Sixteen Miles Past Mercy

[Verse 1]  
I was driving down a backroad with a heart I couldn’t trust,  
Hands shaking on the wheel like they were made of someone else’s dust.  
Radio was whispering some old forgotten hymn,  
But I’d gone too far for angels to come looking for me again.  

The moon hung like a witness to the choices that I’d made,  
Every mile behind me felt like another debt unpaid.  
I wasn’t running toward freedom — I was running from my name,  
Trying to leave behind the man I’d set on fire with shame.  

[Chorus]  
I was sixteen miles past mercy,  
Too far gone for grace to chase.  
Left forgiveness at a crossroads  
With the ghost of my own face.  
I kept driving through the darkness  
Like the night could hide my sins,  
Sixteen miles past mercy…  
And I didn’t know how to turn back in.  

[Verse 2]  
I’d hurt the ones who loved me, burned the bridges I once crossed,  
Told myself I didn’t need ‘em, but I knew what I had lost.  
Every lie I ever told was sitting shotgun in that seat,  
Every truth I ran from whispered, “Boy, you’re in too deep.”  

I saw my mama’s tears in every flicker of the dash,  
Heard my daddy’s warnings in the rumble of the crash.  
But pride is just a poison that you drink to feel alive,  
And I was swallowing it whole just trying to survive.  

[Chorus]  
I was sixteen miles past mercy,  
Too far gone for grace to chase.  
Left forgiveness at a crossroads  
With the ghost of my own face.  
I kept driving through the darkness  
Like the night could hide my sins,  
Sixteen miles past mercy…  
And I didn’t know how to turn back in.  

[Bridge]  
But somewhere past the silence,  
Somewhere past the fear,  
I swear I heard a whisper  
Cut through everything I’d steered.  
It said, “Son, you ain’t forgotten,  
You ain’t lost beyond repair…  
Mercy ain’t a place you drive to —  
It’s a place that meets you there.”  

[Final Chorus]  
I was sixteen miles past mercy,  
But mercy found me anyway.  
Didn’t need a perfect man —  
Just one who didn’t run away.  
And I pulled that truck to the shoulder  
With a heart too tired to pretend,  
Sixteen miles past mercy…  
Was exactly where grace stepped in.  

[Outro]  
Yeah, I was sixteen miles past mercy…  
But mercy knew the way to me.

Country Dark Horse, Oldtime, Christian/Gospel, Hellfire & Brimstone