First off, having grown up really religious only to completely turn away from in the past few years, I'll say that it doesn't matter whether these lyrics are religious or not. I have noticed that every single love song (unless its about sex) can be interpreted as a religious song and vice versa. I think this is why a lot of Christian songs do well in the mainstream because they are easily interpreted as love songs. Its easy to do. The struggles and feelings mimic each other both positive and negative.
Second, every person interprets songs in their own way. That is the essence of art. This website, I think, is about sharing those interpretations. If you'll notice some of the best interpretations were ones that were highly personal. So it doesn't matter if you don't get the same thing as long as you get something.
Third, this song does have definite Christian imagery. But this may simply be coincidental since people who have strong Christian backgrounds tend to use a certain form of language. But more likely it isn't accidental but meant to contain an ambiguous duality.
For instance, it could easily be interpreted as someone struggling to overcome an addiction of sorts, trying to achieve forgiveness and closure from a struggle and be reborn into something new out of the struggle. But this is hard to do, hence the "forget closure" at the end--you still struggle with an addiction for a long time after.
However, I think I'll agree with the general consensus here. The best and most helpful interpretation for me personally is the relationship one. As someone who has struggled with some addictions, I would think that people might appreciate the addiction interpretation, especially given the religious imagery.
A few notes:
First off, having grown up really religious only to completely turn away from in the past few years, I'll say that it doesn't matter whether these lyrics are religious or not. I have noticed that every single love song (unless its about sex) can be interpreted as a religious song and vice versa. I think this is why a lot of Christian songs do well in the mainstream because they are easily interpreted as love songs. Its easy to do. The struggles and feelings mimic each other both positive and negative.
Second, every person interprets songs in their own way. That is the essence of art. This website, I think, is about sharing those interpretations. If you'll notice some of the best interpretations were ones that were highly personal. So it doesn't matter if you don't get the same thing as long as you get something.
Third, this song does have definite Christian imagery. But this may simply be coincidental since people who have strong Christian backgrounds tend to use a certain form of language. But more likely it isn't accidental but meant to contain an ambiguous duality.
For instance, it could easily be interpreted as someone struggling to overcome an addiction of sorts, trying to achieve forgiveness and closure from a struggle and be reborn into something new out of the struggle. But this is hard to do, hence the "forget closure" at the end--you still struggle with an addiction for a long time after.
However, I think I'll agree with the general consensus here. The best and most helpful interpretation for me personally is the relationship one. As someone who has struggled with some addictions, I would think that people might appreciate the addiction interpretation, especially given the religious imagery.