehem
Didn’t think you cared didn’t think it was anyone’s business
When I like Judas betrayed the master with a kiss
I try to live a life with no regrets
Tryin’ so hard to get out of debt
I can’t believe this life that was given
A time to repent and be forgiven
I wanted to tell you
But I didn’t because I assumed you already knew
I thought you already heard
How Jesus can change you when you read His word.
I fall down I get up, I trip up and keep messin’ up
Thinkin’ to myself why don’t I just give up
At the same time I don’t want to give up this amazing opportunity
I realize I have been given a chance of a life time
A chance to be free no time for crime
I didn’t want to keep it from you
Had to express there is forgiveness, from a past your afraid of
Knowing all along the thing you needed is love
Wanting to know you, wanting to be there
This song is to show you there is someone who cares

Two wooden beams, three nails fastened my Jesus to the tree
My eyes tear up, because I cannot believe the loving sacrifice
There are times when I am lonely, there are times when I have felt forsaken
Nothing compared to your voice beckoning me to come

On the cross my sins were forgiven
On the cross my stains were washed
On the cross my past was forgotten
On the cross my future was seen

A scar of love written across your heart
An emblem to remember that you care for me
A cry upon Calvary’s tree, why oh why have you forsaken me
I didn’t know you then but it was so I could live free

A soul crying out for mercy
A heart longing to be free
A mind wanting to be pure
An unforgettable revelation about what it means to be sure

The poor will always be among us
So many times we ignore them because we see them as different
The needy people who don’t have the money we’re used to,
We want to avoid eye contact at every cost

I want to live for the poor
Give to the needy, who are hungry and thirsty for something more
I want to reach out and touch the poverty stricken,
I want to touch them with the hands of love

Speaking the Gospel sometimes seems so cliche’
but so many times we turn the other way
I don’t understand why God has chosen us to bless them
All we need to do is show them the love of Jesus

So many times, our health seems to be an obstacle instead of being thankful
We are glad we aren’t like them, and will do anything to keep it that way
But God wants to work in the city, and wants us to help them see
Who He is, and how they too can be free.

You told me that you wanted me to love the poor
So I asked you how can I love them because they aren’t like me
Has there been any other excuse for the ages
Then you told me to me to love my enemies
I wanted to believe you and apply what you say
But it seemed too tall a task, and I turned the other way
How is this supposed to look in my life
You told me that there were so many things the world doesn’t bother to apply
People living and people dying, and in the midst there is all this lying
Haven’t wanted to accept your words of forgiveness, when you offered me your life
You told me that my grace is sufficient for you, and you should turn and do the same.
I saw someone who was hurting, and turned and walked away
Only to discover the person that was in pain was driving me insane
The person on in the inside, turned out to be an image of myself
Struggling to find you, and desperate for the truth
Hungry and trying to figure out what was going on
In my confused and shattered world, only to find you were the only one who mattered
I had been away for so long, that I seemed to lost the desire to look for you,
but as I was away, I realized that God didn’t stop looking for me and wouldn’t stop til He found me
He never pushes his way into anyone’s way of life, but patiently waits as He gently summons me to come.

Teach me what it means to trust in you,
What it means to love without wanting anything in return
Why do I exist and what does my heart mean what it tells me it hurts
I haven’t been the brightest star in the sky,
But I am wondering why my Savior loved me enough to die

What it means to be broken as I can already see the effects of sin
I long to be hidden in you, where no one can find me
They need to look for you in order to find me
Even though I don’t know the way but with each day I trust you each and everyday
I have been trying to figure out what it means to make my faith my own

Taking another step into an unknown realm of reality,
One that no one else can see and I let none inside
It has been so long since I let someone see the real me
I have lost myself in the perception of what others think is real
haven’t had enough time to evaluate what is right and wrong.

Searching through the rubble
the shattered remains of what is left of my broken heart
Playing my life with a pick that was left to millions of pieces
A heart is tender but there is room for growth

A potter shapes the pot and we are his precious clay
A guitar full of melodies, just waiting to be held
By someone who created it and knows how to make it come to life
A six string guitar, waiting to be strummed

A story of the life I was meant to live with Christ
The lyrics penned out by a master musician, who had a perfect reason for every ryhme
I want to express the way I truly feel, but at the same time should I keep it hidden from others
I know deep inside that God has a unique rythm for every note that He plays

But having my pick broken, for him to fix and mend
A Savior so real that he can take and heal
I ask myself the question why do I even bother
When in the end He is my eternal Father

Dedicated to Katie Schroeder, about a broken guitar pick.