**Live Within the Mystery** — Bill Lollar *Folk ballad with hints of Celtic — on why no one, in thousands of years, has ever settled the God question.*

[Live Within the Mystery - BandCamp Link](https://billlollar.bandcamp.com/track/live-within-the-mystery)

\[Verse 1\] Before there was a name for it Before we built a house for it We buried our dead And we sat by the bed Watching the breath leave the room

\[Verse 2\] Before the arguments started Before the wars got their reasons We fell into love We looked up above And the stars nearly took us apart

\[Chorus\] Call it God, call it Brahman Call it Reason, call it the Tao Call it Science, call it History Call it whatever you need right now We built every name we could find for it Still we don't know We just live within the mystery

\[Verse 3\] The philosophers argued The mystics went quiet The skeptics kept digging The dying kept asking And nobody walked out with the answer

\[Verse 4\] Maybe the question was never the question Maybe the longing was always the truth Death and wonder and love got here first Before we ever needed a name for it

\[Chorus\] Call it God, call it Brahman Call it Reason, call it the Tao Call it Science, call it History Call it whatever you need right now We built every name we could find for it Still we don't know We just live within the mystery

\[Bridge\] No final consensus No 8-ball with the answer Just the dead we still love And the sky we still wonder That's the only thing nobody's disproven

\[Outro\] So I'll bury who I bury And I'll love who I love And I'll stand here under the stars not knowing And call that enough

credits released \[date\] license © 2026 Bill Lollar. All rights reserved.

This song draws on themes explored by Jim Palmer in his writings, including his articles "The First Question Wasn't God" and "The Book I Had to Write." Palmer's work has shaped much of my own thinking as I've moved from five decades inside religious institutions to two decades outside them, and I'm grateful for the way his ideas have helped me find language for these songs.

Live Within the Mystery - Bill Lollar