I promised myself I wouldn't talk about a Switchfoot song every Monday or even every other Monday. Well, considering I went to their AMAZING concert last night, I believe I'm going to have to break this promise. But instead of really focusing on the lyrics of one song, I'm going to explain the impact that Switchfoot's music has had on me. I hope you'll stick with me here, even if you're not familiar with their music. This is a band whose music just always speaks to me. I find their lyrics completely relevant to my life. That's what I love about them.
So let me start at the beginning. The first Switchfoot song I heard was "Let That Be Enough" from their New Way to be Human album. This is where I heard it (sorry the video is crappy):
I loved the song instantly. Since Google wasn't the thing back then, either that or I was oblivious, I did not find out what song it was until I heard someone sing it and I asked them. I was surprised to find out it was by a Christian band called Switchfoot, that I had heard of before but I had obviously never heard before.
I don't remember when I started getting Switchfoot CDs or which one was my first. I do remember getting the A Walk To Remember soundtrack because it was a lot of Switchfoot. I also remember when "The Beautiful Letdown" came out and a friend of mine told me it was really good. I got it shortly thereafter, sometime in the year that I moved from Texas to Tennessee. I used the song "Meant to Live" for a music video project for school, right before the song absolutely EXPLODED in popularity. Since then, the album has gone double platinum.
The song "Twenty-Four," also from The Beautiful Letdown, ended up being a significant song for me. God revealed to me that I had been wrestling with Him as Jacob had, and the lyrics, "I wrestled with an angel for more than a name," spoke volumes to my soul, along with, "I'm not who I thought I was 24 hours ago." Let me just say this was a very critical turning point in my life. I will never forget it.
Yesterday before I went to the concert I was listening to some of their stuff, and the song "This Is Your Life," also from The Beautiful Letdown, came on. I was pierced by the lyrics I have heard dozens of times before:
This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose
The answer was, and still is, no, I am not who I want to be. This is not everything I dreamed of. Let's face it, I may never live that life completely. I think I will have bits and pieces of it, and being married is one of those dreams. I'm very happy with many aspects of my life, but there are some aspects I am not completely content with. I will strive for these dreams. I think that is the message of this song. I must not give up. I must strive for the life I feel I am made for.
I could go on and on about numerous other songs that have spoken to me. But I won't. What I will say, however, was that hearing these songs live made them more alive than ever before (even though I've seen them in concert three times before). I think it was the intimacy of the venue, the point I am in my life, and God just speaking to me. The band played their new album, from track one to track twelve, before playing any of their older songs. Even though the album has only been out for about a week or two, I have my favorite songs on it and it feels familiar to me. But when Jon said, "Here's a song I wrote about grace," and sang "Your Love is a Song," I felt like I really heard it for the first time, and it was beautiful. Here are just a few of those lyrics:
Your love is a symphony
All around me
Running through me
Your love is a melody
Underneath me
Running to me
Your love is a song
Do you have a band whose music impacts your life?
No comments:
Post a Comment