Look, let’s be real.
If you had told me ten years ago that Switchfoot, yes, “that” Switchfoot, would write one of my favorite records of 2026, I’d have laughed in your face.
But if the current state of everything has taught us anything, it’s that there are no rules anymore, and that anything is possible.
If you’re not familiar with Switchfoot, they got their start as an overtly Christian rock band in the mid 1990s, found their mainstream breakthrough on the soundtrack to the film A Walk to Remember (shout out Mandy Moore!), and then proceeded to release an album that defined the early 2000s for most evangelical Christian kids, The Beautiful Letdown.
I will admit, after that album, I completely stopped paying attention to Switchfoot. They kind of felt like the TV show that you outgrow. The one that you watched when you were a kid, but then one day you realize that you’re too old for.
They have continually released records, every 2-3 years since, and I have listened to approximately none of them. So I’m not even sure why I paid attention or clicked “play” on their most recent release, Forever Now (Apple Music / Spotify).
But for whatever reason, I found myself listening in my car the other day, and the third track on the album, Beautiful Life, took my breath away.
It is so simple. At its core, it is an honest confession of someone who is filled with doubt about a lot of things, but at the end of the day, recognizes that life is both bitter and sweet, and simply longs to consistently recognize how beautiful and precious his life is.
And isn’t that the message we all need? That even when life gets insane, in the midst of all of the social media comparison, most of us still have a pretty okay life?
As I sat in my car in the parking lot of my favorite coffee shop listening to the lyrics, I found myself rewinding the track and listening to the bridge over and over again:
“Remember this
That you’re never alone in the fight
Remember this
In the darkness, there’s always a light
Remember this
That you’re never alone
Love is the voice that’s guiding you home
Remember this
Don’t run from the fight
Here comes that morning light”
After which he launches into the chorus, which has become burned into my brain forever:
“Open my eyes to see
It’s a beautiful life
It’s a beautiful life
Ain’t it bitter and sweet?
It’s a beautiful life
It’s a beautiful life
I’m still learning to breathe
I don’t have what I want
But I have what I need
Open my eyes to see
I don’t have what I want
But I have what I need”
I don’t know about you, but I spend so much of my life feeling sorry for myself about the things that I don’t have. My house isn’t big enough, my job doesn’t pay enough, my body doesn’t look the way I want, my vacations aren’t tropical enough.
I don’t have what I want.
But the truth is, when I lay my head down at night, I’m laying it down in a bed with a partner that loves me. In a house that is warm. In a home with kids that are healthy, bills that are paid, and a job that is stable and that I love (mostly).
I may not have what I want, but I sure as hell have what I need.
And how many people can say that?