easier than Love

Monday I wrote about how easy it is to hold on to things, to people, to situations.  In keeping with things being "easy" (and as a little preview to my next blog...) I figured I would feature this awesome song that I kept playing over and over as I drove through Kansas on my way to Tulsa, OK to take my brother to college this past week:

Song: Easier Than Love
Arists: Switchfoot
Lyrics:
Sex is currency
She sells cars,
She sells magazines
Addictive bittersweet, clap your hands,
with the hopeless nicotines

Everyone's a lost romantic,
Since our love became a kissing show
Everyone's a Casanova,
Come and pass me the mistletoe

Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone

She is easier than love
Is easier than life
It's easier to fake and smile and bribe

It's easier to leave
It's easier to lie
It's harder to face ourselves at night
Feeling alone,
What have we done?
What is the monster we've become?

Where is my soul?

Numb

Sex is industry,
The CEO, of corporate policy
Skin-deep ministry,
Suburban youth, hail your so-called liberty

Every advertising antic,
Our banner waves with a neon glow
War and love become pedantic,
We wage love with a mistletoe

Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone

She is easier than love
Is easier than life
It's easier to fake and smile and bribe

It's easier to leave
It's easier to lie
It's harder to face ourselves at night
Feeling alone,
What have we done?
What is the monster we've become?

Where is my soul?

Ah, la, la, la, la,
(Yeah!)
La la la la la la la, (2x)

It's easier to love,
It's easier to love (2x)

She is easier than love,
It's easier to love

Everyone's been scared to death of,
Everyone's been scared to death of,
Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone,
alone

Sex is easier than love,
It's easier than love,
It's easier to fake and smile and brag

It's easier to leave,
It's easier to lie,
It's harder to face ourselves at night
Feeling alone,
What have we done?
What is the monster we've become?

Where is my soul? (Where is my?)
Where is my soul?

Goodness!  I listened to this song on the road and thought, "this would make a really good song of the week" and now I sit here and listen to it again and it just gets me so EXCITED!  For one, this song quite literally rocks, its got a loud beat that just gets you jazzed up and makes you want to dance around like a fool.  Its one of those songs that I love to listen to when driving, when I want to dance, its a song that I think would be awesome without the words.  But there are words, and what wonderful words they are!

Think about it: sex is currency.  Sex sells, or so the ad agencies tell us.  Sex sells cars, clothing, colognes and perfumes, sex sells dating websites, TV shows, there are very few things that sex doesn't sell (watch any amount of commercials on TV and I can basically guarantee you'll see what I'm talking about).  Its addictive, its bittersweet, and as the next lyric says, its hopeless.

Everyone is a lost romantic because our culture has become so sex saturated, we see it seemingly everywhere and we become acutely aware of what we don't have that everyone else seems to have.  Pass the mistletoe so I can have what you have.  Its ridiculous!  Everyone's been scared to death of dying here alone so we throw ourselves at anyone and everyone so that, even if its only for a few hours or even minutes, we aren't alone.  (How much better off would we be if we paused and threw ourselves at Jesus, for with Him we are never alone?)

The chorus.  Brilliant.  "She" is easier than love.  She might be that drunken girl in a bar.  She might be you, she might be me.  She might be that cheap hook-up.  She might those seductive glances flashed back and forth at a restaurant.  She might be anything.  But "she", whatever or whoever "she" might be is easier than love.  Love is hard.  Don't believe me?  Look at Jesus hanging on the cross, google any image of the crucifixion and you'll see just how hard love is.  How many cliches are out there about hard things, about waiting?
Good things come to those who wait.
The waiting is the hardest part.
Nothing worth having ever comes easy.
Nothing worth having ever comes without effort.
I'm sure you could think of loads more, but they are all over the place!  So, do you want something easy or do you want something worthwhile?

Its easier to leave, its easier to lie, its easier to fake and smile and bribe.  Isn't it though?  We all know how easy it is to walk away, to get in a fight and just leave instead of working through the problem.  Its easier to lie and make yourself look good rather than reveal the truth and look bad.  Its easier to fake it, to smile and make believe that everything is okay.  Its easy.  But its harder to face ourselves at night, when the lights go down and we are left with ourselves.  What have we done?  What is the monster we've become?  We've created an "easy" monster instead of creating love.  Where is my soul?  Lost in easy-land.

Then, towards the end of the song Switchfoot changes the chorus a bit, instead of "she" sex is easier than love.  Sex is easier than life (and believe you me, all too often our culture believes that sex is easier than actually being open to life).  Sex is easy, real love is hard.  Sex (I would imagine) is easier to fake (goodness knows its all over the movies and magazines...I'm thinking of the movie "Easy A" in particular!), its easier to brag.  Besides, in our culture, in our time who brags about being a virgin?  Not many people I know.  But I'll ask the question again, do we want something easy or do we want something worthwhile, something eternal, something safe, constant and everlasting?  Something real, something true, something meaningful?  I don't know about you, but I want something worthwhile, something lasting.  Sex may be easy, but love is worth waiting for.  What is the monster we've become?  Where is my soul?  Where is your soul?  I pray its lost in the everlasting love of Jesus.

AMEN.