Day 13

Welcome Back!

I am currently in the middle of a 30 day challenge to listen to nothing but Christian music, with the goal of trying to see what kinds of changes might come about in my life. If you are wondering what inspired me to take this journey, then I suggest that you go back and read my very first blog. And if you want to know what kind of changes might have already been brought about, then I suggest you go and read any other blog. Anyways, let’s get into the post for today.

Today we are going to be getting back into the song “review”/ spotlight with a song that I haven’t heard in a long, long, time, but that came up on my ultimate worship playlist this morning. The song is called “Any Other Way” by Tenth Avenue North, and I am going to be upfront and say that this song can be interpreted as a love song about a guy and a girl. However, I feel it works for this blog, and for my ultimate worship playlist, because it also works for the relationship that we are striving to have with our Lord and Savior. Now, for those of you who don’t know anything about Tenth Avenue North, I am going to ask you to immediately stop what you are doing and go listen to every one of their songs. These guys are one of the biggest groups in the entire contemporary Christian music genre because the make songs that speak about the truth of Jesus and because their songs are real. Not all of their songs are songs that you will hear in your church. In fact, I don’t think that any of them are! And because of how real they are, they went a couple years, and one full CD where the radio stations wouldn’t play their songs, all because the stations didn’t think that any of their songs would catch on with people. However, that proved to not be the case, as the band is back and bigger than ever, with another CD set to be released this summer (and I am STOKED!!!!) The song that we are talking about today comes from their Light meets the Dark album, and that album might be their best album to date. So I highly recommend that you go and listen to that whole album.

Now, getting into the song, the melody throughout the song is very soft and catchy. It never gets to over the top, or loud so as to distract from the lyrics of the song. The song starts off by saying “Don’t say goodbye, don’t say hello, just standing on the surface. Don’t say alright, don’t say I know, well I promise it’s not worth it. I want to know who you are, even if you’re falling apart. I’ll reach in and touch your scars, and all the shame you’ve kept in your heart.” So already, you can tell that the band is calling for people to be real with each other, and get past all the surface level stuff. Now, I can see where this can be interpreted as a song about a guy and girl, but I personally believe that this is actually being song from God or Jesus’ perspective, and is being used as an attempt to get the person to fully dive in and love them wholly. And after, that is what we should be doing. We should be trying to be all in for Christ, and be fully committed to the faith.

The main chorus continues on this thought by saying “Cause it’s not enough, it’s not enough, just to say that we’re ok. Cause I need your hurt, I need your pain, it’s not love any other way.” Like I said, they don’t really make songs that you are going to hear in your Sunday morning praise and worship at church. What they are saying is that it is not enough to just say that you are ok. It is not enough to try and act like you got it all together and hide all of your hurt and pain. You should not be trying to prove that you are tough enough to be loved by God. In fact, that is the exact opposite of what we should be doing! We need to be embracing the fact that we are hurt and in pain, and taking that pain to God. Instead of trying to deal with our pain and hurt in our own ways (through alcohol, partying, or porn for example), we need to take all of that pain and hurt to him and say, “Here take this from me. It’s your’s”. It is not love any other way. If we truly love God, then we are going to run TO him when things are going wrong, not run AWAY from him. And I think that is the whole message of the song. I know that this is something that I struggle with myself, especially with some of the poor cooping mechanisms I have in my life, so hearing this song this morning really gave me some encouragement.

The second verse to this song is just as amazing, but I am so tired right now and I am about to fall asleep, so I am just going to say that you should listen to it for yourself! My prayer tonight is that you read this words, and hear this song and think about being intentional about coming to Jesus with EVERYTHING that is going on in your life. Don’t just come to him when things are going well. You need to give him everything. It’s not love any other way if you don’t. I am going to continue to do my best to do just that as well! Thank you for your time, and may God bless you as you go about your day.