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.

Jon Foreman’s Comments About the Song, “Always”

“Everything can be taken from a man but … the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl

“Everything alive must die. Every building built to the sky will fall. Don’t try to tell me my everlasting love is a lie.” — Jeff Tweedy

I am continually searching for meaning in my life. Why am I here? Why is there so much pain? This cold, dark stream of sorrow runs through my life. Why does it run alongside of the warm beautiful waters of joy and beauty? Why do the two rivers collide and intertwine?

The dark and the light. The death and the life… Most of my songs become outlets for these questions. The music becomes place for the cognitive dissonance to chew away at something other than a broken heart or an ulcer. The music becomes a place to sort through the dark and the light.

I love crosswords, sodoku, solitaire- games with a simple victory that allows me the momentary thrill of setting the world right. But song-writing feels like a similar discipline to me. A puzzle of letters and math, theory and rule, expression and passion.

The lyric of this song attempts to start at the womb and follow a human soul through life. And so it begins: the heart beats, the eyes open, breath floods the lungs for the first time- what incredible experiences! What extraordinary sensations!

I wanted to write this from a father’s perspective, from the eyes of the father of life. One look into the eyes of his son and the father is smitten for life. The possession that the young infant has over the father is complete. Always yours. The second verse speaks of the pain. This pain is always with us. We are born into a world of pain, the pain of losing a child, the pain of rejection, of racism, sexism, fears…these experiences rip us to pieces.

Everyone feels pain. I look to those who have been through more pain than I will ever know for guidance on the subject. The Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist Victor Frankl survived several Nazi concentration camps with his life and his hope intact. He lost more than I’ll ever know… his wife, his parents, and his family did not survive. His understanding of pain is in direct opposition to our western world that is often found running from pain at all costs.

Frankl’s “Case for a Tragic Optimism” speaks of turning suffering into human achievement and optimism in the face of tragedy. The memories, the pain, the scars, these are yours. Yes, the things that you and I have lost. These are yours and they have meaning. No, these could never be The Ultimate Meaning in our lives, but let these scars drive us towards “turning suffering into human achievement and accomplishment.”

The bridge in the song is the acknowledgment of my own shortcomings. As a man born into beauty and pain, there is a moment of surrender where I lay down my life. This is a free volitional action, a gift, just as the father’s love was given to me- this became the response. A simple surrender to the Infinite Maker of The Finite.

More Information
Your students may want to research Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and author who experienced significant tragedy and pain in his life. You can find out more about Switchfoot and Hello Hurricane at: Switchfoot.com. You can find more Youth Pop Culture Lessons at YouthWorker.com.

Related link: Switchfoot’s ‘Hello Hurricane’ set for Nov 10