I (Kristin) have been wanting to make this post for some time now.
I know of two songs which have similar titles but which take totally different approaches to a similar subject matter. The songs are “Welcome to the Planet (Dare You to Move)” by Switchfoot and “Welcome to My Life” by Simple Plan.
A condensed version of the lyrics from “Welcome to the Planet” is as follows:
Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone’s here
Everybody’s watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
What happens next?
[Chorus:]
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
Below is a sample of the lyrics from “Welcome to My Life” by Simple Plan:
Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don’t belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming
No you don’t know what it’s like
When nothing feels all right
You don’t know what it’s like
To be like me
[Chorus]
To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you’re down
To feel like you’ve been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one’s there to save you
No you don’t know what it’s like
Welcome to my life
Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more?
Before your life is over
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you’re bleeding
No one ever lied straight to your face
And no one ever stabbed you in the back
You might think I’m happy but I’m not gonna be okay
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
You never had to work it was always there
You don’t know what it’s like, what it’s like
Both songs appear to address difficult times in life, times when you’ve been ‘knocked down’, so to speak. But whereas Switchfoot challenges you to “pick yourself up”, Simple Plan nurses feelings of self-pity, anger, envy, and bitterness.
“Welcome to My Life”, as the title clearly suggests, takes a self-centered focus. This is all about me: my pain, my feelings of rejection, my struggles. “You”, on the other hand, are the object of the singer’s finger-pointing, as if you are to blame for all of his pain simply because you supposedly haven’t experienced a similar emotional crisis.
Switchfoot, on the other hand, goes deeper than reactionary feelings in response to difficult circumstances. Instead of offering a glorified pity party, the singer challenges us to move on as if “today never happened”. True, the world is full of resistance and tension; it’s not how it should be. But at the same time, Switchfoot recognizes that we are not who we should be. Part of the problem (and part of the solution) lies with us.
As these two songs illustrate, we all have a choice to make in response to the events and circumstances we face. We can either become self-absorbed, dwelling on our own feelings of pain and bitterness and blaming others for all of our problems, or we can pick ourselves up, put the past behind us, and move on.
We have to recognize that we cannot escape from ourselves. Like all human beings, we have a sin nature, and no matter where we go we will bring that sin nature with us. This sin nature will always bring us into conflict with others. But we can forgive, and we can be forgiven.
Furthermore, we can ask God for help. When faced with the pain and rejection Simple Plan talks about, we can pray for courage to face the trial, perseverance to make it through, and for the strength of character to forgive those who have inflicted pain. And beyond that, we can ask for the Holy Spirit’s refining of our character such that we ourselves become the sort of people who pick others up instead of knocking them down.
Grace and peace,
Kristin