Keep My Heart

[Verse 1]
You said the kind thing costs too much
I watched you count the change
The shelter closed at half past six
You drove through anyway
A stranger slept beneath your coat
You missed the morning train
You came home late, your hands still cold
And called it someone else’s pain

[Pre-Chorus]
If I feel good when I do right
Does that make the choice untrue?
If every open hand comes back
With something warm for me, too?

[Chorus]
Tell me, can I keep my heart
And still be good to you?
Does kindness lose its honest name
When it carries me through?
I want the joy, I want the truth
I want them both to stay
If doing good makes me feel alive
Must I turn that life away?

[Verse 2]
You gave your place beside the fire
Then smiled to warm your hands
You never asked the freezing man
To bless your noble plans
The morning came, the room was bare
No witness, no applause
Just one less night somebody spent
Believing no one saw

[Pre-Chorus]
Maybe virtue isn’t proved
By how little we receive
Maybe wanting joy is not a wound
We have to hide or grieve

[Chorus]
Tell me, can I keep my heart
And still be good to you?
Does kindness lose its honest name
When it carries me through?
I want the joy, I want the truth
I want them both to stay
If doing good makes me feel alive
Must I turn that life away?

[Bridge]
No clean hands, no perfect reason
No bright line through the years
Just a choice made in the moment
With a pulse beneath the fear
If I help because I love you
And because I need to care
Maybe goodness isn’t empty
Maybe joy belongs in there

[Final Chorus]
Yes, I can keep my heart
And still be good to you
The joy does not erase the cost
The cost does not erase the truth
I want the joy, I want the truth
Let both of them remain
If doing good makes me feel alive
I’ll choose it all again

[Outro]
I’ll choose it all again
With open hands, and no disguise