Never Been Unloved

It's been a while since I posted song lyrics (well, I mean, other than last night when I wrote about "saintyfive").  This week, I was reminded of a song I used to listen to on repeat until I nearly wore out the cd.  Michael W. Smith's "Live the Life" album was released in Spring of 1998.  I don't remember buying the cd, but I remember playing it a lot that summer while I was in Houston.  I knew most of the songs, but only one stuck with me and has continued to find its way onto my various playlists even now.  It's a song called "Never Been Unloved."  I think it gets to me so deeply because it speaks of grace, and in that season of my life, I was just coming to understand what that word was all about.  Someone had given me a copy of "Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning that year, and all my notions of piety were being turned upside down.  I was coming to terms with the fact that nothing I could ever do would make God love me any less or any more than He did already.  Grace.  Then, I heard these lyrics, and they resonated with all that I was coming to understand.

I have been unfaithful
I have been unworthy
I have been unrighteous
And I have been unmerciful

I have been unreachable
I have been unteachable
I have been unwilling
And I've been undesirable

And sometimes I have been unwise
I've been undone by what I'm unsure of
But because of you
And all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved

I have been unbroken
I have been unmended
I have been uneasy
And I've been unapprochable

I've been unemotional
I've been unexceptional
I've been undecided
And I have been unqualified

Unaware - I have been unfair
I've been unfit for blessings from above
But even I can see
The sacrifice You made for me
To show that I have never been unloved

Unaware - I have been unfair
I've been unfit for blessings from above
But even I can see
The sacrifice You made for me
To show that I have never been unloved

It's because of you
And all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved