Bono on God

The following is a ten part series of Bono talking with Bill Hybels at the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summitt about his faith, about God, Jesus, the change in his life, and about love. Each part is around 5 minutes long.

Here is Part 1

Watch Part 2
“We believe that the poor deserve an honorable place at the table. They deserve the head of the table is how God would see things.”

Watch Part 3
“Duality is the mark of a lot of great art. It’s one of the things missing, for instance, in Christian art, because there’s no tension.”

Watch Part 4
“I am so fascinated by the idea of the Child being born in straw poverty. To me there is a poetic power to that. It is a remarkable story, the Christmas story, and it never fails to amaze me.”

Watch Part 5
“What else are you going to do with this thing called celebrity. I mean it’s ridiculous. It positively upends Gods order of things. Why would a filmstar or a rockstar or a sports star be more important than a nurse, or a fireman or a mother? It’s actually ridiculous. But hey it’s currency, and I decided I was going to spend mine.”

Watch Part 6
“The church has historically always been behind the curve. It’s amazing to me. In civil rights, in fighting against the rascism in the 60′s and the 50′s in South the United States, and Apartheid in Africa.”

Watch Part 7
(Part 7 seems to be identical to Part 6)

Watch Part 8
“Love thy neighbor is not advice. It’s a command. And who is our neighbor in the global village? Can an accident of longitude and latitude really decide whether you live or whether you die? In the global community, in a globalized world, can you say because that’s happening over there it’s not really my concern? Well you can’t if you’re a Christian. You cannot.”

Watch Part 9
“Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Find out what God is doing because it’s already blessed.”

“A lot of people are happy with pie in the sky when they die. But I don’t think that is our purpose. Our purpose is to bring Heaven to earth in the micro, as well as the macro. In every detail of our lives we should be trying to bring Heaven to earth.”

Watch Part 10

I like love Bono.

Filed under: Bill Hybels, Bono, Faith, God, Grace, Jesus, Life, Love, MLK, Music, ONE Campaign, Politics, Poverty, Religion, Social Justice, U2, Willow Creek

Wave of Sorrow

U2’s Joshua Tree album still has to be one of the best albums of all time. You listen to it today and it’s still musically and lyrically better than 99.9% of what’s on the radio.

And on November 20, they will be releasing a 2-CD remastered, deluxe edition of The Joshua Tree. The deluxe package comprises The Joshua Tree CD, and a bonus audio CD that features b-sides and rarities from the Joshua Tree sessions. The deluxe edition also includes a 36 page bound book, featuring liner notes by Bill Flanagan with a special essay by The Edge, previously unseen photos by Anton Corbijn, and handwritten lyrics by Bono.

Included in the goodness, is this bonus track called Wave of Sorrow. It was one of the songs from the Joshua Tree sessions that they never finished. It was inspired by Bonos experience in Ethiopia during the famine. Bono listens and sings along with us, describing the origins of the song. It’s cool to see how excited he gets about the track.

Blessed are the meek who scratch in the dirt
For they shall inherit what’s left in the earth

Blessed are the kings who’ve left their thrones,
They are buried in this valley of dry bones.

Blessed are you with an empty heart,
For you’ve got nothing for which you cannot part.

Blessed is the ego, it’s all we’ve got this hour,

Blessed is the voice that speaks truth to power.

Blessed is the sex worker who sold her body tonight.
She had to use what she’s got to save her children’s lives.

Blessed are the deaf who cannot hear a scream,

Blessed are the stupid who can dream.

Blessed are the tin-canned cardboard slums, and

Blessed is the Spirit that overcomes.

Filed under: Africa, Bono, Joshua Tree, Lyrics, Music, U2

40

Artist: U2
Album: War

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long…how long…how long…
How long…to sing this song

He set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see
Many will see and fear

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long…how long…how long…

“40″ became the closing song at U2 shows, and on hundreds of occasions, literally hundreds of thousands of people of every size and shape of T-shirt have shouted back the refrain, pinched from Psalm 6: “How long (to sing this song).” I had thought of it as a nagging question, pulling at the hem of an invisible deity whose presence we glimpse only when we act in love. How long hunger? How long hatred? How long until creation grows up and the chaos of its precocious, hell-bent adolescence has been discarded? I thought it odd that the vocalising of such questions could bring such comfort — to me, too. —Bono

Filed under: Bono, Lyrics, U2