Song Lyrics

1. Ghost Girl

2. Broken Record, Broken Heart
3. Wild
4. Be More
5. The Giving Tree
6. Harbor
7. Chosen
8. Queerly Beloved
9. The Joy Set Before Me

For The Bees

Ghost Girl

Lyrics by Linden Hope and Matthew Odmark

Today I decided to walk to the lake

I’ve avoided for so long

Seeing you there I was expecting a monster

but your loneliness had me disarmed

you beckoned me with your sad, sad eyes

to come closer to the edge

and right there on the dock you admitted your love

I felt the "A" of Hester Prynne

a is for ashamed

b is for bad

c is for curious

d is for damned

e is for excited

f is for wanting to be free

g my God I don’t know what you want from me

Present and Past met me there with a Future uncertain as the weather’s change

i try to forecast but you never really know til something happens that starts the rain

and i can’t force the future to tell me what it knows

all i know is in my present pain

everything is working, working for me through me in me and I will never be the same

h is for hope

i is for in denial

j is for jokes that I will laugh at to try to k—kill this desire?

but i know that’s not what i want

l is for love after all

m is for my mystery heart that wants to see the other side of this trial

when i left the lake feeling naked and exposed

my ghosts came nipping at my heels

soon I would admit that there was something between us, something that made my heart feel the

n for needing truth

o is for owning up to lies

p is for processing too much or pushing it to the side

but when q is for queer r - s - t - u - v

is there w for any other way?

x is for the x-rated topics we avoid

y is for the voice saying "you’re alone again today"

Broken Record, Broken Heart

Lyrics by Linden Hope and Katie Callahan

Flowers you picked on your way home from work
Waking up wondering

what you’ve been dreaming of
Such simple joys; is it too much to ask for
The beauty of ordinary love?
its not for me, broken record broken heart
I’m so sorry, broken record broken heart

Little annoyances, arguments, tears
I’d welcome not only the joy, but all the fears
To just image Christ through our love, what a dream
For this I would give nearly anything
But its not for me, broken record, broken tears
It’s not my story, broken record, broken tears

So broken heart,
I’ll keep on losing love before it starts
Sing harmony with all my skipping parts
There is no chance, I cannot ever win

Truth be told I'm still looking for a spin
Broken record please make music again

Cuddling in blankets while sipping our tea
Holding your hand
among the weeping willow trees
Kissing your lips
Your hands soft on my skin
In this world loving you is not ever forbidden
But that world’s not real broken record, broken sin
that world’s not real broken record broken sin

So broken heart
Is it better to have loved and lost
When you never really had it to begin?
When you were doomed from the start to ever win?
Truth be told I'm still looking for a spin
Broken record please make music again

Wild

Lyrics by Linden Hope, Katie Callahan, and Matthew Odmark

Call me Job because I'm putting you on trial

For handing me a candle, holding back the light

Call me Jacob 'cause I'll wrestle you for hours

‘Til the blessing is finally in sight

Call me Eve because I'm about ready

To take the fruit that's hanging from the tree

Do you really love me?

Stop trying to tame

The wilderness in me

for your cosmic game

There is no manna

I’m swallowing dust

I’m just so tired now

Your love asks too much

I wanna be wild

Call me David 'cause I want something I can't have

I’m raging, pacing, scheming up here on the roof

Call me Isaac ‘cause I’m going to the altar

Got a feeling that there ain’t no substitute

Call me Jonah because I would rather jump ship

Than go the way you're pointing me to

Do you really love me?

Stop trying to tame

The wilderness in me

for your cosmic game

There is no manna

I’m swallowing dust

I’m just so tired now

Your love asks too much

I wanna be wild

Call me Thomas cause you know I've always doubted

Call me Peter because I've denied you too

Call me Paul because no matter how hard I try

I do the very things You don't want me to do

Call me Lazarus and resurrect my dead heart

If you want me, then just stop letting me down

Do you really love me?

Stop trying to tame

The wilderness in me

for your cosmic game

There is no manna

I’m swallowing dust

I’m just so tired now

Your love asks too much

I wanna be wild

Wild

Let me be Wild

Wild

Be More

Lyrics by Linden Hope

Be more beautiful to me

Than any girl who steals my heart

In the echo of my longings

Guard the entrance to my wandering thoughts

Be more powerful to me

Than depression and anxiety

They’re pounding on my door relentlessly

Daddy, please don’t give them the key

Be more compelling to me

Than sweet words and turns of phrase

Help me find myself inside of

The endless chambers of your grace

Be more comforting to me

Than the arms of lesser loves

Wrap me up in intimacy

Cradle me until my work here is done

—

I am far more than you think I am

I’m with you in every cave holding your hand

You will see my beauty you will see My grace

Don’t give up I promise you will see My face

I’ve prepared a place

I’ll surprise you with My joy until that day

The Giving Tree

Lyrics by Linden Hope, Katie Callahan, and Matthew Odmark

If she was a man I could love her
In the way that I’ve wanted to
But she is not so I could never
Tell me, does that seem fair to you?
affection like apples are falling
I’m happy she always wants more
We long for each other so deeply
So I’ll give to her all that I can afford

Ooo

It took a disaster to part us
I held on; she bravely let go
I’d give all my roots and my branches
To draw her back here into my arms
Someday I’ll believe this is better
That there’s purpose somewhere in all the pain
I wanted so much just to kiss her
but Jesus kept getting in the way

Ooo

I have no more fruit on my branches
I fell down a long time ago
For a while, I was willing to offer
A chance for our love to regrow
Someday I’ll believe this is better
That loving is losing again
Til then I will just keep my distance
Til the memories at last come to an end

Ooo

Feels like nothing in my life is actually for me
Why am I living for Someone I can’t see?
I’ve given everything; I’ve yet to receive
I feel like I’m dying like the giving tree

Harbor

Lyrics by Linden Hope

Love is pulling in the harbor
Eyes are filled with endless wonder

Am I invisible, pulled under the forgotten undertow?

Guess I'll always be a watcher

As the line of loves grow longer

Could this get any harder?

I am lichen on a boat

But loneliness is not my own

There's no earthly fix for a broken soul

So I won't wait to live my life with someone else in tow

I've got my yes's and my be there's and my go

So I’ll sit here in the aisle as
The flower girl she smiles

And I'll count the falling petals

Will it be love me, love me not?

I don't know if I'll say I do

But here's another bride who will do

And oh what am I supposed to do

What have I possibly got?

But loneliness is not my own

There's no earthly fix for a broken soul

So I won't wait to live my life with someone else in tow

I've got my yes's and my be there's and my go

I will climb to the highest places

I will reach for the things above

And though I may feel grounded

May I always be pointing up

I will climb to the highest places

I will reach for the things above

Though my heart is seeking somebody to hold

There will be no greater love

So loneliness is not my home

though pain may be long and longing may grow

and there are barriers so tall it seems alone I will grow old

I’ve got my yes’s and my be there’s and my go

Chosen

Lyrics by Linden Hope

is this a safe dream to dream?

does it have traction with reality

or am I hydroplaning on another empty fantasy?

this does not feel like compromise

I think it actually is an honest try

a longing in my heart

that could be realized

committed intentionality

radically inclusive, free

you seem like someone who possibly

could imagine this with me

celebrating friendship in

a hundred ways that haven’t been

there’s no one I would rather spend

these heart investments in

could you possibly want in?

but even if you don’t
I know I’m not alone
I’m not afraid anymore
well, not most days

but if you want this too
I’d love to be here for you
let’s dare the world to dream

of chosen family

you and me

Queerly Beloved

Lyrics by Linden Hope and Matthew Odmark

Queerly beloved, we are gathered here today
In disillusionment, in joy, in so much pain
We’re told so many things our ears are bleeding from our brains
We just want to be free

What if I told you
Expectations are gone
The pressure is off
Stop obsessing over right and wrong
Look at the One who loves
Before Sides a, x, y, or b
queerly beloved, you were loved LGBT

Queerly beloved you are more than what you choose
Even if parents leave, the Lord has adopted you
We all would have despaired had not life cried out from the grave,
“Take heart, confidently”

What if I told you
No need to pray the gay away
What if there are gifts
within the rainbow and all of the gray
There’s one who’s after more than
Your sexual identity
He wants to be our very lives LGBT

My heart will not fear
I’m beautiful and queer and
I am invited to the table of the Lord

What if I told you Jesus loves you as you are?
What if His mercy can touch all your wounds and scars?

What if he’s not afraid for you to question and to scream
What if he loves you heart and soul LGBT

what if you’re free?

The Joy Set Before Me

Lyrics by Linden Hope and Matthew Odmark

Here in my Honda Accord
I sit defeated in the dark

Its a common lonely scene

This time its different

For a moment I feel seen

Her hand rests on me
Anointing me in love

I think this would be how You’d touch me

As she speaks some holy word

And she’s crying now

It turns out I am crying too

In a glimpse behind the veil on this cold night

We see you

I know no story but my own
And even that one may have so much yet untold
Yet what I’ve studied feels true

A cross-shaped life might be worth the pain for You

I tell her I am weary

That I want to run away

From my calling and my purpose

She listens and she stays

She says, “You’re like Mary

Pouring all she’s ever had

On the feet of our dear Savior

I think I know now my reward
my tears an offering honoring you as my Lord

what greater gift than knowing this:
that you feel blessed by each doubting, trusting kiss?

there is nothing wasted, everything restored
your gaze is on me

as you chasten all who scorn

I will be remembered

not as perfect but as whole

entrusting to my Maker

my body and my soul