LOVE U2

My friends tease me a lot about how much I love the music of U2.  My personalized license plates read LOVE U2.  I've shared the story in preaching that I found my way back to God partly through the music of Ireland's most famous band.  Just talking about it embarrasses my kids to no end.

When Mary and I saw U2 in concert at Qwest Field in June 2011 with our friends Kate and Aaron, I had another God moment in how the group performed a song that helped bring me back closer to God in 1999.

This picture is of our vantage point to Bono and the stage as they were about to perform this song (I'm sure there is something divine in the vicinity to that experience alone).

And, in a version done for a BBC broadcast of a concert in England, here's what connected our hearts together as one in a golden moment of faith, hope and love.

Enjoy, because it is a "Beautiful Day" when we relinquish our worries and trust in the providence of God in our lives even in our darkest moments.  Just ask NASA astronaut Mark Kelly and his wive Gabby Giffords.




Beautiful Day 
Lyrics by Bono
Music by U2

"The heart is a bloom
Shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room
No space to rent in this town

You're out of luck
And the reason that you had to care
The traffic is stuck
And you're not moving anywhere

You thought you'd found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand
In return for grace

It's a beautiful day
Sky falls, you feel like
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road
But you've got no destination
You're in the mud
In the maze of her imagination

You love this town
Even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over
And it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
It's a beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Teach me (Lord)
I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Don't let it get away
Beautiful day

Touch me
Take me to that other place
Reach me
I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
Don't need it now
Was a beautiful day"

Background:  "According to Bono, 'Beautiful Day' is about 'a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has.' Some have interpreted the song and the line 'it's a beautiful day' as 'a vision of abandoning material things and finding grace in the world itself.'"

I like both of those interpretations and feel the song is divinely inspired.  Peace...