I love music.  Hearing a certain song can suddenly take us back to a different time and place, remind us of someone we love, and completely change our mood.  Other songs can bring questions to our mind about life, love, God and what’s next.  Still others can help us answer those questions.  In short, I’m not sure there’s much that the right song at the right moment can’t do.  

I’ve put together a list of songs that I absolutely love because they have done all of the above for me at some point or another.  I get goosebumps every time I hear “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, partly because I’m obsessed with musical theater but also because it so perfectly expresses every parent’s prayer for a child to be spared any harm or hardship.  I get tears in my eyes when I hear “Sympathy” by the Goo Goo Dolls reminds me of some spiritual discussions I had with a good friend who passed away suddenly.  And “One Sweet World” by Dave Matthews Band is one of my favorite songs of all time because it’s about loving this beautiful world we live in and enjoying every minute of the time we have here.  

If you are so inclined, I invite you to put these songs into your Spotify when you’re feeling lost, enlightened, prayerful, or joyful. In the words of Victor Hugo, “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”

1.  What a Wonderful World – Louie Armstrong

2.  Bring Him Home – Les Miserables 

3.  Beautiful Things – Gungor

4.  Doubting Thomas – Nickel Creek

5.  I’m Not Who I Was – Brandon Heath

6.  Lean on Me – Bill Withers

7.  Stand by Me – Ben E. King

8.  One Sweet World – Dave Matthews Band

9.  High Tide or Low Tide – Jack Johnson & Ben Harper

10.  Box of Rain – The Grateful Dead

11.  In My Life – The Beatles

12.  Everybody Hurts – R.E.M.

13.  I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – U2

14.  Talk – Coldplay

15.  Sympathy – Goo Goo Dolls 

What are your favorite songs that speak to your soul?