This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Sick of circling the same road
Sick of bearing the guilt
So open the windows to cool off
And heat pours in instead
Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone
All my efforts to clean me
Leave me putrid and filthy
And how can you look at me
When I can't stand myself
I'm tired to be honest
I'm nobody
Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone
Perfect in weakness
I'm only running in just your strength alone
I tried to kill you
You tried to save me
You save me
You save me
You save me
You save me
Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone
Perfect in weakness
I'm only running in just your strength alone
Sick of bearing the guilt
So open the windows to cool off
And heat pours in instead
Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone
All my efforts to clean me
Leave me putrid and filthy
And how can you look at me
When I can't stand myself
I'm tired to be honest
I'm nobody
Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone
Perfect in weakness
I'm only running in just your strength alone
I tried to kill you
You tried to save me
You save me
You save me
You save me
You save me
Perfect in weakness
I'm only perfect in just your strength alone
Perfect in weakness
I'm only running in just your strength alone
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Magical
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This song is about God... like most of Flyleaf's songs. She's saying that through her own strength she's nothing, but through God she is perfect. "All my efforts to clean me Leave me putrid and filthy And how can you look at me When I can't stand myself" In our own power we cant clean ourselves and make ourselves pure. We only destroy ourselves even more. It's amazing how in our sin and filth and God in his infiniute purity can still stand the sight of us. "I tried to kill you You tried to save me" The cross. Our sin murdered him, but his love saved us.
"How can you look at me when I can't stand myself?" That's the best line! It's one of the wonderful graces of God. He loves you always, even when you don't. And through his love you can learn to look yourself in the mirror again.
This song is so intense.
"All my efforts to clean me leave me putrid and filthy." We talked about this at my church. Another name for Him is Jehovah Tsidkenu which is "The Lord my Righteousness." Only God can make you clean and right and pure. There's nothing we can do to make ourselves better other than praying for an increased closeness with God and for his blessing.
I think Brooke8210, azmoongirl, and iceangelred86 are all correct, because this song is completely about God.
From the band's own website:
1.4 Is Flyleaf a Christian band? The best answer we've gotten to date is:
Lacey: "WE ALL SHARE THE SAME FAITH. And so when we deal with the whole 'Christian band thing', we kind of think about something POD says, like, 'If you're a Christian, it affects everything in your life. So if you're a plumber, does that make you a Christian plumber?' I don't know the answer. We're a band, it's part of who we are, SO IT COMES OUT IN OUR MUSIC, AND IT'S THE FUEL FOR WHAT WE DO. And finding faith saved my life. So I'm not ashamed of it at all. AND MOST OF OUR ALBUM REFLECTS THAT." (emphases added)
flyleafonline.com/band/FAQ.php
Also II Corinthians 12.9: "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (NIV)
Note that any work of art has a life and meaning independent from the artist, so if you want to take something else from this song you are free to do so. But to suggest that the artists may have meant something different when they've made their intentions quite clear, now THAT'S absurd.
my thoughts exactly, brooke
at first i thought it was about a girl who was always thinking that she wasnt perfect and that she was tired of thinking she wasnt perfect and thought she is perfect in her own way but i think brookes view makes more sense >_
It could be an eating disorder, but I think its more broad then that, its about being helped basically though. By someone who loves you and won't let go of you, especially when she says: "I tried to kill you You tried to save me" Its about not giving up on people you believe in and those who support you, because they clearly do the same for you.
I have to say, im an atheist. I dont belive in all the stuff about god. Now im not saying that there is anything wrong with flyleaf. I'm also a liberal. So it doesnt bother me. i listen to the music cause its good. I just wanted to say that and let other peopl know. Even if you dont believe in a god its still okay to listen to the music. Your not a hypocrite.
Yeah, this song is definitely talking about God. "I tried to kill you, you tried to save me" means that all the bad she did had no effect on God's willingness to save her. The title itself has the meaning, which is that God is perfect.
It's not at all absurd to think that this song is about God. The term "perfect in weakness" is straight out of 2 Corinthians 12. Look it up. It's basically saying that it is only when when we give up our own strength and rely on God's strength that we are truly strong.