[Verse 1]
We've been lost in a moment, future's outta focus
Stuck on a road that's going in circles
Exhausted and hopeless
Two sets of baggage, keeping two hearts captive
We've buried our skeletons, scared and embarrassed of what we'll find if we dig
[Chorus]
Loving through hard times
Is like walking through land mines
And now we gotta decide
If we're willing to pay the price
If we're gonna fight, can it be to hold on to each other?
If we're gonna lose, can it be that we choose to surrender?
Praying for a miracle
In the face of the impossible
Maybe we defy the odds
Knowing hope is never lost
It's always dark before the dawn
The dawn
The dawn
The dawn
[Verse 2]
In the beginning there were fireworks
Then resentment grew and turned into explosive words
The shrapnel of bitterness left
An infection and we keep pretending while it's getting worse
[Verse 3]
Defending our position in no condition to listen to the truth
So hard to face, we're so afraid
Of all the secrets we're keeping and taking to the grave
Even though we're going there either way
[Chorus]
If we're gonna fight, can it be to hold on to each other?
If we're gonna lose, can it be that we choose to surrender?
Praying for a miracle
In the face of the impossible
Maybe we defy the odds
Knowing hope is never lost
It's always dark before the dawn
The dawn
The dawn
The dawn
Loving through hard times
Is like walking through land mines
And now we gotta decide
If we're willing to pay the price
If we're gonna fight, can it be to hold on to each other?
If we're gonna lose, can it be that we choose to surrender?
Praying for a miracle
In the face of the impossible
Maybe we defy the odds
Knowing hope is never lost
It's always dark before the dawn
The dawn
The dawn
The dawn
[Verse 4]
The dawn
Before the dawn
Landmines (Before The Dawn)
Song Meaning
Ryan Stevenson names the danger in "Landmines (Before The Dawn)" precisely — not the absence of love but its accumulated damage: "two sets of baggage, keeping two hearts captive," secrets both people are "scared and embarrassed of what we'll find if we dig." The title image makes the risk concrete: loving through hard times isn't just difficult, it's the kind of difficult where one wrong step can cause real damage.
The chorus doesn't promise an easy resolution — "if we're gonna fight, can it be to hold on to each other, if we're gonna lose, can it be that we choose to surrender" reframes both possible outcomes around the same posture, refusing to let winning and losing be about defeating the other person. "Praying for a miracle in the face of the impossible" keeps the hope honest about how bad things actually are rather than minimizing the conflict to make faith easier.
The repeated "the dawn" outro, stretched out well past where the chorus ends, mirrors the song's own insistence that the waiting itself is part of the promise — dark before dawn isn't a detour from hope, it's the shape hope usually takes.