Lyrics with a Higher Purpose

Favorite lines from Christian songs. I love God and I love music. When they come together in the right way it is captivating. If you like these lyrics go listen to the songs. They're a million times better. Deeply emotional and logical simultaneously.


"You are more than the choices that you've made, 
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes 
You are more than the problems you create
You've been remade....

This is not about what you've done 
But whats been done for you. 
This is not about where you've been 
But where your brokenness brings you to
This is not about what you feel
But what He felt to forgive you
And what He felt to make you loved" -Tenth Avenue North, You are More

"Why do we think that our hate's gonna change their hearts

We're rippin' arms over wars that don't need to be fought
Cause pride wont let us lay our weapons on the ground''-Tenth Avenue North, Losing

"In the middle of my little mess, I forgot how big I'm blessed..
So break me of impatience
Conquer my frustrations
I've got a new appreciation
It's not the end of the world"-Francesca Battistelli, This is the Stuff

"Why are you trying to earn Grace?" -Tenth Avenue North, By Your Side

"You give me everything I need to walk in my dreams
You whisper words that free my soul
You're the reason I have hope
You're everything I need and more"-Dara Maclean, Free


"Why in the world did I think I could only get to know You when my life was good?"

"Be strong in the Lord and,
Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,
I already know,
God's got His hand on you so,
Don't live life in fear,
Forgive and forget,
But don't forget why you're here,
Take your time and pray" -Sidewalk Prophets, The Words I would Say

"The One the wind and waves obey

Is strong enough to save you" -Tenth Avenue North, Strong Enough to Save

 All of these songs and more get played Christian radio. If you live around me then that's 89.7 on FM radio. Just wanted to share. Thanks for reading.

To be great is to be misunderstood

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.
     Today I was working at my tutoring job and I had to read a passage from Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance." The bolded quote above is where the excerpt started.  I was reading it out loud to my student and every once in a while I asked her if she knew what that word and this word meant. This was partly to strengthen her vocabulary and partly to gauge if she was as affected by his writing as I was. His intelligence blew me away. This is what I thought after reading the opening sentences: Envying others is bad, knew that. Calling it ignorance stresses that only people who have never been told "It is bad to envy others" should do it. I have been taught that and I still am overcome with jealousy at times. That is ignorance. As for the second point, I knew imitation was not the best thing to do. However I would have never thought to compare imitation and suicide. Essentially though, that is a just comparison. Imitation is willingly killing your identity to replace for another. It is disrespecting the identity that God gave you, trying to paint over His picasso. The third sentence is a rock solid word-to-the-wise to love yourself as you are, one of the easiest ideas to grasp and the hardest to put into practice. Needless to say, I was engaged for the rest of the reading.
      Emerson said that "Whoso be a man must be a non-conformist." He stated that God uses brave men to do great things, not scared and hesitant people. "God will not have his work made manifest by cowards." He said not to be scared of being thought of as odd, as a freak, and to be outcasted. "To be great is to be misunderstood." His reasons were because some of the brightest, wisest people were thought as, well, weirdos. He named Copernicus, Galileo, Jesus and Newton. I was so inspired by that.  Being counter-cultural is sometimes the best thing you can do. It assures you of who you are. It is acknowledging that you do not need man's approval to understand yourself. We are so afraid to be disliked, but maybe that is the cost of magnificence.