By choice I’m desperately wild,
Of disobedience a child.
For what is best I have no taste;
God’s image I’ve all but erased.

Of heavenly food I’m unaware;
To please my God I hardly care.
My heart is only black within—
I’m dead in trespasses and sin.

My death I hardly know or feel.
The devil tells me it’s not real,
And laughing at its constant strife,
The dead around me call it life.

The devil and the flesh yet thrive;
And to the world I feel alive,
Yet have no God, no hope, no light;
No eyes to see how dark the night.

Awake!  The Savior calls, “Arise—
“One dead may live, if first he dies.”
I die to death, to self, to sin,
And rise eternal life to win.

Now dead in Christ, new life I find,
And leave my living death behind.
I’m dead to all my old employ;
Alive to love and peace and joy.

The darkened, worldly minds around
Refuse to see this life I’ve found,
But from the world I’ve been set free—
I’m dead to it, and it to me.

I now have eyes to see the light,
And taste for all that’s good and right.
Alive to God, by Him well-fed,
I’m satisfied with living bread.