While We Sleep

[Verse 1] When evening falls on weary eyes And all the noise inside me dies You close the world with gentle hands And pull me from myself again The strong man fades into the dust The anxious heart forgets to run And every crown of human pride Lies silent through the night [Verse 2] Adam slept beneath Your will And from his side new life was built Jacob dreamed beside the stone And woke to find he’d not been alone Elijah slept beneath the tree Too tired to stand, too weak to speak Yet heaven watched beside his pain And gave him strength again [Chorus] While we sleep You remain awake Holding worlds we cannot save And for a little while You free us from ourselves While we sleep The striving finally ends Fear loosens both its hands And grace becomes the air Inside our helplessness [Verse 3] The sea grew dark around the boat Yet Christ was sleeping through the storm As if to show creation still Was resting underneath His will And Lazarus beneath the grave Was spoken of as one asleep For death itself before Your voice Is but a waiting dream [Chorus] While we sleep You remain awake Holding worlds we cannot save And for a little while You free us from ourselves While we sleep The striving finally ends Fear loosens both its hands And grace becomes the air Inside our helplessness [Bridge] No man sustains his soul by force No mind survives by endless war Even kings must close their eyes And trust the dark before the light Perhaps that is why sleep exists A nightly sermon against pride A quiet proof we are not God And life continues in Your hands [Final Chorus] While we sleep You restore the broken mind You loosen time from tightened lives You let the wounded spirit breathe Beyond its endless suffering While we sleep You watch beside our beds And in the silence gently whisper That the world was never ours to hold © Sergio Eduardo Maurer