Intro – Songs To Live By
The reason why I am starting a Songs to Live By category is because music is a paramount avenue in motivating and inspiring in life. My goal is to write about songs that are uplifting, inspirational, challenging, motivational and just plain awesome, and also to bring them to your attention. I will include the lyrics and the song to listen to in the post, and I then will write (short or long) about how it pertains to life.
As for the types of music, it will be very broad and I will write about songs from a lot of different genres because within every genre there are songs to live by. So I hope that I can write about some great songs, and that you, the reader, enjoy listening to each one.
I recommend listening to the song as you read the lyrics and try to understand the message behind it, and then read what I wrote about the importance of the song, then try and listen to it again. More easily said, try and think about the actual meaning of the song instead of just letting it be heard. Sometimes I might find a different message behind a song then what the artist might have intended, as do people who view art find alternative meanings in the same painting.
First Song To LIve By – Meant To Live
The song that I chose as the first song to write about was a no-brainer for me. It is one of my all-time favorite songs, by one of my all-time favorite bands,Switchfoot. And there surely will be many more songs by them in this series.
Song – Meant To Live
Artist – Switchfoot
Album – The Beautiful Letdown
This may be the most influential song in bringing me to question what life is all about and spurring me on in trying to figure out how to live it. If you really are listening to the song then the lyrics of this song make you ask yourself exactly what you are living for, and if it is really worth living for.
It makes you think about what the worlds tells you you’re “supposed” to live for, and if that is what everyone should actually be living for. Have we truly lost real ourselves in this crazy thing called life? And can this be found, that which we were really meant to live for?
The song wonders if what we were meant to live for is actually found after death. How the world does not offer all that we long for, with deep down everyone screaming inside for the second life, the life we live after we die. In my own life I believe that is what we are truly meant to live for.
This song resonates with a lot of people because we all feel at times that there is something to live for besides what the world has to offer, and maybe this is what we were really meant to live for. Deep down, each person at times questions their own life and its meaning, and this question should not be ignored. The answer should be found at all costs because the stakes are too high if the answer is not found.
Lastly, there are so many good ideas behind this song and others, but I only want to touch on parts of the songs and bring them to your attention as songs to try and live by.
Life, keep it simple and live it
Josh
Youtube Link: Switchfoot – Meant To Live
Lyrics:
Fumbling his confidence and wondering why the world has passed him by.
Hoping that he’s bent for more than arguments and failed attempts to fly, to fly.
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Dreaming about providence and whether mice and men have second tries.
Maybe we’ve been living with our eyes half open, maybe we’re bent and broken, broken.
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
We want more than this world’s got to offer
We want more than this world’s got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life. Yeah
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
We were meant to live
We were meant to live