When I was but a young man I was wild and full of fireA youth within my teens but full of challenge and desireI ran away from home and left my mother and my dadI know it grieved them so to think their only boy was badI fell in with an outlaw band their names were known quite wellHow many times we robbed and plundered I could never tellThis kind of sinful livingThey don't lead to a foeI learned that much and more the night I heard my master callOne night we wrestled cattle, a thousand head or soThen started them out on the trail, at least MexicoBut an order started blowing and lightning flashed aboutI thought someone was calling me, I thought I heard them shoutI thought someone was calling me, I thought I heard them shoutWhen at that moment lightning struck not twenty yards from meAnd left there was a giant cross where once there was a treeAnd this time I knew I heard a voice, a voice so sweet and strangeA voice that came from everywhere, a voice that called my nameSo frightened I was thinking of sinful deeds I'd doneI failed to see the thousand head of cattle start to runThe cattle they stampeded were running all aroundMy pony ran but stumbled and it threw me to the groundI felt the end was near, that death would be the priceWhen a mighty boat of lightning showed the face of Jesus ChristAnd I cried out, Lord forgive meDon't let it happen nowI wanna live for you alone, oh God, these words I vowMy wicked past unfolded, I thought of wasted yearsWhen another boat of lightning killed a hundred at a steerAnd the others rushed on by me, and I was left to liveThe master had a reason life is hisTo take it from me, to take it from meA miracle performed that night, I wasn't meant to dieThe dead ones formed a barricade, at least six or seven highAnd right behind it there was I, afraid but safe and soundI cried and begged for mercy, kneeling there upon the groundA pardon I was granted, my sinful soul set freeI cried and begged for mercy, kneeling there upon the groundNo more to fear the angry waves upon life's stony seaForgiven by the love of God, a love that will remainI gave my life and soul the night the Savior called my name
