Surprised

The narrator of “Surprised” stands at a decision: “I got one foot ready and another unsure of it,” a “same old bind” in a new circumstance. The line “If I don't do this now, I may never get off the fence” sets the stakes, and the hook, “I wanna be surprised,” turns the fear into a request, followed by “Don't let me cover my eyes.”

The second verse supplies the reason to risk it: “It was your bright soft voice in the middle of my lowest point / Raised me up, like a dove riding the wind.” Having been lifted once, the narrator is “ready to feel it all again, a wide awakening.” The repeated verse argues that “no one ever knows what they really know / If we never let ourselves begin,” so trust is learned by stepping out, not by waiting for certainty.

Isaiah 43:19, “See, I am doing a new thing,” suits the surprise being asked for, and Psalm 40:2, where God lifts the psalmist from the pit and sets their feet on a rock, matches the memory of being raised up at the lowest point.