. They seem to at times have lyrics in their songs that are uncharacteristically deep when compared to other popular radio songs (and they sound good too, which is a nice perk).For instance, in Sigh No More, they have this lyric near the end of the song.
"Love it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be"
Rarely in music have I seen lyrics so right on. They are so simple and so deep at the same time. We can look at them in a couple of different ways.
One is in relation to our relationship with those around us. If we are in a relationship where we feel like we are enslaved to someone (or vice versa) that is not a loving relationship. If that is true, then we are being used (or, again, doing the using), which is the opposite of love.
Love should do what the last lines of the lyric say - allow us to feel free and become better people, indeed the people who we are meant to be. For myself, I will be married in 4 months or so... and if I felt that my fianceé was holding me back from becoming who I was meant to be, or if I felt like I could not be myself around her, then I should not marry her, and what was shared between us would not really be love. (Fortunately, that is not the case, and October 8th will be the best day of my life! But I digress... :))
At the same time, we can look at this lyric in relation to our relationship with God. Oftentimes people (who don't really understand God) think religion is simply about rules. "I have a personal relationship with Jesus," they will say, "I don't need religion." And they will use that excuse to justify doing whatever they want.
But God's love is not about rules. He does not betray us. He does not tell us that we cannot get drunk, or have premarital sex, or lie to others as a way of enslaving us. It rather a way to set us free to live happy, fulfilling lives. It is like this, when you play a game of basketball, there are rules. If you play a pickup game anywhere, you won't be able to run with the ball and foul everyone. There are fouls and there is the rule of traveling. These things are not in place to enslave us or prohibit us from enjoying the game, but rather the opposite. They are there to allow us to be free to enjoy the game.
In the same way, God does not put things in our life as a way of making us "enjoy it" less, or make it seem like all we do all day is follow rules. Rather, he puts things there so that we can live more freely and fully.
Love shall you set you free and allow you to become the person you were meant to be. Anything less is simply not love.
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