Why'd you have to go make things complicated?

I invite all of you to live in my head space for a little bit. It’s very unconventional.

Maybe a little scary at times, but it’s always entertaining. I tend to look at things differently than most people. I utilize this weirdness to try to strengthen my relationship with God through ordinary things.

It is easy for us to sit with God on a Sunday morning, or even a Wednesday evening. It is easy to have that relationship when we are inside the four walls of a church.

For some, it is easy to find that gift in nature. Sitting in God’s creation, awe inspired knowing that the God of the universe that created everything still had time to create me.

But what about other things? One thing I have really tried to find God in is music. Music is therapeutic. And I am not talking about Christian music (which I love by the way), I am talking about secular music. Music that the artist probably created while not thinking about their relationship with God.

When we read the Bible, there are different ways of interpretation you can look at. Do you read it from the author’s perspective and how the events of the time affected them and others. Or you can read it more from your perspective. How does this affect me now in this moment. How is this speaking to me? You can do the same thing with music.

This is where it gets good. I may be speaking directly to my generation here when I bring up the song Complicated by Avril Lavigne. It was released in 2002 on her album Let Go.

And it is a certified banger! I can feel the collective nod of all my fellow 90’s-00’s punk rockers. I would assume some of you even wore the signature white tee with a loose ugly tie you took from your dad’s dresser. It’s OK to admit it. You were cool then, and you’re cool now, too.

Anyway, I like to look at the lyrics of this song as God speaking to us. If you put these words in a different medium, or if you didn’t know if these words were a pop-punk song, you could see it as a call from God to figure your life out. To quit trying to impress people by being someone you are not.

We need to remember that God chose us and loves us just the way we are. We aren’t meant to fit a certain mold or think a certain way.

And we aren’t to judge and insist that others fit our vision of a good Christian either. If God can love us the way we are, why can’t we do the same to others? Why do we feel the need to make things so complicated? Why do we need to muddy the waters? It’s time for us to just love our neighbor and love God.

I will leave you with the lyrics to the first verse and chorus of Complicated. What will you pull from it? I hope it finds your soul. Give it to God; and let God do the work.

Chill out, what you yellin’ for?
Lay back, it’s all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You would see
I like you the way you are
When we’re drivin’; in your car
And you’re talkin’ to me one-on-one
But you’ve become...
Somebody else ‘round everyone else
You’re watchin’ your back like you can’t relax
You’re tryin’ to be cool
You look like a fool to me
Tell me
Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?
I see the way you’re actin’ like you’re somebody else
Gets me frustrated
Life’s like this
You, and you fall and you crawl and you break
And you take what you get and you turn it into honesty
You promised me I’m never gonna find you fake it
No, no, no