Elevation Worship - We Are Alive Lyrics
Lyrics
Verse:
You came to change the world
You came, it was the only way for us to be restored
You came to make us new
You came to warm our dying hearts and bring us back to You
Pre-Chorus:
And when You came, You broke our chains
And You lifted us out of our graves
Chorus 1:
We are alive because You died
You buried our shame, when you rose from the grave
You became man, and You conquered our sin
So we'll live this life to celebrate, celebrate Your name
Verse:
You came to save the world
You came because You loved enough to fix what we destroyed
You came into our hearts
We were falling down until You came and rescued us
Pre-Chorus:
Chorus 2:
We are alive because You died
You buried our shame, when you rose from the grave
You became man, and You conquered our sin
So we'll live this life to celebrate, celebrate Your name
Video
I Know A Name | Elevation Worship & Brandon Lake
Meaning & Inspiration
My hands aren’t what they used to be. The skin is thin, spotted like an old parchment, and they shake a bit when I try to hold a melody on the piano. Most nights, I sit in the dark, watching the way the shadows move across the wall, thinking about what’s left of my strength. When I listen to Elevation Worship and Brandon Lake sing, “You buried our shame, when you rose from the grave,” I find myself looking down at these fingers, wondering if the weight of a lifetime of failings is actually gone, or if I’ve just gotten better at hiding it from myself.
It’s easy to sing about buried shame when you’re young and the horizon looks wide and clear. But when the house goes quiet and the knees ache and you’re looking back at decades of mistakes—the times I was hard-headed when I should have been soft, the words I should have kept in my throat—that line carries a different kind of gravity. Can a name really cover that much ground?
The Scripture says, “He has removed our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). It’s a beautiful promise, but it’s a hard one for a man who remembers every mile he walked in the wrong direction. Yet, there’s something in the way they sing about the “dying hearts” being warmed that pulls at me. I’ve known that coldness. It settles in when you realize your own resolve isn't enough to keep you upright.
“You came to warm our dying hearts.” That’s the part that catches. It doesn't promise that the world stops being jagged or that my back stops hurting. It just admits the state we’re in. We are a people of cold embers. We spend our lives trying to keep a little spark alive, shielding it from the wind with our weathered palms, only to find that it was never our breath that lit the fire in the first place.
I’m left wondering if "celebrate" is the right word for what happens when you reach the end of your tether. Maybe it isn't a parade. Maybe it’s just the quiet recognition that the debt was paid while I was still trying to figure out how to count the coins. It feels unfinished, like a conversation with an old friend where nothing needs to be said to fill the gaps. When the lights go out, I don’t need a spectacle. I just need to know the name is still there, holding the space where my failures used to be. It’s a strange comfort, sitting here in the dark, realizing that even if I forget, the name remains, and the shame is buried deeper than I could ever dig it up.