My first real exposure to U2 was when I was about 15. The band had just released The Unforgettable Fire, and “Pride (In the Name of Love)” became the first U2 single to land on the United States’ Top 40. Not that I knew that in Colorado Springs; I didn’t get MTV, our Top 40 stations concentrated more on the Top 15, and no one in school was really talking about this odd band from Ireland. Remember, this was the age of Bruce Springsteen, Prince and Duran Duran. U2 was, I think, ahead of its time—at least for those of us in the Colorado foothills.
But late at night, I’d sometimes flip on the TV and watch, of all things, a Christian music video program. And more often than not, they’d play a video from U2: Bono, mullet in full bloom, belting out a song that didn’t sound Christian at all, but raw and powerful and sincere, punctuated by The Edge’s staccato, soaring guitar.
“This is Christian?” I thought to myself the first time I heard them.
It was amazing. Not just the music, which speaks for itself, but it got me thinking in a way that I’d not thought before.
In those insecure days of late junior high and early high school, I knew you could be a Christian and survive—if you took on just enough of the culture and stayed pretty quiet. I knew that you could have friends and keep your values, too. Some of my Christian friends made it look cool, even.
But U2 wasn’t quiet. The band wasn’t following culture, it was leading it—in a way that I could barely grasp then.
Bono didn’t make Christianity cool. Bono was Christian—and the cool was beside the point. He didn’t seem like he was trying to fit in. He wasn’t trying to spread a veneer of ’80s hip to an age-old faith. He seemed absolutely, supremely himself—singing of faith and love and huge issues without seeming to worry at all what people might think or say.
I’ve been a fan of U2 ever since.
Today, Focus on the Family is airing a conversation between U2’s Bono and Focus president Jim Daly. And while some Christians may quibble with a few of Bono’s actions or even question his faith, he still sounds in the interview like that idealistic, charismatic, other-focused man that I saw on a late-night video show oh so many years ago.
Bono has become one of the 21st century’s most generous, charismatic philanthropists—and he talks quite a bit about the heart and faith behind it (you can download the broadcast here). Bono’s philanthropic drive fits really well with Daly’s emphasis on “orthopraxy” at Focus—show people God’s love, don’t just tell them about it.
[View:http://youtu.be/HG6i3VqAPe0]
In the embedded clip, Bono says that a pastor once advised him to “Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing … find out what God is doing, ’cause it’s already blessed.”
That’s something I could stand to heed a bit more myself. After nearly 30 years, Bono’s still teaching me a thing or two.
photo credit: Morgana Wingard
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