Dancing the Perfect Storm: Unplugging U2’s “Drowning Man”

Part 1 in the U2 Unplugged Series

The perfect storm. Meteorologists speak of a perfect storm as a lethal weather system that starts off as a harmless squall in the middle of the ocean. But when this minor storm becomes mixed together with other weather patterns around it, watch out. This newly combined force spirals out of control and destroys everything in its wake.

Tough circumstances in our lives can work much the same way. When it rains, it pours. A situation that seems minor escalates out of proportion as other problems swell up around it. Perhaps marital strife prompts you to lose focus on your job right when management is looking to downsize. You are laid off. Your job loss kills your self-esteem and causes financial hardship. All of these pressures only serve to bring your troubled marriage to a breaking point. Finally, just when things seem like they can’t get worse, your pent-up anxiety causes an ulcer, which you can’t treat because you no longer have medical insurance.

When a scary confluence of events like this springs up in our lives, life appears totally out of control. “Drowning” becomes more than just a clever metaphor: it seems like the only word that fully describes our struggle. We gasp for breath while the waves crash down upon us.

But, even as we drown, our human nature often persuades us not to seek the real help we need. We make attempts to fake it for awhile to those around us. We smile on the outside and die on the inside. Poet Stevie Smith expresses our futile attempts, confessing: “I was much further out than you thought / And not waving but drowning.” Or, perhaps we start to look at a trusted friend as our savior from trouble. But, if we rely too much on someone else, we can simply pull the other person down underwater too, causing us both to drown.

However, as U2 describes in “Drowning Man” [Lyrics] [iTunes], there is only one person who can rescue us from a perfect storm: Jesus Christ himself. The song serves as an open invitation from Jesus to receive his help; you need only reach out and grab his hand.

Promises

“People are all the same wherever you go” goes the old Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney duet. Certainly the basic struggles that we face today – problems like jealousy, pride, greed, and lust – have been plaguing people since Adam and Eve. At the same time, the complexity of our postmodern life makes circumstances tougher for us. In fact, I believe it is far easier to feel like you are drowning than ever before. Progress, technology, and political and economic freedom are exhilarating, but the exponential number of decisions that result from them often weigh us down. There are just so many factors in our lives that can form the basis of a perfect storm. In the midst of this demanding and tough world of ours, U2 offers a message of hope in “Drowning Man”. Speaking as the voice of Jesus, Bono sings:

Take my hand
You know I’ll be there,
If you can I’ll cross
The sky for your love

When we begin to sink, our gut instinct is to attempt to swim on our own to safety. The Old Testament, in fact, is stuffed with stories of a group of people, the ancient Israelites, who tried to save themselves from judgment by following the rules and being “good” people. In failure, they sank in a sea of disobedience.

“Sometimes just you can’t make it on your own,” sings Bono in a far different context. But this same truth applies here as well: Jesus came into the world because he knew that we could not rescue ourselves. Jesus says “Take my hand” and allow him do the rescue work.

When Jesus makes his offer of assistance, he doesn’t just throw out a rope from a safe, lofty perch in Heaven. He jumps head first into our world. According to “Drowning Man”, Jesus says “I’ll cross the sky for your love.” In this line, U2 sheds light on the reality of Jesus Christ coming to the earth in the first place: the Son of God came down from Heaven, “crossed the sky”, and was born into this world as a child of Mary and Joseph. The reason Jesus took this action was so that he could be in a position to save us from drowning.

As U2 shows us in the song, because Jesus came into our world, there are three amazing promises that he is able to fulfill.

First, Jesus will rescue and save us from the storms of life. When you take the hand of Jesus, he guarantees to pull you from whatever mess find yourself in. He says, “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me shall be saved.” He then adds, “I came so you could have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:9-10). Whether you deserve to be rescued or not is a non-issue. He reaches out to all open hands.

Our rescue starts off as being primarily spiritual in nature today, but, in Heaven, it will include all parts of our lives – spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual, and circumstantial.

Second, Jesus will be with us during the good times and the bad. The intimate presence of Jesus throughout “Drowning Man” is unmistakable. Jesus is close by as he helps us. “You know I’ll be there,” sings Bono. He then adds at the end of the first verse:

For I have promised for
To be with you tonight
And for the time that will come.

Jesus promises that we never need to go through storms alone. The M. Night Shyamalan film Signs gives us a taste of what Christ’s help is like during moments of crisis in our lives. In a climatic moment of the film, Graham Hess, the main character played by Mel Gibson, secures his family in their basement as they hide from hostile aliens. His asthmatic son Morgan, however, is wheezing and doesn’t have his inhaler with him in the cellar. Knowing that Morgan would never survive an asthma attack without his medicine, Graham rests his son in his lap and begins to comfort him. Sounding much like Jesus would say to us in the heart of a crisis, Graham says:

Don’t be afraid, Morgan. We’ll slow this down together. Feel my chest. Feel it moving in and out. Breathe like me. Breathe like me. Come on. Stay with me. I know it hurts. Be strong, baby. It’ll pass. It’ll pass…

Jesus calls us to a simple faith and trust in him. As he says in Matthew 18:16, he wants us to have faith like a child – like Morgan in the hands of his father. “Don’t be afraid of what’s happening,” continues Graham to his son moments later. “Believe it’s going to pass…The air is coming. Believe. We don’t have to be afraid. It’s about to pass…Here comes the air.”

As we relax and stop panicking, Jesus is able pull us closer and closer to him in the midst of a storm. He echoes Graham when he calls for his son to surrender his fear and breathe in unison with him: “Don’t be afraid, Morgan. Feel my chest. Breathe with me. Together. The air is going in our lungs. Together. We’re the same. We’re the same.”

Jesus helps us in this intimate way as someone who can relate to us and understand the struggles that we go through. After all, he was tempted in every way just like we are (Hebrews 4:15); experienced terrible pain being crucified on the cross; and suffered beyond imagination when he took on the sins of the world. To paraphrase Hebrews 2:18, since Jesus had to face suffering and temptation, he is able to identify with us and help those of us who face it today.

Third, Jesus gave up himself so that we can live forever. In order to help us, Jesus Christ does more than sympathize with us; he does far more than just “feel our pain”. Instead, he actually took on our pain and suffering and made it his own. Bono sings, “I’ll cross the sky for your love / Give you what I hold dear”. In other words, when Jesus came to the earth, he did so for one purpose: to sacrifice what he “held dear” — his life — on the cross to die for our sins. Isaiah 53:4-5 puts it like this: “He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

The Inevitable Storms

Once we are rescued by Jesus Christ, some assume that his promises mean a problem-free life. A few even claim that if you have enough faith, then you will not get sick, will get rich quick, and will never have to deal with other struggles again. Perhaps the disciples even occasionally slipped into this “genie in a bottle” thinking as they followed Jesus during his ministry on earth. After all, since the Son of God was with them on a day-in, day-out basis, they may have assumed that they, his loyal followers, were on the fast lane for a charmed life. But, as Matthew 8 chronicles, they received a splash of reality on a day when they were traveling by boat with Jesus across the Sea of Galilee. As Jesus napped, the disciples witnessed a storm quickly developing on the lake and rapidly engulfing the boat. The winds and waves violently shook the craft, frightening the disciples out of their wits. In a panic, they rushed over to Jesus, woke him, and pleaded for help.

Jesus calmed the waves, but was amazed how bent out of shape the disciples were. Shouldn’t they have expected storms? Even more, shouldn’t they have trusted Christ in the midst of them without having panic attacks?

When Jesus saves us from drowning, his rescue doesn’t mean that we are guaranteed to live a problem-free existence on this earth. Sometimes he does take obstacles away (like he did with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee), while other times Jesus prefers to strengthen us as we go through hard times (like he often did with his disciples later in their lives). The Apostle Paul gives a clue of how Jesus Christ uses storms to transform us from the inside-out, saying in Romans 5:4, “We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; character, hope; And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts.”

Reading Paul’s words of encouragement is one thing. Experiencing them is another story. Just like the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, we have help close at hand, but the waves often seem too terrifying. We lose heart, pressing the panic button and questioning what God is up to. U2 even falls into this trap in their song “Peace on Earth”, singing “Jesus can you spare the time / to throw a drowning man a line”. The weary and impatient attitude of the song from their All You Can’t Leave Behind release is the thematic flip-side track to “Drowning Man”.

When we show a lack of heart in this way, I can envision Jesus reacting to us like he did to his disciples that day: shaking his head, and with a gentle smile, saying, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid? Why are you losing heart?”

Rising Up

When you read the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, there is an unmistakable message that the days of the perfect storms in our lives are numbered. In “Drowning Man”, U2 reminds us of this certainty:

The storms will pass
It won’t be long now.
The storms will pass
But my love lasts forever.

What’s more, as powerful as the storms are, Christ will never loose his grip on you. “These winds and tides, these change of times, won’t drag you away,” sings Bono. Paul confirms this in Romans 8:38, saying that nothing in all of this world “will separate us from” Jesus Christ. As a result, even in a perfect storm, we are “more than conquerors” through Jesus Christ.

Because of this assurance, we can live beyond survival mode even in the midst of the greatest difficulties. We can actually experience victory. Bono sings:

Rise up, rise up with wings,
Like eagles you’ll run, you’ll run.
You’ll run and not grow weary.

In these lyrics, U2 is quoting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, who was penning these words to the Israelites during one of their most difficult moments as a nation. Isaiah was telling his people not to become defeated by the problems of this world, but to simply call on God for help. Isaiah writes, “For those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength and soar on wings like eagles. They’ll run and not grow weary.” U2 claims that same victory is available to all of us who hope in God.

When a hand of safety is extended, the response of person who is drowning in the sea is instinctive: just reach out. Similarly, nothing more is required on our part other than simply coming to him. “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away,” Jesus says (John 6:37).

Take his hand.
Come to him.
And dance on top of the perfect storm.

Action Steps

The song “Drowning Man” reveals the help that Jesus Christ can give to us the moment we reach out our hand for him. As you listen to the song, consider the following action steps:

If you feel like you are drowning, get somewhere alone and pray to Jesus Christ. Tell him you can’t make it on your own, you need his help, and you want to follow him. He’ll transform your life as you surrender it to him.

Read Isaiah 40. See how God is able to change our defeat into his victory.

Watch the film Signs. Pay special attention to how God’s role is depicted in the world, perfectly engineering circumstances to save Graham and his family in crisis. In particular, focus on the basement scene between Graham and his son, Morgan. Graham’s words to Morgan have double meaning: they are also meant to be the words of God speaking to Graham as he struggles with his faith.

Diving Deeper

Psalm 31:1-5, 69:14-17; Romans 7:24-25, 8:3; Galatians 1:4; John 1:14