Awww...the Power of Music (and it's lyrics!)

So yesterday in the car I was listening to my Tim McGraw Live Like You Were Dying cd, which I haven’t listened to in a while (though I was in LOVE with it when I bought it two days after it came out…so I played it to death). Anyways…I was listening to one of the songs that is entitled, Drugs or Jesus. I like this song. It is one of Tim’s slower songs and I really like the words. Here is just a small part of it that I really like. It makes you think…

Everybody wants acceptance.
We all just want some proof.
Everyone’s just looking for the truth.

Everybody just wants to get high.
Sit and watch a perfect world go by.
We’re all looking for love and meaning in our life.
We follow the roads that lead us…
To drugs or Jesus.

I think those lyrics have quite a bit of truth. Maybe everyone isn’t led to “drugs” or “Jesus” specifically, but maybe to the “bad” or the “good” path, you know. But look at your life, you can’t tell me we all don’t want to be accepted. Oh how often we are digging for the truth, and even when we think we’ve found it, we want proof. And when he is talking about wanting to get high and watching a perfect world go by…think about it. No, not necessarily “high” as in drugs, but high as in happy and successful, you know…high up. Be able to sit and watch a perfect world go by, as someone who is rich, successful, powerful, seems to be (though we know life can NEVER be perfect for ANYONE, but anyone who isn’t in that position thinks that’s the “perfect” lifestyle). And I don’t even think I need to go into the looking for love and meaning in our life, part. We all know that’s a constant journey in our daily life!

So…this tidbit of the lyrics from this song have inspired me to actually write this blog that I’ve been meaning to write for MONTHS now. No joke, I have a post-it note with things I want to write blogs about, and this one has been listed on it for a LONG time. I’ve been meaning to write a blog about my love for Switchfoot’s music, especially their song lyrics!

A few months back I fell in love with their WHOLE cd, “A Beautiful Letdown.” I HIGHLY recommend this cd! So many of their songs have GREAT lyrics that make you say to yourself, “that’s SOOO true,” but more importantly, they’ll make you think!

Here is just a few of the good lyrics…

“Ammunition”
Blame it on what you've been through
Blame it on what you're into
Blame it on your religions
Blame it on politicians
(Oh how we as a society love to find SOMETHING to blame our problems on. “Oh children are becoming violent because of _____” or “Teen pregnancy rates wouldn’t be so high if it weren’t for _____”)

“On Fire”
But everything inside you knows
Says more than what you've heard
So much more than empty conversations
Filled with empty words

“24”
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

“Gone”
We are not infinite
We are not permanate
Nothing is immediate
We're so confident in our accomplishments
Look at how dark it is

Gone, like Frank Sinatra
Like Elvis and his mom
Like Al Pichino's cash nothing lasts in this life
My highschool dreams are gone
My childhood sweets are gone
Life is a day that doesn't last for long

Life is more than money
Time was never money
Time was never cash

But my favorite song of ALL, was the one I played (no joke) like a million times, especially in my car (CRANKED) and I SOOO sing it out and get into it! It is one of those songs that you can so get into it and seriously feel the song! Like I’d be sitting in my car, having arrived at school early (in order to get a parking spot) so I’m just sitting there in the parking lot, in my car, with this song cranked and singing it! And when you feel this song you are singing with your fists clinched and your eyes closed and just getting into it, because you feel it!

The song is Dare You to Move, and I didn’t see the video for the song, till quite a while after I fell in love with it, so I had already taken on my own beliefs as to what the song was talking about, and while they are “different” from what the video is apparently about, which I suppose that means that is what the song is “truly” about, I still like my meaning for it better, so I’m gonna go on thinking mine! So at this time, I’m gonna go through this song and share with you what I think it means and I think you’ll see why I love this song, as well as why I love to feel it!

Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?
What happens next?

I think the song is about a baby being born. Welcome to the planet, welcome to existence. When a baby is born everyone is there, and they are watching you now and waiting for you now. So this is where the importance of the song begins, after having set the stage of what is going on. What happens next? This is where, the writer challenges the baby!

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before

The writer dares the baby to move. To move; to make something of their life! To get up and do something for the good! Make a move against the world and how it is! Lift yourself up, from the floor in this case, as that is where a little baby might find itself in life. You know, on a blanket on the floor. Yes, making the “move” will be a challenge, just as asking a little baby to lift itself up off the floor is a challenge for it. Don’t settle for what comes your way, MOVE and make things happen! I think the like today never happened part can be figuratively describing the process of a baby going from being in the womb to coming out and not being real happy! Let’s face it, babies come out crying because they are no longer in that safe easy environment they had before. Things have changed and they are different. So, the singers (the world) is telling that baby, “You know what, today might not be the best day. Yeah, today sucked, having to go from the ‘perfect’ situation you were in before to being out here, but you know what, act as if this never happened and move on!” That’s how life is. Bad things or bad days will come, but you have to act as if they never happened and continue to “move.”

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

Okay, so now you’re in a new situation, baby. This world is the “fallout”. Unlike in the womb where everything was your way, out here there will be resistance. Tension is for sure here. There will be resistance and tension if you try to “move”, to make that “move”, to strive for goodness and success. You have to look at who you are, and think that if you do make that move, think of who you could then be. Yes, the world is not the best place, that is how it is, but you can make that move and make it how it should be. Strive to be different and make the “move” and make the world how it should be!

Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here

So here the writer is saying, okay, so maybe you are thinking, “you know, why should I have to make the move? Why me? If other before me haven’t, why me?” Well the writer talks about this here. He says, “yeah, maybe redemption has stories to tell.” So, yeah, maybe other people didn’t make the “move”, but they can tell you these great stories about how they were rescued and recovered their life in the end, in this crazy world. Maybe you don’t have to come out and make the move, because others have stories that they tell about being rescued from this badness in the end. Or maybe you’ll fall into forgiveness. Maybe you can just go on and be like the others and join into the “badness” and be at one with the world as how it is, and not make the move and you’ll just be forgiven. But then the writer says, “Okay, if you aren’t going to make the move, and you want to count on having a redemption story, or just being forgiven, where do you plan to run to escape from yourself?” Where you gonna go when you have one of those bad days that you wished hadn’t happened? How you going to escape yourself thinking about that day? How you going to act like it never happened and keep pressing on if you don’t have something to press-on for? If you aren’t making the “move” to go for something, you don’t have anywhere to go to from there.

And this is when the writer winds it all up with basically how he started. He brings it back to what the whole song is about. Salvation is here. Deliverance is in making that “move!” Here is the “move!” So make it!