I was walking through the dust for forty years Mouth full of ashes, eyes full of tears Every word I spoke came out as stone Heavy as the burden I'd been carrying alone He found me hollow as a dried-up well Said: Boy, you've been living in your own kind of hell I didn't bring you out here just to watch you fall I brought you to the desert so you'd learn to crawl It's a hard mercy, this love that breaks Before it ever heals what it takes I been wrestling with the hand that feeds Sometimes you gotta bleed to believe Sometimes you gotta bleed to believe He showed me the mountain I could not climb All the years I wasted, all the stolen time Said: Every scar you carry, I can see But you're worth more than what you've made yourself to be It's a hard mercy, this love that breaks Before it ever heals what it takes I been wrestling with the hand that feeds Sometimes you gotta bleed to believe Sometimes you gotta bleed to believe I fought him like a fool fights truth Kicked against the only thing that could pull me through But there ain't no arguing with grace When it's staring back into your face Now I'm standing at the edge of the promised land Water rushing over my calloused hands Forty years of wilderness washed away He loved me hard enough to make me stay It's a hard mercy, this love that breaks Before it ever heals what it takes I been wrestling with the hand that feeds Sometimes you gotta bleed to believe Sometimes you gotta bleed to believe Yeah, sometimes you gotta bleed to believe