My Every Step

At 18 months
I belonged to the city
Sheltering Arms Children's Service
Foster Parents Home
Parents!? Ha!

They were in it for the money
Rent A Kid
Cash that monthly stipend
Stick it in the bank
An' don't look back. Oh~

Never really knew my real mom
Only met dad when in my 20s
I did everything I knew just to survive
And when the belt came down on me
I simply took it

Running scared with an anger
I could never put my finger on
And all the while never knowing
Where my life might lead
Simply trying to make it to the next day

I had no clue
Nor the gumption to even wonder
What lay in front of me
I only really knew one thing ...

I liked to sing

So, I sang in the church
I sang in the shower
I sang on the street
As I walked to school
An' I sang in my head
I sang in the choir
Through all my classes I carried a song
And hardly learned a damn thing

I sang in my sleep
When I went to bed
I couldn't get the music
Outta my head
And my foster mom yelled
"Shut up!"
"Enuff already. You're drivin' me crazy with all that noise"
"Shut up!"

How comforting
Bewildering
Discouraging

There's an old saying sayin'
God takes care of fools and babies
I was the baby
They were the fools
Them an' all their rules

I had no way to make my way to a better day

So, every step I took
Was a step into the great ...
A step into the great unknown
I thought I'd never get out of the ghetto
I would never find my way home

And all the while what I really didn't know
Was that God knew my every step
My every breath
My every heartbeat
My every thought
My every need
Now I may not have known it
But the good Lord
He knew it
God knew my every step

Now how was I to know
What no one taught me?
How was I supposed to figure that out?
I belonged to strangers
But never really belonged
Passed from one family to another
Like a beat-up hand me down
An' all the while
What I really didn't know
Was that God knew my every step
My every breath
My every heartbeat
My every thought
My every need
Now I may not have known it
But the good Lord
He knew it
Yeah, God knew my every step

At 18 years
I escaped from the city's
Sheltering Arms Children's Service
Foster Parents Home
Home? Ha!
I was nothin' but an Outcast
Rent a Kid
So, it was time ta' move on
Stick it in the bank
An' don't look back

Found a real home with a real mom
South Bronx store front minister with a choir
Finally, somebody who heard in me a voice
That brought the light of God to man
I simply sang it

Movin' on with a notion
I could never put my finger on
And all the while still in wonder
Where my life might lead
Simply trying to make it to the next day
I had no clue
I only really knew one thing

I liked to sing

So, I sang in the clubs
I sang in the choir
I sang with a band
That was goin' nowhere
But I sang every night
My ten thousand hours
An' I worked my music
That I heard in my head
Every chance I got

So, every step I took
Was a step into what might
A step into what might could be
Oh, I would get myself out of the ghetto
I would figure the damn thing out

And all the while what I finally came to know
Was that God knew my every step
My every breath
My every heartbeat
My every thought
My every need
My every skeptical volition
Every skeptical ambition
Every skeptical transition
Every skeptical condition
No, I may not have known it
But the good Lord
He knew it
God knew my every step!