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The first draftsThe original lyric lines next to the final ones, and why they changed.
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Welcome to the Posse.

Every new single lands here a week before anyone else hears it.

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Follow Thou Me cover art
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Follow Thou Me

Keeping your eyes on Jesus and walking the road He gave you. The story behind it

From the first draft

How Follow Thou Me changed

Three places where the first draft said it one way and the final song said it better.

First draft

Nobody understands, it's surreal

Final

Nobody saw your heart was pierced

WhyThe first draft rhymed, but it didn't say anything you could feel. "Surreal" describes how strange something seems, not how much it hurts. "Pierced" is concrete. It says the hurt goes all the way through. Put that in the pew with the preacher saying "Amen," and you've got someone carrying a wound so deep that nobody around them can see it.

First draft

That others have joy in the midst of my fight?

Final

They've found daylight and I'm still in the night?

WhyJoy and a fight aren't really opposites, so the line didn't hit as hard as the feeling behind it. Daylight and night are. When you're struggling, it can look like everyone else is standing on the mountaintop in the sun while you're stuck down in the valley in the dark. That's exactly the comparison the song warns against, and now the line paints the picture instead of just naming it.

First draft (bridge)

Don't look at others and think "why me"
Look at the one and only King
Who has charted your course
And set you assail
He is your anchor in the storm

Final (last lines of the song)

Don't look at the world and think "why me?"
Look to the one and only King

WhyThis song is about the road you walk: the path, the mountains, the valleys. A charted course, setting sail and an anchor turned it into a sea voyage and pulled the listener somewhere else. So the ship lines came out, and "why me?" moved to the very end. "Why me?" is the question every one of us has asked. Ending on it, and answering it with Jesus' own words, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me," sums up the whole song in four lines.

And one word"Others" became "the world." That widens the comparison from the people sitting next to you to everything going on around you. Whatever is happening in the world, the job is the same: keep your eyes on Jesus and follow Him in everyday life, whether that's at work, running errands, at church or at home with your family.