Switchfoot: New Way to Be Human

Link to Hollywood Jesus

New Way to Be Human (1999) explores the themes of purpose, forgiveness, and belief from the very beginning, as the title track states: “You’re a new way to be human/Where my humanity bends/To a new way to be human/Redemption begins.� Here I think that Foreman’s Christian theology really takes off. When Jesus Christ broke into human history as fully God and fully human, we experienced a closing up of the “impossible space� between who we are and who we could be. This song admits to human incompleteness but recognizes that the “God of redemption� could break into human apathy and form new beings who become heroes, even when it appears that all the heroes are gone.

The truth is that it Jesus as fully God/fully man isn’t always easy to accept—human beings doubt! “Sooner or Later� includes the prayer “I look to find You/Down on my knees/Oh God, I believe!/Please help me believe� and “Let That Be Enough� echoes that with “Let me know that You hear me/Let me know Your touch/Let me know that You love me/And let that be enough.� Even when we have head or heart knowledge, Switchfoot recognizes the need for help from the other side of that belief—we can’t do this on our own. Rather, we require God’s help to believe in Him! The constant tension between the ‘common sense’ knowledge of God’s presence and the necessity of God’s presence swing the individual back and forth between despair and hope. The bottom line for New Way is still hope, as “I Turn Everything Over� and “Under the Floor� outline the individual’s complete surrender of everything he’d been holding onto, so that the plans God has made can be fulfilled (Jeremiah 29:11-14).

Click any song below to listen to a sample mp3.

1. New Way to Be Human 3:38
2. Incomplete 4:14
3. Sooner or Later (Soren's Song) 3:59
4. Company Car 3:13
5. Let That Be Enough 2:39
6. Something More (Augustine's Confession) 4:00
7. Only Hope 4:13
8. Amy's Song 4:30
9. I Turn Everything Over 3:21
10. Under the Floor 3:55

Link to Hollywood Jesus