Living Is Simple

all quotes from Jon Foreman-

"The crazy circumstances around recording matched the context of the song exactly. The song is trying to express the tension between the amazing complexity of a life of grace and the simple faith to which we are called. The first verse is tongue in cheek; entropy and gravity represent the tougher aspects of life. And the life of a human is so much more complex than breathing."

"In the contrast to the turmoil in the first verse we hear an angelic, churchy choir singing that "All shall be made well." Is this fiction? Could it be that our frantic, fallen world a simple salvation has come?"

"We wanted to produce the song in a way that matched the content: busy and complex moments standing juxtaposed against the simpler, naked parts. The end is the same: simple melodies breaking down and falling apart and getting distorted until... ahhhh! a simple chord to end it. The footsteps are to signify completion. This was the last song recorded for the project and we knew that it was going to be the last one on the CD so we gave the whole thing a bit of closure."

Living is dying

Perhaps rising at 6am. Perhaps water not coffee! Perhaps parking beside the road rather than beside the buggies. Perhaps........walking towards with eye contact. Perhpas speaking louder.

^ great quotes.

i sometimes get mad at this song's idea: living is SIMPLE?! what? cause for most people living's pretty complicated.. then you think about it and well "breathing is easy, it's easy to do" literally.. but overall "Your mercy is how I believe" that living is simple.

What do you think "hope has given him the worst" means? Im having trouble figuring it out.

These are just my thoughts :)

"Living is simple It's gravity Gravity isn't so hard"

Gravity is a natural law. It keeps us from floating off to space. It also keeps us down. Literally, gravity isn't so hard because everyday we are affected by it, yet we don't notice until our Science class discussion of it. Gravity here, can also represent the moral laws that are imposed on us. It can also refer to the things we face that bring us down, make us fall, like Newton's apple. These laws and these problems kind of become too hard for us as we live life. But gravity makes life simple by keeping us from making wrong decisions (moral laws), and keeping us down-to-earth (in the form of adversity, problems).

"Living is simple It's entropy, entropy Falling apart I'm falling apart again"

Entropy, in science, is a measure of the degree of disorder of a system. The higher the entropy, the more irreversible the system is, the more disorganized. Chaos, you may call it. Entropy is a simple truth of life. Just look at the world. It started out very simple, and now it's a labyrinth of relativism, of new technology, of diverse cultures and norms. The people are very much in a state of disorder, and it seems like this is irreversible. The system is falling apart. Even our bodies, as we get older, fall apart. It's complex to see all of these, but entropy is simple.

"Living is simple And breathing is easy, it's easy to do Living is simple And losing is easy; I'm losing my cool I'm losing my cool again"

Breathing is almost as simple as gravity. We don't notice but we breathe continuously. Losing is easy because the truth is, we don't make efforts to lose. Who would ever fight to lose? If you knew you'd lose, you wouldn't invest in something at all. Success or victory comes with difficulty. Looking at life, there are more losers than winners. Losing one's cool may mean how easier it is to lose your temper than practice patience, how easier it is to lose your sanity than keep it together. It's similar to entropy.

"All will be made well Will be made well Will be made well Will be well"

This, I believe, is from Julian of Norwich. In the face of gravity, entropy, breathing, and losing, there's a hope that everything will be made well, that entropy and losing may turn out as good things after all, that we don't have to be weary of gravity and breathing.

"Is this fiction? Is this fiction? Hope has given himself to the worst"

Fiction is something not thought to be true. Something thought of as made up, unusual, odd. We are used to good things, like hope, being reserved for the good. The good things, like forgiveness and second chances, given to the worst of people is something unusual, odd, even irrational. So the question.

"Is this fiction or divine comedy? Where the last of the last finish first"

Here, divine comedy may mean "God, are you kidding? How could the last of the last finish first?" How could someone so evil be forgiven and given hope, but someone who had lived right since childhood fall short?" Again, our notion of 'who strives the longest and who fights the hardest wins' is opposed. It's why grace defies the law and is above it.

"Living is dying Your mercy, Your mercy is how I believe Living is dying I can't understand it I'm down on my knees confessing my needs again"

This is my favorite part. Living is dying. To me it means that the only way to truly live is to die. It's not literally to die, like right now. It means choosing to give up our lives for something we can't lose even after we die. And what is that? Our souls (don't be scared). Another illustration of this is the requirement that a seed 'dies' when it is buried in the ground before it germinates and really produces life. God's mercy is this: He made a Way for us to die to the gravity and entropy of our lives, and to live again to 'real breathing', by means of losing. Embracing His grace through Christ, despite of all the mess and disorder in our lives, brings us real life. Our old selfish selves die, and we become new people. We are those at the end of the line in good deeds, but in His divine comedy called grace, we finish first. It's why grace is like life. It's both simple and complex. It's something we don't deserve but is given to us for free. The real funny thing is, most of us don't want it. We don't see how life (gravity, entropy, breathing, losing) can turn around with grace making things well. Personally, at times I don't understand it, but all I did was go down on my knees (literally) and confess that I'm in dire need of it. (I told you this is my favorite part).

"I've had my choices I've chosen today I've had my choices Choices remain"

This is the simplicity of living. It's about the choices we make. We can't blame the stars, our parents, our neighbors, the government, and even nature, for the choices we make. Choices remain because our choices directly affect our lives. So it's down to how we choose to live our lives. Living is as simple as the choices we make.

Thanks for the explanation leictln .. it was really useful