Sinner Chords by Josh Thompson

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My name is John Rucker, I'm 35 years old.
My name is Aaron Griffith.
I was born Richard Weldon Simon.
Born in West Nashville.
[F] Raised by a single parent.
Grew up [Bb] in the projects.
I'm 39 years old and the better part of [F] 20 years has been spent just [Bb] going in circles.
When I was 8 years old I just started getting in trouble, stealing, [F] fighting.
My father [Bb] died when I was 5 years old in 1965.
When you're young you don't know nobody.
I made a bad choice.
You feel like the world owes you something, you know, and we forget that [F] we owe the world.
We owe the world more than it owes us.
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_ [Eb] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Bb] _ _
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_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] I've been filled with hate, greed [Bb] and envy.
_ [F] _
[Gm] But I believe _ Jesus [C] died to save a soul like me.
Cause [F] I'm a sinner and _ [Eb] that's just what I am.
Sometimes [Bb]
the devil can get the upper hand.
But I [F] hid my knees, _ [Eb] close my eyes and bow my head.
[Bb] And thank the good Lord that when it comes [Gm] to forgiveness, _ _ [F] he's no quitter.
_ _ [Bb] Cause I'm a sinner.
One of my buddies needed some money.
We needed a crew together to go rob a drug house.
The big sharded metal chain to me that always keeps bringing me down is the alcohol.
I didn't kill nobody but I [C] really got in a situation where I couldn't get out of it.
I agreed to take part in the robbery [Bb]
and someone lost their life. 50 convictions. _
I drank to kill myself.
[Bb] I thought I was fooling God but I was fooling myself the whole time.
Somehow or another in our struggle I shot the lady.
I [F] wasn't innocent, I was guilty.
You can [Bb] always get a little money but you can't never get no life back [F] once it's took.
And I ended up [Gm] in prison, as they say, on [F] death row at the age of 19.
When you're 17 [C] years old, you're sitting in juvenile and you're facing time like that, [Bb] you got tendencies to want to give up.
Ten years, gone.
I mean, gone.
I'm never going to get that time back.
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[F] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ [F] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
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_ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ I can't forget the upper hand but [Eb] I hit my knees. _
Close my eyes and bow my head.
And [Bb] thank the good Lord that [F] when it comes [Gm] to forgiveness, _ _
[Eb] He's no quitter.
_ Cause [Bb]
I'm a sinner.
_ _ [G] _ _ Yeah, [Fm] I'm a [F] good guy.
And most of the time [Bb] my heart's in the [F] right place.
But [Cm] I have my days where I run [Bb] a little low on faith.
_ [Eb] So far from grace that [C] I lose my way. _
_ _ _ _ Cause [Bb] I'm a sinner.
_ _ And that's just what I am.
Sometimes the devil can get the upper hand.
But I hit [Eb] my knees. _
Close my eyes and bow my head.
[Bb] And thank the good Lord [F] that when it [Gm] comes to forgiveness, _ _ _
[Eb] He's no quitter.
_ [Bb] Cause I'm a sinner.
So I was still going through the facade of being a hard guy and a tough guy.
But I would cry myself to sleep because there was no doubt in my mind they were going to electrocute me.
I ended up going back to jail.
So I had to go back and [F] finish four months.
I really didn't think I was going to ever get out of penitentiary.
[C] I knew that this wasn't a game no more.
But that [F] four months _ [Bb]
saved my life.
I got some understanding of how messed up I really was.
How wrong I really was for what I did.
And it really haunted me that I had to face my family and tell them, man, this was all me, man.
It had nothing to do with nobody but me.
I can remember going home and I just told my cousin, I said, if that's what a gangster is, I said, I don't want to be that.
I really want to make a change.
I tried to make amends with myself to where I could be proud of who I was.
It's okay, man, I'm not a monster.
I just sit back one day and I just wrote to family and I just told them I was sorry.
For the first time in my life, I_
I just told them, you know, I know how [F] my mom was feeling if that was me.
I really felt like somebody cared.
[C] I knew [Bb] I was going to face God _ not being perfect.
It took me a half a life to realize that being perfect is not what God created us to [F] be.
You know what I mean?
He understands I'm going to [C] fall short.
Through the grace and [F] mercy of our curator, I got an [Bb] opportunity to show my friends and family that there's more to me than what I [C] did.
_ Yeah, [Bb] I'm a sinner. _ _
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_ [C] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _