Whatever It Takes: A Love Letter to My Favorite Song

Imagine Dragons, if you're reading this, thank you for ruining my life (complimentary).

Content Warning: This post includes mentions and discussions of the intersection of the author's personal Christian faith and chronic illness, as well as frank discussions of mortality and death.

Do you ever have that one song that makes you feel something no matter when you turn it on? Sometimes it makes you cry, sometimes it hypes you up, and sometimes it makes you sit and think about the years that have gone by since you first heard it?

Believe it or not, that song, for me, is an Imagine Dragons bop. And make no mistake, it is a bop.

When I first heard "Whatever It Takes," a single off of the band's third studio album Evolve, something in my brain clicked in a way few things do. Part of the bridge, in particular, made me think of two things: my chronic illnesses and my faith

As a Christian, I believe that there is a life after death where I won't suffer, where my body won't be a thing I drag around with me because I have to, but rather something that brings me joy and is comfortable to live in for a change. As such, I don't have what many people consider a "normal" fear of death; while I'm afraid of the concept of dying, I'm confident in what's waiting for me on the other side.

But that approach isn't necessarily mainstream. So when I first heard these lyrics, my ears perked up. I listened. Then I rewound the song and listened again. And then I added it to two playlists: my manuscript playlist and my "Songs That Aren't Worship Songs But I Worship To Them Anyway" playlist.

Because here's the thing: that's my prayer right there. I want to make something that reminds people there's more to the world outside their own lived experiences and perspectives, and I also want to tell stories that make people feel seen, heard, and understood. As long as I do that, I'll go to the grave a happy little gremlin.

(But don't worry, that's likely not going to happen for many decades. Lord willing and knock on wood.)

This song is one of the only songs I added to the playlist for the manuscript I'm querying without internally associating it with an element of the story or characters in mind. This song has very little to do with the content of the manuscript I'm querying, but it has a lot to do with why I wrote it. And hopefully one day it'll get a feature in my acknowledgments. That would be kinda cool.

Regardless of anything, I'm still going to rock out and cry to this song whenever it comes up on shuffle, and I did get unreasonably hyped up when they played it during their recent concert in Minneapolis. I play it every time I get a manuscript request and every time I get a full rejection – because sometimes I just need the reminder.

And, as I said at the beginning, it is a bop.

Whatever it takes,

Amanda