NF - Hope Lyrics
Lyrics
Part I
Intro
Hope
Yeah, I'm on my way, I'm comin'
Don't
Don't lose faith in me
I know you've been waiting
I know you've been prayin' for my soul
Hope
Hope
Thirty years you been draggin' your feet, tellin' me I'm the reason we're stagnant
Thirty years you've been claiming you're honest and promising progress, well, where's it at?
I don't want you to feel like a failure
I know this hurts
But I gave you your chance to deliver
Now it's my turn
Don't get me wrong
Nate, you've had a great run
But it's time to
Give the people somethin' different
So without further ado, I'd
Like to introduce my
My album (My album)
My album (My album), my album
My album (My album), my album (My album), my album (My album)
My album "
HOPE
Verse 1
What's my definition of success? (Of success)
Listening to what your heart says (Your heart says)
Standing up for what you know is (Is)
Right, while everybody else is (Is)
Tucking their tail between their legs (Okay)
What's my definition of success? (Of success)
Creating something no one else can (Else can)
Being brave enough to dream big (Big)
Grinding when you're told to just quit (Quit)
Giving more when you got nothing left (Left)
It's a person that'll take a chance on
Something they were told could never happen
It's a person that can see the bright side
Through the dark times when there ain't one
It's when someone who ain't never had nothin'
Ain't afraid to walk away from
More profit 'cause they'd rather do somethin'
That they really love and take the pay cut
It's a person that would never waver
Or change who they are
Just to try and gain some credibility
So they could feel accepted by a stranger
It's a person that can take the failures in their life and turn them into motivation
It's believing in yourself when no one else does, it's amazin'
What a little bit of faith can do if you don't even believe in you
Why would you think or expect anybody else that's around you to?
I done did things that I regret, I done said things I can't take back
Was a lost soul at a crossroad who had no hope, but I changed that
I spent years of my life holdin' on to things I never should've kept, full of hatred
Years of my life carryin' a lot of baggage that I should've walked away from
Years of my life wishin' I was someone different, lookin' for some validation
Years of my life tryna fill the void, pretending I was in "
They get it
Verse 2
Growing pain's a necessary evil
Difficult to go through, yes, but beneficial
Some would say having a mental breakdown is a negative thing
Which on one hand, I agree with
On the other hand, it was the push I needed
To get help and start the healing process, see if
I'd have never hit rock bottom, would I be the person that I am today? I don't believe so
I'm a prime example of what happens when you choose to not accept defeat and face your demons
Took me thirty years to realize that if you wanna get that opportunity to be the
Greatest version of yourself, sometimes you got to be someone you're not to hear the voice of reason
Having kids will make you really take a step back and look in the mirror, at least for me, that's what it did, I
Part II
Outro
Wake up every day and pick my son up, hold him in my arms and let him know he's loved (Loved)
Standing by the window, questioning if Dad is ever going to show up (Up)
Isn't something he's gon' have to worry 'bout, don't get it twisted, that wasn't a shot
Mama, I forgive you, I just don't want him to grow up thinkin' that he'll never be enough
Thirty years of running, thirty years of searchin'
Thirty years of hurting, thirty years of pain
Thirty years of fearful, thirty years of anger
Thirty years of empty, thirty years of shame
Thirty years of broken, thirty years of anguish
Thirty years of hopeless, thirty years of (Hey)
Thirty years of never, thirty years of maybe
Thirty years of later, thirty years of fake
Thirty years of hollow, thirty years of sorrow
Thirty years of darkness, thirty years of (Nate)
Thirty years of baggage, thirty years of sadness
Thirty years of stagnant, thirty years of chains
Thirty years of anxious, thirty years of suffering
Thirty years of torment, thirty years of (Wait)
Thirty years of bitter, thirty years of lonely
Thirty years of pushing everyone away ('Way)
(You'll never evolve) I know I can change
(We are not enough) We are not the same
(You don't have the heart) You don't have the strength
(You don't have the will) You don't have the faith
(You'll never be loved, you'll never be safe)
(Might as well give up) Not running away
(You don't have the guts) You're the one afraid
(I'm the one in charge) I'm taking the " (No)
I'm taking the
Reins
Video
NF - HOPE
Meaning & Inspiration
I have spent many mornings sitting by the window, the kind where the dust motes dance in the light and the joints in my knuckles ache from the damp. I’ve read a lot of Psalms in those quiet hours, and I’ve learned that the truth isn’t always found in a polished prayer. Sometimes, the truth is found in the dirt, in the middle of a man shouting at his own reflection.
When NF—Nate—sings, “I done did things that I regret, I done said things I can’t take back,” he isn’t offering some Sunday morning platitude. He’s standing in the wreckage. There is a weight to those words that settles into the floorboards of a soul that has lived long enough to know exactly what he means. We all have that internal dialogue, that thirty-year-long conversation where we’ve dragged our feet, promising God we’d be better, only to wake up and find we are still carrying the same heavy bags.
He mentions, “I’m a prime example of what happens when you choose to not accept defeat and face your demons.” That caught me. It reminded me of Jacob wrestling through the night, refusing to let go until the blessing came. The world tells us to stay quiet about the struggle, to keep the breakdown hidden behind a decent suit and a polite smile. But there is a sort of holy desperation in admitting that the rock bottom was the only place low enough to finally see the light.
It’s easy to read Scripture like Jeremiah 29:11 and turn it into a bumper sticker, but living it is different. Living it means understanding that "hope" isn't a feeling that floats in on a breeze; it is a choice you make when you have absolutely nothing left to trade. It is the grit under your fingernails after you’ve clawed your way out of a pit you dug yourself.
I don’t know if Nate would call this a hymn, and my own hands are too weathered to care about the genre. What I hear is the sound of a man looking at the chains he’s worn for thirty years and deciding they no longer fit. There is a terrifying beauty in that transition. It isn’t about being "fixed" instantly; it’s about the slow, agonizing, beautiful work of taking the reins. It’s the realization that while we spent decades running from the dark, God was standing in the very middle of it, waiting for us to stop running and start breathing.
It’s messy. It’s loud. It isn't the sort of quiet contemplation I usually prefer. But when the lights go out and the silence of the house feels heavier than usual, there is something honest here. It’s a reminder that even when the years are marked by "sorrow" and "shame," the story hasn't finished its turn. And for an old soul, that’s enough to keep the door unlocked just a little longer.