Everybody loves a good trilogy. As Jon has talked about, these songs sort of play off of each other. The first, Let Your Love Be Strong (LYLBS from now on) was on Oh! Gravity and was released first. Then came Your Love is Strong (YLIS) on his Spring EP solo album. Most recently is Your Love is a Song (YLIAS) on Hello Hurricane. These are all beautiful songs so I don’t mean to give them less credit by mashing them together, but rather to describe the entire story they tell.
To me these songs describe a progression. It’s a progression of thoughts, realizations, and ways of thinking. In the first song, LYLBS, the lyrics describe a want, a longing. Notice the way he uses the words “maybe” and “let” in the verses. “Maybe I’m just a little misinformed”, “Let the wars begin, let my strength wear thing”. If you haven’t picked it up yet, the “You” in all the song titles is God. The way Jon uses “maybe” and “let” gives me a feeling like he’s disconnected. He wants to see the awesomeness of God’s love do its thing. Jon knows it’s all you need. He is willing to sacrifice what he has for it. “Let the wars begin, let my strength wear thin. Let my fingers crack let my world fall apart”. I feel as though the writer is viewing God’s love from an outside perspective looking in. If these words I’m using aren’t accurately describing the way the writer is thinking/feeling, listen to the song, the music does a fantastic job of setting the proper mood.
Next comes YLIS. While LYLBS was written from the outside looking in, I believe this song is written from the inside. Rife with biblical terms such as “kingdom” and “heavens”, plus the Lord’s prayer at the end, adds up to a close look at God. It’s written by someone who feels close to God and understands that you don’t need to worry if God is on your side (or rather, if you’re on God’s side). The transition between these first two songs is a state of wondering and hoping to a state of joy. It’s an awakening to beauty of God’s love. He changes from sounding distant and a little sad to sounding alive, joyous, and even overwhelmed.
While the first song was from the outside looking in, and the next from the inside, I believe YLIAS is from the inside looking out. What I mean is that after experiencing the wonder and magnitude of pure love, he sees its effect on everything; it’s everywhere. He’s looking at life as a wonderful symphony of nature, people, everything. In the verses, he describes the things he’s experiencing. After this, he goes into the chorus of bringing it all back to what he’s really looking at. He sees everything different now, everything’s/everyone is connected through a beautiful melody (anyone else reminded of We Are One Tonight?).
When talking about God, words have a tendency to fall short (hence the beauty of the name “I Am”). Because of this, anything I write won’t do a justice. While it’s also true that nothing Jon writes will fully do a justice either, having music really helps. What I’m trying to say is try listening to these songs while reading this, it will really help portray the feeling, emotion, and passion behind the words.
