Video: Bono: A Conversation about Christianity
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I’m a bit of a U2 fan. OK, maybe too much so sometimes. It’s just that I really in truly love their music more than ANYTHING else around. It’s just me, my personal preferences. Besides the technical genius of the Edge, the backbone and muscle found in Larry and Adam, you’d have to be fairly unaware in life to not know the lead singer and some say heart of the band is—Bono. Even that’s debatable because most U2 fans know what makes the band endure through the decades is that each member is absolutely vital to the other. Bono just happens to be the person in front.
A year ago today I met Bono. I just happened to be in NYC, a place I’ve only been to three times in my life. He just happened to be at the Letterman Theater outside my hotel on my last day in NYC. I didn’t know U2 was in town, even more, just outside my hotel across the street a few feet away. I found out randomly when I overheard another hotel patron telling her friend that they were in town.
I ran across the street and tried to get Letterman tickets. I waited in line, interviewed, and didn’t get picked. I left and did some sightseeing with my adult daughter in Battery Park. We came back, and I went to the theater one more time where Letterman was filming. Everyone had showed up. There were no extra tickets; I was told I didn’t need to stay. I knew Bono and The Edge were inside. I wanted to meet them; I wanted to meet Bono!
I was beside myself with excitement. I sort of felt like a cross between the swooning moms who fainted over Elvis during my childhood and young teens who camp out and fast for days for a change to meet “The Bieb-ster”. I ran back to my hotel to change and brush my hair. I was determined to find a way. Then I started calming down. Then I started crying. What’s wrong with me?
HE’S ONLY A MAN
Suddenly, there was a fire drill only on our floor. I had to evacuate anyway. I thought maybe, just maybe I’d go downstairs one last time and see if anything was going on in the back of the theater around the corner. God? What are you trying to tell me?
He’s only a man my child. He’s definitely not Jesus. He’s Bono, but at the end of the day, he’s still a man.
I quit running. I started walking instead. I told God something important: I know!
So I surrendered. If it was meant to be—fine. If not, I could live with that. Only four days prior, I had driven from this same hotel to see U2 in Philadelphia. It was my third and best U2 concert of all. Don’t be greedy with your blessings Liz!
I got there in the nick of time. I had a blast and made some quick connections with other U2 fans; or as I sometimes say, “I found MY people!”
The backdoors opened. Out walked the Edge and then Bono. Then it happened. I met Bono! I wasn’t shaking. I wasn’t falling down. I was able to speak coherently. He’s just a man. But for a brief second in time, I saw his eyes and perhaps he saw mine. I told him to tell Nelson Mandela Happy Birthday. I found out later, he was on his way to have lunch with him, but I didn’t know that at the time. I wasn’t inside the theater when they were taping. I just knew. Because sometimes our souls just know. I knew how close they are, and I remembered the audience singing Happy Birthday to Nelson at Bono’s request four days earlier in Philadelphia.
Then he said what I still refer to as just one word: Yeah!!!!!
Yeah (YES)! YES is such an affirmative word. It may sound cliché, but I knew in my heart that day, it was time for me to start saying yes to pursuing some dreams I’ve carried around for a while. It was as if God was whispering,
Your dreams can be a reality! Why do you even doubt?
Not because I met Bono, but because sometimes God just comes down and blesses you with something amazing, that you didn’t deserve, that you wouldn’t have seen coming in your wildest imagination.
At the end of the day, and the whole of my life, I am a U2 fan to the core, especially Bono. But I actually follow WHO he follows. I think that’s why I and millions of other fans connect so deeply. It’s more than even U2’s great music. It’s their connection to those that suffer in this world and making us not just aware, but challenging us to do. To start where you are, and to branch out, that is the key.
Yes I’m a fan of U2, so I’ve hit my fill of LIKE buttons and commented volumes.
But I FOLLOW Christ, not perfectly, but absolutely, and that’s something I really want to SHARE. Christ forgives, redeems, saves, loves, challenges, and changes us IF we let him. Only God knows what plans He has for you though we’re guaranteed a few things as we go: tragedy, triumph, love, loss. So how do we survive it all?
Love. Pray. Hope. Persevere. Trust.
I’m many things—a wife, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a sister, and a writer. I’m a fan of U2. I’m a follower of Jesus—like my brother Paul, we are ONE in Christ. And that’s reason to REJOICE!
NOTE: I’ve read these quotes. They can be found in these books, great reads for U2 fans regarding Bono’s views and struggles in his faith walk.
u2areloved 