Guidelines for this Activity

1) Listen to the song or watch the music video with your group. (The video is embedded below. You can purchase the album at local retailers or online.) The lyrics are printed below so your 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: "Mess of Me"

I am my own affliction

I am my own disease

there ain't no drug that they can sell

there ain't no drug to make me well

there ain't no drug

there ain't no drug

it's not enough

the sickness is myself

I've made a mess of me

I want to get back the rest of me

I've made a mess of me

I want to spend the rest of my life alive

we lock our souls in cages

inside these prison cells

it's hard to free the ones you love

when you can't forgive yourself

I've made a mess of me

I want to reverse this tragedy

I've made a mess of me

I want to spend the rest of my life alive

Questions for Discussion

1) What does this song say about the human condition in a fallen world?

2) King David was the greatest king in Israel's history, yet the Bible records some of the heinous acts he also committed. The Apostle Paul was the most successful Christian missionary in history, yet considered himself "chief of sinners". If even King David and the Apostle Paul struggled with their sin nature, what chance do the rest of us have?

3) Is it harder to forgive others or to forgive yourself?

4) Do you ever find yourself burdened by the weight of your past?

5) If so, who do you turn to?

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?

Jon Foreman's Comments About the Song, "Mess Of Me"

"He not busy being born is busy dying." - Bob Dylan

"You were born a white man in mid-twentieth century industrial America. You came into the world armed to the teeth with an arsenal of weapons. The weapons of privilege, racial privilege, sexual privilege, economic privilege. You wanna be a pacifist, it's not just giving up guns and knives and clubs and fists and angry words, but giving up the weapons of privilege, and going into the world completely disarmed. Try that." - Ammon Hennessy