I'd like to preface this response with a clarification that I'm not religious, and I don't care to push religion either. However, this song is inherently christian in nature.
A good friend of mine who is a devout christian showed me this band he liked, and message or no, I like their sound. More specifically, he showed me this one song that reminded him a whole lot of me. This was years ago, probably 4 now. We'd known each other for maybe a year at this point, and I was... at a really low point in my life when I met him. I felt like my heart and soul were just crushed, and I was operating on autopilot for damn near a year. Nothing was enjoyable, I woke up every day wondering why I was still doing everything normally, and just decided it was "because I must". Anyway, I met him through work, and he was just... this good soul. He listened, and while we had different outlooks on life and different reasons for why we think what we do, talking philosophy and other stuff with him was just nice.
Anyway, where was I? The song. I'll just link it, but you don't have to listen if that's not your cup of tea. Even today I think it sounds good and I still feel something when I hear those lyrics.
Without those bricks on my back, who would I be?
I'll be honest, when I first heard it, I actually wept. When I first listened to the song, when it was put on, I just had this sorta... "Ah, ok..." reaction, like, when your friend puts on something you feel you probably won't care for but you don't wanna be rude.
But I wept. It was the first time in nearly a year I let myself feel like that. Those words alone were enough to get through the wall I'd put up. I was just so tired at that time, and I'd constantly been talking about the negatives in my life, explaining how they defined my philosophies on life. My pain, and the weight I carried all the time was something I was letting define me every day.
Maybe it's obvious to an outsider, but I felt like he really knew me. It's a little thing but it felt like a defining moment. My opinions on religion haven't changed, even if I gave it a shot for a small portion of time there, but nowadays I try harder not to let my experiences define me in a negative way.
Even if you hurt, even if you feel like you can never forgive, sometimes it can really go a long way. Find the strength in yourself to do that, because life is too short to let those things define you every day. Sometimes the strength to pretend everything is alright even when it's not isn't what you need. It's OK to be weak. You can forgive yourself too. Everyone is human. You don't have to let those bricks weigh you down, you can make that choice. You don't need to forget your pain, but you can still accept it and move on. Everybody faces difficult times in their life, sometimes those are harder for some than others, but you can still love your fate.
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