stay

[Intro] (whispered, breathy, over minor piano — single notes) Everybody asks me how the wound closed… it didn't close… I just stopped hiding it… [Hook] (soft, aching — restrained) I begged You to take it — take the ache, take the weight, three times on the floor and three times it stayed But the thing I prayed You'd kill is the thing that kept me real — so I kept the scar, I kept the scar Everybody wants the kind of wound that heals by morning light, mine's the one that stayed but it stopped bleeding in the light — and I kept the scar, oh, I kept the scar [Verse 1] (intimate, conversational, building) I used to pray the prayer where the hurt just disappears, where You'd reach inside the ache and pull the reason for the tears And I waited for the morning I'd wake up and it was gone, the clean and shiny version that I'd build my whole life on But the morning never came — no, the ache stayed in its place, and I couldn't trust a mercy that refused to just erase — till I noticed I was standing on the thing I begged to lose, and the scar that I was cursing was the only thing with proof [Pre-Hook] (swelling, more air in the voice) 'Cause a wound that heals too perfect leaves a story no one needs, but a scar that learned to breathe is how they know that I can bleed — so the thing I prayed You'd take… You taught me how to keep [Hook] (fuller now, opening up) I begged You to take it — take the ache, take the weight, three times on the floor and three times it stayed But the thing I prayed You'd kill is the thing that kept me real — so I kept the scar, I kept the scar Everybody wants the kind of wound that heals by morning light, mine's the one that stayed but it stopped bleeding in the light — and I kept the scar, oh, I kept the scar [Verse 2] I see people with their stories all wrapped up and clean, not a mark on 'em to show you all the places they have been And I used to want that polish, used to want the seamless skin, till I learned a sealed-up surface keeps the testimony in 'Cause the dark don't fear the perfect, no, it fears the one who shows the exact place it tried to win — the scar that healed and grows — so I quit the prayer for spotless, started praying to be true, and the wound became the window that I let the daylight through [Pre-Hook] 'Cause a wound that heals too perfect leaves a story no one needs, but a scar that learned to breathe is how they know that I can bleed — so the thing I prayed You'd take… You taught me how to keep [Bridge] (choir, half-time, big gospel runs over the top) You didn't take it (didn't take it) You stayed (You stayed) Sat down inside the hurt with me and You wouldn't look away You didn't take it (didn't take it), You held my hand — turned the thing that should've broke me to the proof of where I stand (it stayed… it stayed…) [Verse 3] (energy lifts, hope breaks through, vocal opening to full) So if you're begging for the morning where the ache just goes away, and you can't make sense of mercy that would let the hurting stay — maybe healing isn't always when the wound's no longer there, maybe sometimes it's the standing with the scar laid bare 'Cause the ones who ever reach you aren't the ones who never broke, they're the ones who kept the marking and they show it when they spoke — so don't you hate the thing that stayed, it might be how you're found: a scar's not where you're broken — it's the proof that you're still around [Final Hook] (full belt + choir + runs) I begged You to take it — take the ache, take the weight, but I'm standing here grateful for the morning it stayed — 'cause the thing I prayed You'd kill is the thing that made me real, so I kept the scar, I kept the scar I don't need the kind of healing that pretends it never hurt — I'll take the kind that stayed and turned the wound to worth — and I kept the scar, oh, I kept the scar [Outro] (choir fades under reverb, organ holds, vocal soft) You didn't take it… You did something better… You stayed… You stayed…