SONG #34: Switchfoot - You Already Take Me There

Inducted January 14, 2015

We've now exited the "One Word Titles" portion of my list - for now - after six songs in a row. I don't know why it took me so long to put in a song by one of my top 5 bands, but here it is. I feel a little uncomfortable because I keep feeling like there's another Switchfoot song that I should "induct" first. What about "Chem 6A", "Company Car", "Only Hope", "Meant to Live", "Love is a Movement", "Dare You to Move", etc.? Some of those songs bring back more clearer memories than this one. But I have a few ideas why this one comes out on top.

First, the album came out in September of 2000, which was the year after my first girlfriend and I had broken up for the second time, and I was coming off of my summer experience at Focus on the Family (I'm sure I'll talk about that sometime more later). I was a junior in college and totally familiar with my college setting. I now was a "veteran" at Concordia.. very confident and yet still very insecure. The insecurity showed through my never ending quest for companionship and it reflected an incredibly poor view of myself. This would also be the year of "The Super Bowl Incident", which I will share with you soon. In other words.. I was badly in need of something I could relate to.. as well as something that would point me to the Grace that only Jesus could give me. The setting was ripe for me to fall in love with this song.

Here are the words to the whole song.. I've bolded the words/phrases that resonated most:

"When all I have is on the floor
Divided, divided
When I'm a world away from peaceBehind Your eyes is where I know
I'll find it, I'll find it
Cause who You are defines my dreamsYou already take me there
Heaven in the here and now

When I'm a broken-hearted man
Complacent and tired
When I've been knocked out of the raceI've been a fool for long enough
To fight it, to fight it
It's in Your arms I find my place
You meet me where I am
Forgive me where I am
Where I lose myself in grace
(Where I'm lost and found)
I want to lose myself in graceLet Your love reign down all over me
Cover me"

Elements I like:
I love how that crunching opening riff melds into the regular beat of the song.. duh duh dunna nah. duh duh dunna nah.

Just like Song #33 (The Killers' "Human"), I absolutely love the music and lyrics of the verses almost more than that of the chorus. This is rare, and it shows how quickly the song comes out of the gate. In fact, at 2 Minutes 43 seconds, I love the WHAM, BAM, THANK YOU MA'AM pace of the song - it makes its point and then gets out quickly.

The bridge: "You meet me where I am.. Forgive me where I am". I get goosie-bumps just thinking of that line. It's a line I bring up to God at many points in my life. :)