I love music. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket and I can’t strum a guitar or play an instrument (other than squeak out “Three Blind Mice” on a saxaphone); but I love music. It is amazing how music bypasses so many layers of emotion and gets right into your soul.

To share my love for music and the songs that have really affected me, I’m starting a new regular posting on my blog called “Music Monday”.

For my first ever Music Monday post I figure it is best to start at the top with my #1 played song in iTunes; Brett Dennen’s “Ain’t No Reason”.

I know that it may strike some of you wrong that my #1 played song in iTunes is not a worship tune or some powerful Christian lyric…but I hope you will continue reading and listen anyways.

I was first introduced to Brett Dennen via an old Hyatt commercial that used his tune “Blessed”. After latching on to that song Michelle and I began to explore more of his music and “Ain’t No Reason” quickly rose to the top of our list.

While I can say that Brett Dennen and I would likely not be on the same ‘theological’ page (see interview here), the lyrics have spoken to Michelle and I in unbelievable ways. It is a very haunting song about the current state of our society and the truth that the only thing that will set us free is love.

And indeed, love is the only thing that can set us free from this cycle. While in some ways it is the same love that Brett writes about (our love for one another); truly the only love that can set us free is the love of God. I hope this song speaks to you as it has to us.

 

So what about you? What is your #1 song in iTunes??

 

“Ain’t No Reason” Lyrics

There ain’t no reason things are this way.
It’s how they always been and they intend to stay.
I can’t explain why we live this way.
We do it every day.

Preachers on the podium speaking of saints.
Prophets on the sidewalk begging for change.
Old ladies laughing from the fire escape,
Cursing my name.

I gotta a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,
A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,
You can spend your whole life working for something,
Just to have it taken away.

People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing paychecks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking about nothing, not thinking about death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.

People walk a tightrope on a razors edge.
Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons.
It could be a bomb, or a bullet, or a pen,
Or a thought, or a word, or a sentence.

There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they’ve always been and they intend to stay.
I don’t know why I say the things I say,
But I say them anyway.

But love will come set me free.
Love will come set me free, I do believe.
Love will come set me free, I know it will.
Love will come set me free, yes.

Prison walls still standing tall.
Some things never change at all.
Keep on building prisons, gonna fill them all.
Keep on building bombs, gonna drop them all.

Working your fingers bare to the bone.
Breaking’ your back, make you sell your soul.
Like a lung, it’s filled with coal,
Suffocating slow.

The wind blows wild and I may move.
But politicians lie and I am not fooled.
You don’t need no reason or a three piece suit,
To argue the truth.

The air on my skin and the world under my toes
Slavery stitched into the fabric of my clothes
Chaos and commotion wherever I go,
Love I try to follow.

Love will come set me free
Love will come set me free, I do believe
Love will come set me free, I know it will
Love will come set me free, yes

There ain’t no reason things are this way.
Its how they’ve always been and they intend to stay.
I can’t explain why we live this way.
We do it every day.