- Devin Gackle
Songblog: Tear Down These Walls
“Tear Down These Walls” written by Devin Gackle, started summer 2011, finished fall 2011
This song took me a little while to write. There was a piece in the middle I couldn’t get quite right, so I basically had to wait for it to hit me.
I was on a summer mission trip in Red Lake, Minnesota when words to this song just sort of came to me. The trip was very enlightening, but no particular even inspired this song; it was more of a personal message I found in the lessons we were learning.
So often we let our sorrow or anger distance us from our loved ones, and from God. The more we let it get to us, the more our hearts might guide us in the wrong direction. Changes happen. Life happens. People live and die but life keeps going on around you; and sometimes we’re just so blocked off, so detached.
We keep waiting for it to get better. But how much are we doing to make it to “better”?
Sometimes we have to make things happen. We have to take a step on our own. God can work in us in many ways, but we have to participate in breaking down barriers. And we don’t have to go it alone.
It took longer to finish this song because at the time it was more important than other songs I had written. It was my first semester of college when I finally finished this song; college had made me realize there were a lot of parts of life I was just letting pass right by me. So that’s when the rest of the song it hit me.
It’s about waking up and doing something with your life. About trying to make the world a better place. About mending things that are broken. About acting with kindness.
Simply about showing love.
We get so caught up in our own worlds we might not see outside them. Personally, I would say this is my biggest flaw—I get so stuck inside my head that even though I observe them, sometimes I forget to process things around me.
But it's always possible to fix what's broken. Sometimes the pieces fit differently than before, but that can be a good thing. You just have to let it.
Life hurts. We’ve all been there. But to start healing, walls need to be broken down. Forgetting isn’t always possible, but forgiveness is. Love is.
There is a way, and it’s through love. There you will find all the strength you could ever need, and all the answers you seek.
Lyrics:
Swollen hearts and solemn faces
Moving with the daily races
Broken as they’d ever meant to be
Losing faith and losing patience
Divided by their love and hatred
Waiting on a light to make them see
There’s a way
What will it take to tear down these walls
How many times can I stumble and fall
Before I bend, before I break
Forgive me if I give into the pain
‘Cause everything I know will never be the same
Love is lost and time is wasted
The good in life is left untasted
The broken truths that hide all come undone
They’re walking without going places
There’s no more room to make mistakes
And they’re looking back, surprised what they’ve become
But there’s a way
What will it take to tear down these walls
How many times can I stumble and fall
Before I bend, before I break
Forgive me if I give into the pain
‘Cause everything I know will never be the same
For too long we’ve watched the world pass by
Ignoring how we feel inside
But there’s no time to waste
For every life, one is taken
For every heart, someone will break it
So we search for somebody to blame
What will it take to tear down these walls
How many times can I stumble and fall
Before I bend, before I break
Forgive me if I give into the pain
Oh
But I’ll never bend
There’s too much at stake
Everything I know is about to change
All I ask is that you help me find the way