Restless

There's a quote by Augustine that says, "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you, O Lord." Acknowledging that other Switchfoot songs contain content from Augustine, or at least allusions, I have no doubt that this song is centered around that.

...because what we want isn't always what we're aching for.

i feel like it can be another one of those songs where you can interpret it either about God, or about a loved- one. i am leaning more towards God, because many times there are those "dry" feelings in your faith when you don't "feel" God, but i feel like the song can also be interpreted as being "restless" looking for your other half.

I feel this song is expressing the endurance a man puts out in his difficult journey to get closer to God. This man is not only restless looking for God, he is relentless. He’s not going to stop. He might fall down but he so desperately needs God in his life that he compares himself to “the raindrop falling down, Always longing for the deeper ground.” While he is persistent in his pursuits, he not perfect. The lines “I am the one that you left behind/I am the thorn stuck in your side/I am the bored and clouded eyes” indicate to me this guy is a slacker, always at the back of the pack playing catch up, a little annoying at times, and not always on the same page as everyone else. This is great because no matter what’s going wrong with this man’s bad habits, he is still, as Foreman writes in the last line “Looking for the well that won’t run dry.” The song ends with what can be called the man’s arrival in heaven when “At last completed and complete/The tide of tear and pain subside/Laughter drinks them dry” and all is well. This song is interesting because it arcs over the whole Christian experience of one man’s journey of salvation.

Corrected lyrics, courtesy of Chad:

RESTLESS

I am the sea on a moonless night Calling falling, slipping tides I am the leaky, dripping pipes The endless, aching drops of lights

I am the raindrop falling down Always longing for the deeper ground I am the broken, breaking seas Even my blood finds ways to bleed

Even the rivers ways to run Even the rain to reach the sun Even my thirsty streams Even in my dreams

I am restless I am restless I am breathless I’m looking for you

I am restless I run like the ocean to find your shore I’m looking for you

Running for the other side The world that I’ve always been denied I’m running for the infinite With the tears of saints and hypocrites

Oh, blood of black and white and grey Oh, death in life and night in day One by one by one We let our rivers run They run restless Run restless Drifting and breathless I’m looking for you

We run restless We run like the ocean to reach your shore I’m looking for you

I can hear you breathing I can feel you leading More than just a feeling

I can feel you you reaching Pushing through the ceiling Till the final healing Everything completing

Until the sea of glass we meet At last completed and complete Where tide and tear and pain subside And laughter drinks them dry

I’ll be waiting Anticipating All that I aim for What I was made for

With every heartbeat All of my blood bleeds Running inside me I’m looking for you

You know that shivery feeling you get when a song or something just... gets to you? Yeah, this song does that to me. At a Switchfoot concert this month, they played some new songs from Vice Versus, and wow, this is by far my favorite. When Jon started singing it, he came straight into the crowd with us which (although almost got me trampled) really made a connection. I'll always remember that moment when I hear this song. I love the way the lyrics flow at the beginning. Beautiful(:

I think this song is about the journey of life. What is need is right there for us to take. We are made for something bigger that ourselves. God is there waiting for us to come back. And if we fail, we will be there to help us get back up.

The lyrics here, and the corrected ones in the comments, are missing the start of the second verse (about the "thorn in your side"), which can be seen in hurricanehobo's comment, and heard in this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4USEBEzgc&feature=related

Anyway, this is a pretty nice song. I didn't like it when I first heard it on the radio, but it's begun to grow on me. I like how the lyrics flow so nicely.

These lyrics are unfolding the life of desperation for Jesus. Jon foreman unwraps the weirdness of losing your life to find it. It's all about seeking after the King who won our heart with unparalleled pursuit.

The first verse really reminds me of Psalm 42:7 - "Deep calls out to deep in the roar of your waterfalls". This passage was given new meaning for me recently reading AW Tozer's words:

"The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the incomprehensible, to touch and taste the unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man. Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its source."

It's like we are water droplets, straining to get back to our source, the ocean of God from whence we came. Always longing for the deeper ground, even the river's ways to run, until the smooth, calm, deep sea of glass, where finally the water finds what it been longing for.