The Best of: 1980-1990, that contains Christian connotations, is the song, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For ” While there are some Christians who maintain that Bono is renouncing his faith in this song, others maintain that Bono is simply expressing personal struggles with his faith and with temptation. Still others maintain that Bono is expressing his struggle with the current world.
Whether or not Bono is indeed facing a crossroad in his faith is mere speculation, but there can be no speculation on the Christian imagery that is so evident throughout this song. Verses seven through eight read,
I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes, I’m still running
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame, you know I believe it
This last verse seems to indicate that Bono is a follower of Jesus Christ because he acknowledges that he has been set free from shame on account of what was done for him on the cross. If Bono is affirming his faith, then how can he also be asserting that he has not found what he is looking for in Jesus Christ?According to Stockman, Bono is not speaking of his discontent in Jesus Christ but of his discontent with the current world. Stockman writes, “To have found what you’re looking for actually means you have died and gone to heaven!”
At the same time that Christians believe the cross has changed their lives. There is still a hope in one day moving on to a place where there is no AIDS, poverty, violence, division in the Church, selfish motives, and other things associated with a fallen world. This whole idea of Christians still not finding what they’re looking for, falls in line with what Paul writes in Philippians 3:12-14:
Not
that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made
perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took
hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold
of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
From U2’s album, “U2 - The Best of 1990-2000Mysterious Ways,” also contains Christian content. It is interpreted that Bono is speaking about the Holy Spirit moving in mysterious ways, because the last verse directly refers to spirits.
Move you, spirits move you
Move, spirits ‘its move you, oh yeah
Does it move you?
She moves with it
Lift my days, and light up my nights, oh
Bono has publicly said that he believes the spirit is a feminine thing, which explains the feminine imagery he uses throughout the song. Another Christian component to this song is the last lines in the fourth verse which read,
If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel
On your knees, boy!
These lines indicate that prayer, or more specifically, repentance, is needed to reach heaven.This falls in line with Romans 10:9-10, which reads,
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
U2 has made music for the people, for you and me. Its not only about faith and the idea that you must follow one God, clearly if you listen to the music as a whole you will find that that blessings are for everyone.