I was desp’rate in my labors

To prepare a home like Thine

Weary hands and heavy laden

Brick by brick I made a line

More like a wall, mortar blackened

Home, a tomb for stones of ire

Grown to hate the light beyond me

I cursed the warmth of its fire

 

Yet no matter all my tarring

There sprung glints of cracking dawn

As Your bright hand ever rising

There’s no dusk for Christ’s aeon

Pale I was reposed in darkness

Not a star to guide me toward

Yet burst, shone me all my paltry

So I burst likewise froward

 

“Arise! Shine!” I heard You call me

And you drew through that grim wall

Carried upward, spilling outward

You held me fast—ever ‘n’ all

Not just unto heaven arising

But earthward to shine as bright

Adopted to see the Father

Now I might shine by His light

 

Oh Surety how blessed to know You

Never let me seek that place

Where I was dumb, damned with folly

Strove to hide me from Your face

Hear the joy… dearly You chastened

Tore me down without a trace

That I’d know You as my only

I might bear this weight of grace

 

Wouldn’t answer indignation

Yet repentance warmed Your ear

That the bricks burst with Your shining

I was exposed t’ You in fear

But such light was light-embracing!

Though no righteousness my own!

For light came; and with it Jesus

Not floor I fell, but on’a throne.