SONG-BY-SONG Album Description (featuring comments from vocalist Rob Beckley)

1. For the Love of the Game
The album opener, and title-track, is a heavy, fast anthemic track that celebrates giving all you’ve got and putting forth your best effort in the Christian life. The chorus challenges listeners, “Fight through the hurt / Fight through the pain / Without the ache / There is no gain / And we live our lives for the love of the game.” Rob Beckley says he drew inspiration for the song from several sources, including the Apostle Paul’s admonition to “run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Cor. 9:24) and from professional athletes’ absolute dedication to their sport. “Think of how a football player is constantly preparing. In the off-season, there’s training and preparation. There is never truly ‘time off’ from the game,” Rob observes. “As the Church, we need to put in the time and training to be everything that God has for us.” Finally, Rob hopes fans will be able to tell how much the members of Pillar love their work. “We love what we get to do. We get to say that we play rock ‘n’ roll for a living. We get to see people’s lives changed. We get to do something fun and encouraging and motivating and life-changing all at the same time.”

2. Turn It Up
Pillar’s tribute to Christian music. “Every lyric in that song is an album title or song title from another Christian band, with the exception of two lines. All in all, there are 34 bands represented in that song, bands whose songs have influenced us and impacted us,” Rob explains. Here’s an example of one line: “In the healing rain (Michael W. Smith) / There is beauty for pain (Superchic[k]) / But the scars remain (Disciple).” He also says, “In preparation for writing and recording For the Love of the Game, I listened to a whole lot of Christian music. Prior to Pillar, I didn’t know the Christian music world existed. Over the last year, I’ve fully come to understand just how well the Christian music world is established. In today’s music market, Christian bands are starting to set musical standards. Bands like Underoath, for example, are really making a huge impact on the music scene, and that is really cool to me. So, I’ve spent more time than ever listening to Christian music.” And, Rob notes, he’s proud to be a part of a genre that knows how to rock even as it delivers an eternally life-changing message of hope: “I want people to know that we are a Christian band. We love the fact of who we are. This is what we’re a part of. So don’t be ashamed of Christian music. Turn it up!”

3. Reckless Youth
“Reckless Youth” is a driving rocker that exhorts listeners to live recklessly – in the best sense of that word – in the way they express their faith. The initial inspiration, Rob says, came from a chapter of Mike Yaconelli’s book Dangerous Wonder called “Reckless Abandon.” Doing a bit more research, Rob found that one definition of the word reckless is “to act with disregard for consequence.” Applying that idea to our faith, Rob says this song is about “pursuing Christ without fear, not caring what people think but living your faith with disregard for consequence.” The chorus focuses on spiritual warfare, on facing our spiritual enemy with the ammunition that God has given us: “We are the fearless ones / We are the loaded guns / With nothing left to lose / We are the reckless youth / We are the chosen ones / We’ll never have to run.” “We have nothing to fear,” Rob says. “Our victory is already claimed, and we have all the spiritual ammunition we’ll ever need, but sometimes we don’t have the discipline to know how to use it.” That means surrendering our fear as we trust God with our battles and realizing, in Rob’s words, that “I am a follower of Christ, no matter what the consequences. That’s what it means to be a ‘reckless youth.’”

4. State of Emergency
“State of Emergency,” according to Rob, “is about missions. I wrote it with a couple of organizations specifically in mind: Invisible Children and The Hands and Feet Project.” This track is meant to remind people of the reality of so many who suffer around the world right now, and of our responsibility to reach out to them and be generous with the resources we have. It calls us out of self-absorption (“All our attention is directed to the mirror / We want to forget that people live in terror”) and asks how long we’re going to stay on the sidelines (“How long will we close our eyes to the youth / How long until we recognize the truth?”). “It’s a state of emergency,” says the chorus, “It’s time to see we need to take action.” Rob also notes that the financial responsibility for missions that previous generations took for granted is one that we need to own anew today. “Back in our elders’ generations, they gave diligently every month. It was just a part of who they were.”

5. Smiling Down
This heart-rending ballad finds a loved one in heaven singing words of encouragement and inspiration to family members left behind and still struggling with loss. “So next time you feel like crying,” the chorus says, “So next time you don’t feel like trying / Just remember I’ll be right here / Smiling down on you / ... Nothing ever will come between us / Now I’m holding onto the hand of Jesus.” The song was inspired by two families (the Abercrombies and the Clearys) both dealing with the tragic loss of children by clinging to God in faith. Rob says of one of these families, “They just worship God. They know that their son is with Jesus right now, and they know without a doubt that God is real. And that’s what they want other people to know. They want people to know that their son is with Jesus and that Jesus is alive. And when you’re around them, you just get pumped up by the infectious faith they have. This song was written from the perspective of their kids telling mom and dad, ‘You know, it’s OK. You don’t have to worry.’”

6. The Runaway
“The Runaway” challenges those who’re on the fence in their faith not to run away from God. It’s written from the perspective of a believing friend who’s trying to help them take the next step, even though they’re hesitant to do so. “Why you wanna run away?” the chorus asks. “I think maybe you should stay right here / And maybe you’ll appreciate / All that He’s done for you.” Rob comments, “This song is written as if I’m talking to one of my friends – maybe a young person from my church, maybe somebody at one of our concerts, or just someone struggling with faith – and I’m trying to encourage them to give God a chance as they struggle back and forth with life decisions. That’s ultimately what it’s about.”

7. Throwdown
This track is another dynamic rocker that focuses on the spiritual battle every believer needs to engage in fully. The time for preparation has passed (“Training day is over”), and now it’s time to meet our spiritual enemy head on: “Toe to toe, pound for pound / It’s time to step up / It’s time to throw it down / ... Face to face with the enemy / Giving in to you, I refuse / Somebody’s gotta win / And I don’t know how to lose.” “When it comes to the spiritual realm,” Rob says, “it’s a reality. As Christians, we may not feel like dwelling on it, but that doesn’t make it any less real. There’s a battle going on in the spiritual realm – it’s a straight-up, no-holds-barred, cutthroat fight. We can either choose to engage or choose to ignore it. And Satan wants us to ignore it, because the more we do, the better off he is. But anyone who ignores the battle is right where Satan wants them. But for those of us who are devout followers of Christ, we have to choose to step into battle every day.”

8. Get Back
Any believer who chooses to engage in the spiritual battle is bound to get knocked down from time to time. When that happens, the only thing to do is to “get back” up, as this song’s chorus says: “Get back on your feet / Get back in the fight / Get back in the ring / And get back in the light.” Rob says, “You’re going to face situations in your life on a daily basis that you have to make decisions about. Sometimes, you’re going to make bad decisions, and you’re going to fail. Sometimes, you’re going to get knocked down emotionally. Even if you get knocked down seven times, you’ve got to get right back up seven times and never fail to get back into it. Sometimes that will mean repenting of our bad decisions. It’s always a matter of seeking God and getting back into the fight.”

9. I Fade Away
This is a slower, more reflective track about forgetting ourselves in God’s presence when we finally let go of insisting on doing things our way. “As simple minded as it seems / there is only one place for me to be / And it’s right here on my knees / Seeing Your face / Your embrace / ... I can feel You / And I fade away from myself.” Rob says, “To me, this is a worship song. When I fade, God takes over. This song illustrates James 4:8: ‘Draw near to God, and He’ll draw near to you.’” Rob also says that this song is about learning to come to God with our problems instead of trying to figure it all out in our heads. “I can over-think things. But when I stop and just let God be God, when I stop and just look at Him, I don’t have to think or try to figure out everything. It’s not really that deep, man. It’s simple: God loves you. So this song is just about being close to God, stopping, finding some silence, finding some peace – a stand-still point in your life where you can focus on who God is, where you stop and say, ‘I can see Your face.’” This track also features supporting vocals from Sarah Anthony of the band The Letter Black (formerly known as Breaking the Silence).

10. Forever Starts Now
We may think that eternity starts when we get to heaven. But “Forever Starts Now” reminds us that, in Rob’s words, eternity “starts the moment you’re born.” The time to start focusing on eternal things, then, is not tomorrow, but today. “Can you tell me what you’re waiting for?” the chorus asks. “Tell me what you’re looking for / Waiting on forever / Forever starts now.” Rob says this song was inspired by a series at his church titled “30 Days to Live.” “That series really challenged us as a church to have an eternal focus instead of caving in to the day-to-day hustle, where we just wander through life without thinking about God or eternity.” And thinking about eternity means thinking about where you’re going to spend it. “When you put things in eternal focus, you either win or lose. It’s heaven or hell. It’s either hope or hell. And our hope is that Jesus is real, that He is who He says He is, and that by grace, through faith in Him, we will spend eternity in His presence. So with this song, we want people to stop and think about eternity. Our lives here on earth are just a blip on the radar. They’re a mist. They’re a vapor. And then we’re gone. It’s so brief, but we think, ‘We’ve got a whole life to live.’ Well, in comparison to eternity, our lives here are pretty short. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow. So, as the end of the song says, ‘The clock starts now.’ It’s kind of an abrupt ending to an encouraging album, but hopefully it will challenge those who are unsaved to consider Christ’s offer of salvation and remind those who do have a relationship with Jesus that eternity has already begun for all of us.”