Lyrics Page

Wonderful Life

By Matthew West

588 views Sep 14, 2026 updated My Story Your Glory album Verified editorial review

Song Meaning

Matthew West builds this song around a real phone call from a man named Ron, three years into fighting ALS, who tells him: "this life ain't always wonderful, but what a wonderful life it's been." That line becomes the whole song's argument — not denial of suffering, but refusal to let suffering be the only word spoken over a life.

West keeps naming the contradictions instead of smoothing them over: "a mountain and a valley... a cradle and a grave... a blessing and a battle." By the final verse, Ron has died, and West sits with that loss directly — "I sat and cried and thought about the words I heard him say" — before repeating Ron's own hope back as his own: "this life ain't always wonderful, but this life ain't all there is."

Jesus tells his followers in John 16:33 that they'll have trouble in this world but can take heart because he has overcome it, and Revelation 21:4 promises a place where God "will wipe every tear" and there's "no more death or mourning." West doesn't resolve the tension so much as trust it — heartbreak and happiness both real, and neither one the final word.

Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team

[Verse 1]

Ron from Houston, Texas

Spent three years fightin' ALS

If you knew all that he's been through

You'd hardly say he's blessed

But smilin' through a phone call

He said "Let me tell you, friend

This life ain't always wonderful

But what a wonderful life it's been"


[Chorus]

It'll send you flyin' high

It'll bring you to your knees

It's the heartbreak and the happiness

And everything between

It's the laugh until it hurts

It's the hurt until you cry

Can't have one without the other

It's how you know that you're alive

In this broken and beautiful

Gone mad and magical

Awfully wonderful life


[Verse 2]

It's a mountain and a valley

It's a cradle and a grave

It's a blessing and a battle

And it's on any given day

It's messy and imperfect

It's a thief and it's a gift

Yeah, this life ain't always wonderful

But what a wonderful life it is


[Chorus]

It'll send you flyin' high

It'll bring you to your knees

It's the heartbreak and the happiness

And everything between

It's the laugh until it hurts

It's the hurt until you cry

Can't have one without the other

It's how you know that you're alive

In this broken and beautiful

Gone mad and magical

Awfully wonderful life


[Verse 3]

This wonderful life

It's a wonderful life


[Verse 4]

Ron went home to Jesus

Got the call the other day

I sat and cried and thought about

The words I heard him say

I know there is a Heaven

Waitin' for us after this

This life ain't always wonderful

But this life ain't all there is

No, this life ain't always wonderful

But this life ain't all there is


[Verse 5]

So let it send you flyin' high

Let it bring me to my knees

Bring the heartbreak and the happiness

And everything between

Let me laugh until it hurts

Let me hurt until I cry

And when it comes my time to go

I'll smile and wave goodbye

To this broken and beautiful

Gone mad and magical

Awfully wonderful life


[Verse 6]

It's a broken and beautiful

Gone mad and magical

Awfully wonderful life

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