10 (additional) spiritual lessons from U2

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been reading “We Get to Carry Each Other – The Gospel According to U2.” A great read from Greg Garrett (who also wrote “Stories from the Edge – A Theology of Grief).

As a closing section in the book, Greg shares 10 spiritual lessons we can learn from U2.

I thought I’d share an additional 10 that I’ve learned along my journey as well. So here they are, in no particular order…

1. Wake Up Dead Man

   Jesus, Jesus help me / I’m alone in this world / And a fucked-up world it is too… / Wake up, wake up dead man / Wake up, wake up dead man. / Jesus, I’m waiting here, boss / I know you’re looking out for us / But maybe your hands aren’t free.

   It’s OK to question God. It’s OK to admit you feel alone, scared and that you’re not even sure God is out there. Just look at the Psalmist and Job. Look at the first chapter of Habakkuk.

   “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” Habakkuk 1:2-4

   From Scripture we can see that obviously it’s OK to question God and ask “Where are you? Why are you hiding from me? What in the world are you doing (or not doing)?”

   I love the quote from Bono that Greg makes note of in the book, “You can’t be having an argument with God if you don’t believe there is one.”

   Questioning God helps us wrestle and ultimately draws us closer. So keep wrestling. Keep questioning.

2. Stand Up Comedy

   Stand up, this is comedy / The DNA lottery may have left you smart / But can you stand up to beauty, dictator of the heart / I can stand up for hope, faith, love / But while I’m getting over certainty / Stop helping God across the road like a little old lady

   As soon as you think you’ve got God figured out, get over yourself. Think you’ve got the perfect box to put God in? Get over yourself.

   “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. Isaiah 55:8

3. Yahweh

   Take these hands / Teach them what to carry / Take these hands / Don’t make a fist / Take this mouth
   So quick to criticise / Take this mouth / Give it a kiss / Yahweh, Yahweh / Always pain before a child is born
   Yahewh, Yahweh / Still I’m waiting for the dawn

   God is in the business of transforming things and bringing creation back to him! And there might be some pain involved, but “Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.” (Henry Rollins)

4. Get On Your Boots

   Here’s where we gotta be / Love and community / Laughter is eternity / If joy is real

   We’re made to live in community. We’re made to love one another. We GET to carry each other!

5. Rejoice

   And what am I to do? / Just tell me what am I supposed to say? / I can’t change the world / But I can change the world in me / Rejoice. / Rejoice.

   Sometimes, to change the world, we have to change ourselves. We have recognize that we need changing before we expect everyone else to change. We must BE the change we want to see.

6. Bullet the Blue Sky

   And I can see those fighter planes / And I can see those fighter planes / Across the tin huts as children sleep / Through the alleys of a quiet city street. / Up the staircase to the first floor / We turn the key and slowly unlock the door / As a man breathes into his saxophone / And through the walls you hear the city groan. / Outside, is America / Outside, is America / America…. Howlin’ the women and children / Who run into the arms / Of America.

   So often we misplace our trust in the things of men. In leaders, in flags, in countries and democracy. Yet all of the above (even the beloved democracy) seeks to serve itself.

   Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20:7

   Or as Derek Webb has put it, “My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood. It’s to a King & a Kingdom.”

7. Breathe

   Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn / Every day I have to find the courage / To walk out into the street / With arms out / Got a love you can’t defeat

   Evidently we must be transformed and reborn each and every day. Our salvation experience and spiritual journey isn’t a one time deal, its a daily transformation, a daily renewing (continual) of our mind.

   Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

8. Falling at Your Feet

   Every eye closed by a bruise / Every player who just can’t lose / Every pop star howling abuse / Every drunk back on the booze / All falling at your feet… Teach me to surrender / Not my will but yours

   We must learn to surrender at His feet. Luke 7:36-50

9. Walk On

   You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been / A place that has to be believed to be seen / You could have flown away / A singing bird in an open cage / Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

   This song has far more than spiritual meaning to me. It was the song I was listening to the night before my sister Amy died. And it was also one of the last txt messages I sent her:

   And I know it aches / And your heart it breaks / And you can only take so much / Walk on, walk on

   At the time I sent it, none of us realized what was really going on with Amy’s heart or body. I sent it to be an encouragement as her blood pressure had been far higher than normal and causing horrible headaches. I didn’t realize the double meaning it would hold the next day after she suffered from cardiac arrest the next day.

   Since then the song has been a comfort, a place of peace, a place of reminding me that no matter how bad our hurts are — we can walk on. We know where we’re going. Home is where our heart is — its coming soon.

   Home, hard to know what it is if you’ve never had one / Home, I can’t say where it is but I know I’m going home

10. Grace

    What once was hurt / What once was friction / What left a mark / No longer stings / Because Grace makes beauty / Out of ugly things

    No list of mine could be complete without Grace. Can I just copy the whole song here?

    Grace is amazing. It covers the stain. It takes away the guilt, the hurt, the ugliness of each of us and turns it into something beautiful. If only we could learn to understand it better and in turn, offer that same grace to everyone around us. It’s truly a thought that changed the world.

So there you have it, my 10 additional spiritual lessons from U2. What did I miss? What did I leave out?
Are there other musicians and bands that offer similar spiritual lessons for you?

And be sure and listen to Greg’s interview on the podcast and share your thoughts about that as well.