Top Ten Songs by Jars of Clay
“Love Song for a Savior” is pretty self-explanatory; it is a love song to God. Sometimes we get so caught up in things like going to church and witnessing to people that we forget to just love God. This song reminds us of that. In the choruses Jars of Clay explain how great God is and then the very simple chorus just continually repeats “I want to fall in love with you.”
9. Faith Like a Child
As the title suggests, this song is all about faith. There is a passage in Mark 10:13 – 16 that goes hand in hand with the meaning of this song. Children are brought to Jesus so that they might be able to touch him but others around them rebuke the children. Jesus is displeased with the others and says “I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” When a child is very small he doesn’t know much about this earth, one of the few things he knows is that his parents love him and will do what’s best for him so they blindly follow their parents because they have faith in them, which is the kind of faith we should have.
8. Amazing Grace
First of all, this isn’t a remake of the popular hymn that everyone and their brother have recorded, however it’s close. Jars of Clay’s song “Amazing Grace” is a little more “old school” than most of their songs, it’s more like a southern gospel song or a hymn than it is a pop or rock song. The topic though is the same as the Amazing Grace song we all know and love.
7. My Heavenly
Jars of Clay seem to end every album with a ballad and they continued that trend on their album Who We Are Instead with “My Heavenly”. In this ballad it sounds like the Jars of Clay is saying that they know they belong in Heaven, and that they are longing for the day when they get there, but for now they have to wait until Jesus comes again.
6. Liquid
“Liquid” was first released on Jars of Clay’s debut album Jars of Clay. When I first heard it I honestly wasn’t a huge fan of the song. But when it was re-released on their album Furthermore I fell in love with this song. “Liquid” is a depiction of Christ’s death from the crown of thorns to the crucifixion. The chorus to “Liquid” is one very simple line; “this is the one thing that I know.” The one thing that Jars of Clay is talking about is that “He didn’t die for nothing”.
5. Jealous Kind
I have a feeling that not everyone will love this song because of the world’s view on the word “jealous” being a negative term. Jealousy certainly isn’t a trait we think of when describing God but that’s what is being said in Jars of Clay’s “Jealous Kind”. A lot of times man will choose to love other worldly things like money, lust, fame, or power, instead of loving God. God is very jealous that we would choose other things over him, not because he can’t live without us or because he’s immature. I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that jealousy and envy are two different things. Envy is just wanting something, but by definition jealousy is wanting something that rightfully belongs to you and our love rightfully belongs to God and nothing else.
4. Flood
“Flood” might not be the best song on this list, but it’s certainly the most important and maybe the most important Christian song of the past 15 years. When I was in high school Christian music was considered dull, that is until “Flood” hit the airwaves. Suddenly “Flood” became a huge hit, not only on the Christian charts but was a surprise hit on the mainstream charts. Jars of Clay became such a hit that they even toured a while with Sting and Matchbox Twenty. “Flood” did for Christian music what “Smells Like Teen Spirit” did for Grunge; it put Christian rock on the map which opened the doors for all of my favorite musicians.
3. Only Alive
“Only Alive” is also from the Who We are Instead album. The lyrics of “Only Alive” are pretty easy to grasp. The theme of the song is that a person’s life is pretty boring and meaningless when he is on his own. It’s only when God is in his life that one can truly be alive.
2. Sing
A lot of people compare “Sing” from Jars of Clay’s Who We Are Instead album to “Love Song for a Savior” from their Jars of Clay album. I can see how people would say that because basically “Sing” is a love song to God, in fact the lead singer says throughout the song that “you make me want to sing another love song to you.” My favorite part of the song comes when Dan sings “I walk through the flame, I touch the fire but I still burn for you. Flood, water, rain, crash down soak the ground, still I thirst for you.” Basically what is being said is that their love for God is so great that they can never get enough.
1. Worlds Apart
“Worlds Apart” is my favorite Jars of Clay song and one of my favorite songs by anyone. It has a very powerful meaning. The theme is about sin and how nobody is to be blamed but ourselves. Dan in this song is confessing all his faults and asking for forgiveness asking God to break him and tear his world apart in order to have a new life.
