Guidelines for this Activity

1) Listen to the song with your group (you can purchase the album at local retailers or online). Use the lyrics below so students can understand the words.

2) Discuss the song with your group using the suggested discussion questions below.

3) Compare your students' comments with the insights of the song's creator, Jon Foreman (below). What aspects of the song did your students emphasize? How did their insights compare with Foreman's comments?

The Lyrics: "Always"

This is the start

This is your heart

This is the day you were born

This is the sun

These are your lungs

This is the day you were born

And I am always yours

These are the scars

Deep in your heart

This is the place you were born

This is the hole

Where most of your soul

Comes ripping out

From the places you've been torn

And it is always yours

But I am always yours

Hallelujah!

I'm caving in

Hallelujah!

I'm in love again

Hallelujah!

I'm a wretched man

Hallelujah!

Every breath is a second chance

And it is always yours

And I am always yours

Questions for Discussion

1) What is the song describing in the first verse? How do you interpret the references to the start and being born? What about lungs and sun?

2) How does the song change directions in the second verse? What is the meaning of references to scars, the hole, your soul, and being torn?

3) Does verse two disagree with verse one, or is it only a different perspective on life?

4) Have there been situations in your life that are like these descriptions of pain and sorrow in verse two?

5) What happens in verse three? Why does the singer say: "Hallelujah! I'm caving in"?

6) Verse three combines "positive" concepts ("I'm in love") with darker images ("I'm a wretched man"). How can these seemingly contradictory ideas coexist in the same person or the same song?

7) How does the song conclude? What is the primary image or feeling you are left with after examining this song?

8) What does the Bible say about your value to Him at your birth? What does the Bible say about the impact of sin in our lives as we get older? What does the Bible say about second chances?"

Compare

What did your students say about the song? How does this compare with the insights of Switchfoot songwriter Jon Foreman? How does it compare to what the Bible says about His love, our sin, and the potential for new life?

Comments Foreman Made About the Hello Hurricane Album

"The storms of this life shatter our plans. They tear through our world and destroy our hopes and dreams. They ruin sunny days, flatten the structures we depend on, and shock our world views. Hello Hurricane is an attempt to sing into the storm. Hello Hurricane is a declaration: you can't silence my love. My plans will fail, the storms of this life will come, and chaos will disrupt even my best intentions, but my love will not be destroyed. Beneath the sound and the fury there is a deeper order still- deeper than life itself. An order that cannot be shaken by the storms of this life. There is a love stronger than the chaos, running underneath us- beckoning us to go below the skin-deep externals, beyond the wind, even into the eye of the storm. Hello Hurricane, you're not enough- you can't silence my love.