Switchfoot - Meant to Live - Lyrics Meaning

Meant to Live was a single released on Switchfoot's 2003 The Beautiful Letdown album. The song peaked at number eighteen in the US and twenty-nine in the United Kingdom. The track talks about a person fumbling through life making mistakes and feeling empty. The song touches on the deep rooted question all humanity has about one's purpose and plan for life. The group has Christian roots as they are referencing God in the lyrics. The band sings out that the human race is selling itself short by not finding meaning in life through God.

The longing to understand what life is about as well as the source of life goes to the deepest part of soul. The lyrics cry out the heart of humanity that wants to experience more than what the world has to offer. The band asks the question that maybe the majority of people are living in blindness and missing the real meaning of life and only seeing part of the picture. The purpose is to get people to ponder these topics and make them personal for their own experiences thus far. The lyrics were inspired by the poem T.S. Eliot wrote called Hollow Men. The song was featured on the Spiderman 2 soundtrack.