Standing on the Hills

Verse 1

I was twenty with a wedding ring and orders in my hand,
Called away from everything I knew to a burning desert land.
I never took a life, but I saw what war could leave,
Ash where homes had been, and faces learning how to grieve.
I came back breathing, but the man who left was gone,
With a battle in his sleep that kept on fighting after dawn.
No scars upon my uniform, no wound the eye could see,
Just a desert full of shadows that had followed home with me.

Pre-Chorus

The world pushed me forward, then it rolled right over me,
Still, a stubborn spark kept burning where nobody else could see.

Chorus

I’ve stood on the hills with the sunlight on my face,
Been thrown down the mountain to a cold and shadowed place.
Dragged through the valley where the night refused to end,
With nothing but a heartbeat saying: Get back up again.
One foot, then another, through the gravel and the chill,
I may bend beneath the burden, but I’m climbing even still.
And when I reach behind me for somebody climbing too;
Pain won’t have the final word; the light will still break through.

Verse 2

Then a sickness with no history came calling out my name,
No bloodline to explain it, no one knew from where it came.
A surgery went wrong, eighteen nights beneath the white;
Then the poison meant to save me wore me hollow, fight by fight.
On the next-to-last infusion, breath and heartbeat disappeared;
They pulled me from the silence, sent me stumbling back to here.
I woke up weak and broken, with no promise I would mend,
But I’d already crossed the ending; I could cross the dark again.

Pre-Chorus

Misery kept calling from the darkness down below,
I put one foot before the other toward the warm day glow.

Chorus repeats

Verse 3

I kept stepping into storms whenever someone needed aid,
Tried to be the shield and shelter, tried to keep the wolves away.
Gave my heart to broken houses, gave my word and gave my name,
Then love became an accusation, and the truth became a game.
Years of paper, years of fighting, years of trying to be heard,
While a lie ran down the hallway faster than an honest word.
But lies can run like wildfire; they still burn out in the end,
And truth may walk there slowly, but it never has to bend.

Pre-Chorus

When the noise at last grew quiet, I was bruised but standing still,
At the bottom of the valley, looking upward at the hill.

Chorus repeats

Bridge

Joy came in little pieces; children laughing down the hall,
Coffee steam at sunrise, golden light across the wall.
And one light from years behind me kept shining through it all;
She had known me in the first storm, long before the hardest fall.
She saw the man beneath the armor, past the wreckage and the blame;
When I couldn’t find my own face, she remembered me by name.
Now her hand is in my hand, and we’re choosing each other still;
We have walked through all those valleys; now we’re standing on the hills.

Final Chorus

Now I stand on the hills in the mercy of The Son,
Not untouched and not unbroken, just unwilling to be done.
I was dragged through the valley where the night refused to end,
But a heart can stop and shatter, then still learn to beat again.
One foot, then another, that is how I made it through;
Small sparks of joy kept lighting up the next step into view.
And I reach behind me now for everybody climbing still;
Pain will never have the last word; we’ll be standing on the hills.

Outro

The valley is not final.
The night is not a wall.
Sometimes hope is only
One more step after the fall.
I am older, I am weathered,
But the fire is in me still.
One foot, then another,
Still climbing toward the hills.
One foot, then another,
Still standing on the hills.