Make It Make Sense
Jonathan McReynolds writes a prayer that doesn't resolve into an answer -- a gospel song that stays in the asking instead of rushing to the testimony.
By Song Reviews · October 11, 2026
Jonathan McReynolds writes a prayer that doesn't resolve into an answer -- a gospel song that stays in the asking instead of rushing to the testimony.
Most contemporary gospel singles follow a reliable shape: name the struggle in the verses, resolve it by the bridge, land on a declaration of faith restored. “Make It Make Sense,” released September 18, refuses that shape on purpose. The verses name specific, unresolved griefs – a friendship ended without explanation, a prayer that went unanswered in the way it was asked – and the chorus doesn’t convert that into triumph. It asks God to make it make sense and then, notably, doesn’t claim that he has.
McReynolds has built a career on exactly this kind of lyrical precision; his 2025 collaboration with Jamal Roberts, “Still (Live),” earned a 2026 Grammy nomination on the strength of similarly specific, unresolved writing rather than generic praise language. “Make It Make Sense” extends that instinct into genuinely uncomfortable territory for the genre – a gospel song willing to end on a question is rarer than it should be, given how much of lived faith is actually spent in that position.
The arrangement supports the restraint: a sparse piano-and-strings bed that never swells into the big full-band climax a resolution would call for, because the song isn’t offering one. 8.1/10 – a gospel song that trusts its listener enough to leave the prayer open.
Hero image: Jonathan McReynolds, 2018, by Sister Circle TV, licensed under CC BY 3.0.