My House Is Not a Home

Paintings used to cover these walls

Now they're empty, chipped, and grey

Any mural to answer beauty's call

Has now be stripped away

A house feels less like a home

When it's empty and left alone

I own this bare and broken place

Its failures belong to me

I've used up and wasted sacred space

And turned colour to memory

I'd welcome you to come in and stay

But even I don't want to dwell in this decay

It's easy to keep up appearances

When the garden is tended well

But explore further than the entrance is

And you'll find dead flowers where they fell

Left untended and now swallowed up by weeds

Even they hold a certain beauty til' it's beauty they impede

Maybe by now you've surmised

This house is really me

And you shouldn't be surprised

I live in the corruption of the free

If appearances spoke accurately

My heart would be pure and saintly

But just as the words on a paper

Wither and shrivel in the fire

My promises turn to vapour

Proving me a liar

Is my life one of those great capers

For it's easy to sing loud in a choir

But if I should stand alone

Would my words hold any weight

Or prove to be of worthless tone

And reveal my inward state

That I speak what I don't truly believe

That I'm no artist but a thief

My mistake was thinking this life was mine

That I am the painter of these walls

When really I've crossed of simple line

I am the tainter of portrait halls

The damager of truth and beauty

For I thought being a savior was my duty

But if I pull away the plaster

Maybe a greater beauty lies beneath

I've never been this house's master

Beauty is His to bequeath

I can no more paint a masterpiece

Without Him than I can breathe

I must give up the brush I hold tight

And hand over the spade

So these walls can be renewed and bright

And these flowers can rise from where they've laid

So every portrait can rest aright

And renew each broken fade

I'm still grieving the loss of childhood innocence

I'm still waiting for a renaissance

Lord, teach me the art of patience

And give me the gift of reliance

May this garden ever speak of Your grace

May this house become a home that seeks Your face