"...nothing more than material"

I love Jon Foreman. No really, I do. I am convinced that if he had been around during bible times he could have had a book named after him, or at least had some of his writings in there like Paul. When you think about it, he really is like a modern day Paul. His writings aren't in letter form and they aren't directed at certain countries, but his writings are full of wisdom and teaching and they are directed at the people of this world; the saved and the unsaved. The lovers and the haters; fighters and peacemakers. He is a lyrical genius and God has blessed him with wisdom beyond that of most people, an ability to put it into song form, and has given him a stage to stand on and share that wisdom through music.

Solomon is considered the wisest man to ever live, in fact he even asked God for wisdom; a gift that is more valuable than silver or gold. Jon has been gifted with that same wisdom. A combination of knowledge and understanding that puts him in the elite of people and as I listen to him sing or talk, he speaks truth! Something that we aren't used to hearing. He talks about things like materialism, and how these tangible things mean nothing! He sings in one of Switchfoot's songs, 4:12 "I still can't believe that all we are, and that all of our dreams are nothing more than material." We live our lives day by day, year by year filling it with these materialistic things. Hoping that somehow they will last forever, but they crash and burn just as our bodies do, and as the tree's and the flowers do. "...the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:8

Jon writes for everybody. My favorite song on his solo ep Fall, is Cure for the Pain in which Jon writes about everybody's search to find a way to stop the pain in every aspect of life. In things like relationships, we look for things to take away the pain from broken or lost relationships. We look for ways to stop real, physical pain but it usually ends in just a cover up, and we resort to things that do us nothing but harm; things that take us to another reality, from physical pain to emotional pain. And the point that Jon eventually gets to is that sometimes we are called to suffer through pain, and he points us to the suffering that Christ had on the cross, and the pain that He feels everyday as his children, us, the believers, the followers, His people, the ones that are supposed to glorify Him in everything that we do, as we spit in his face and deny him a place in our lives He suffers! If we were to know a fraction of the suffering that He has done for us, how much better would we live our lives? "...but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Romans 5:3b-5 We live our lives running away from suffering, trying to numb out the pain. Foreman writes "Oh Lord to suffer like you do, it would be a lie to run away." Running away is a lie! Should we not turn and face our troubles and pain, knowing that it produces perseverance? Should we numb ourselves to it and run away from it like fools? "...but fools despise wisdom and discipline." Proverbs 1:7

Jon has inspired me through every song that he writes and every article that he posts. I could write on him and his wisdom and lyrics forever, but my fingers would end up falling off.

Jon Foreman is not my idol, he is my hero. He understands what most don't. He is a man among men and a hero among heroes. He lives a life worth living.

"We were mean to live for so much more, have we lost ourselves?"

-Jon Foreman, Switchfoot

A couple of his own articles. Strokes of genius in my opinion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-foreman/the-dark-horse-joan-of-ar_b_558967.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-foreman/the-economy-of-the-garden_b_677770.html