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17
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Aug 12, 2026 updated
Verified editorial review
Chris Renzema's song "17" is a reflective and honest confession of personal failure and the struggle to accept God's love. The narrator looks back at the wisdom and simplicity of youth, feeling that the person he was at seventeen would be disappointed in who he has become. He admits to wasting time and letting God down, yet he hears God's reassuring voice, reminding him that he is fearfully and wonderfully made, created in God's image, and that his work is not finished. The song offers hope, emphasizing that despite a tired and broken heart, the best is still to come.
Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team
Here I am, confessing again
I know I've let You down
I've said it a thousand times
Never again starts now
I've slept through so many days
I've wasted so much time
Can't solve it with a song
Can't fix it with a rhyme
So I'll try
To be honest with myself
Again
But I can feel just so uncomfortable in my skin
No, You told me that You love me
But I don't remember when
Oh-oh-oh-oh
Feel like I was so much wiser when I was 17
Saw the world in just two shades
Didn't stand in the in-between
If the man I was back then saw who I am right now
Wonder if he'd be disappointed in how he would turn out
So I'll try
To be honest with myself
Again
But I can feel just so uncomfortable in my skin
No, You told me that You love me
But I don't remember when
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh
But I hear You say
"Child, stop listening to yourself so much
I have made you more than worthy of My love
You are fearfully and wonderfully made
And that's enough"
Whoa-oa-oa-oa
"Whoa, child
If you could see yourself the way that I do
You'd see I made you in My image and My work's not through
Oh, we'll dance on his disappointment
In a world made new"
Whoa-oa-oa
Oh, I know your heart is tired
The floods and the fire
Have made this seem all too far gone
Oh, I know your heart is broken
But the last words I've spoken
The best is still yet to come
Oh, I know your heart is tired
The floods and the fire
Have made this seem all too far gone
Oh, I know your heart is broken
But the last words I've spoken
The best is still yet to come