“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