A Gritty Faith: Unplugging U2’s “40″

Part 12 of 12 in the U2 Unplugged Series

I am convinced there is a “Now gene” swimming inside every human body. A two-year child reaching out for a toy at the counter never sees next week as an option. A couple madly in love yearns to be together tonight, not tomorrow. Much of our postmodern economy, in fact, is built on the importance of Now: credit cards, downloadable music, video-on-demand, lottery tickets, to name but a few examples. Pundits call us the “instant society” for obvious reasons.

If we have a “Now gene” that influences us towards instant gratification, I can easily guess its source of origin – our humanness. On the one hand, you can make a case that this desire for the immediate isn’t altogether bad; perhaps it is the natural response that any person, bound by time and space, will inevitably have. On the other hand, Satan recognizes “Get It Now” as one of his most effective weapons, because it allows us to receive what we most desire without requiring any inward change on our part to get it. The net effect of an undisciplined “Now gene” is that we become spoiled, unappreciative, and self-absorbed creatures.

But, as you explore the scriptures, you will see that God has a much different sort of genetics in mind: he wants to infuse our spiritual blood streams with a “Waiting gene.” When we need his help, God promises to be there for us. But, before he takes action, God often wants us to hold out, just a while longer, and then he will engineer circumstances in our lives and rescue us according to his timetable.

On the War album, U2 features two songs, both heavily influenced by the Book of Psalms, that show two different types of rescues that God makes in our lives. In “Drowning Man”, they sing of God’s instantaneous rescues, particularly when eternity is at stake. The final song on the album, “40” [lyrics] [iTunes], explores a much different sort of saving act: a deliverance from earthly pain and hardship that takes a far longer time to realize. Echoing the words of David in Psalm 40, “40” initially sounds like a simple song of worship. But, as you look closer, a remarkable real-world texture begins to surface. The juxtaposition of gratitude, hope, and desperation in the song reflects the ups and downs every believer has living in this world.

God’s Certain Rescue

Life’s problems have an uncanny way of weighing us down. A serious health ailment. Financial crisis. A shattered relationship. A personal betrayal. When circumstances like these arise, we can become so overwhelmed with life that we feel ourselves sinking deeper and deeper into a bottomless hole. That’s exactly what Bono sings about in the song “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” from the All You Can’t Leave Behind release. We can dig ourselves into a pit so deep there is no way we can possibly free ourselves emotionally, spiritually, and even physically.

If “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” explores the problem of the mud pit, the song “40” shows the way out. We can’t pull ourselves out of life’s holes, but God will eagerly do so for us if we only call on him for help. As “40” begins, the song speaks of that promise by quoting the first two verses of Psalm 40. In the words of David, Bono sings:

I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He brought me up out of the pit
Out of the miry clay

When you find yourself in a pit and cry out to the Lord, he will “incline” – or turn to you – and hear your cry. Throughout the Bible, you read God’s response. To paraphrase 2 Chronicles 7:14: If you will humble yourself, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from your sin; then will I hear your cry, will forgive, and will rescue you. Even more revealing is the father’s response in the parable of the Prodigal Son, told by Jesus in Luke 15. When the father sees his down-and-out son returning to him, he is so stricken with affection for his disobedient son that he sprints out to rescue him.

When you experience God’s deliverance firsthand, you begin to develop the kind of steadfast faith in God that is evident throughout “40”. No longer can his help be dismissed as mere coincidence. Seeing how God engineers circumstances, you realize the active role that he plays in your life on a day-in, day-out basis.
In the song’s second verse, Bono continues reciting from Psalm 40:2:

He set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm

God’s rescue is merely the starting point for us. He sets our “feet upon a rock” so we can grow closer in relationship to him. The “rock” Bono is singing about is God himself. A rock is a common symbol used throughout scripture to refer to the steadfastness and dependability of God. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,” says David in Psalm 18:2. He adds later in verse 31, “Who is the Rock except our God?” Jesus Christ is also described by the apostle Paul as being “the Rock” in 1 Corinthians 10. Once our lives are based on him, then we can be certain that when we experience problems, we will not be alone; Jesus Christ is right beside us and is our source of strength. The apostle Paul sums it up, saying “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim 4:18).

When we experience the delivering power of God working in our lives, our natural response is, using Bono’s words, to “sing a new song”. We can’t be the same people as we were when we wallowed all alone in the “miry clay.” This new song is full of hope, trust, and confidence that God loves us, is watching over us, and engineers circumstances in our lives.

As we “sing a new song” in a life of faith, we will naturally help draw others to him. “Many will see and fear,” sings Bono. The fear he is singing of isn’t a panic-stricken emotion. Instead, he is talking about a deep respect and awe for how great the Deliverer really is.

Rollercoasters

This new song, however, must be sung with patient lips. “I waited patiently before the Lord,” sings Bono at the very start of “40”. It’s clear that God does not immediately wave his magic wand and deliver him from the pit. Instead, the song conveys the sense that his rescue was a long time in coming. Patience, therefore, is a key character trait that a believer needs to build up in our lives when we look to God for help. The song “40” reinforces that belief: you see an unmistakable message that God is faithful in answering us, but in his time, not ours.

Patience, however, plays out as a rollercoaster ride. In full sincerity, we commit to being content in the midst of difficult times. And when the storms begin to hit us, we can echo the apostle James and “count it all joy”, knowing that God is working in our lives. Yet, as the days, months, and maybe even years drag on, we’ll inevitably begin to cry out just as Bono does in the song’s refrain, “How long to sing this song?” This honest question of “How long?” rings loudly through many of the Psalms. Sounding much like the refrain of “40”, Psalm 6 says:

I am absolutely terrified,
and you, Lord—how long will this go on?
Come back, Lord, rescue me!
Deliver me because of your faithfulness!

David goes even further in Psalms 13:

How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me?
How long will you pay no attention to me?
How long must I worry,
and suffer in broad daylight?
How long will my enemy gloat over me?
Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God!
Revive me, or else I will die!

Even Psalm 40 starts with a content hope (“I waited patiently for the Lord”), but concludes in verse 17 on a far more impatient tone: “O my God, do not delay.”

The strain expressed in “40” between patience, hope, and desperation mirrors the reality of what it is really like living as a believer in a fallen world. A gritty faith contrasts with a Teflon-coated, smiley-faced faith that is often lauded in churches but rarely lived out consistently in our lives. Like David illustrates throughout the Psalms, we live in a state of constant tension between our spiritual hope in God’s deliverance and our human desire for it to happen now.

Fortysomething

“How long?” is an open ended question in “40”, just as it is in real life. The lack of concrete answers can make us wonder whether God is simply being cruel to us since he could make anything happen with the snap of a finger. George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon begs to differ, “Never think that God’s delays are God’s denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out.”

Perhaps the song title itself even gives a clue as to “how long” God will allow pain and suffering to continue in our lives. Thumbing through the Bible, you’ll see that the number “40” has a special importance throughout the Old and New Testament. When Noah was in the ark, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness before returning to Egypt to free the Israelite slaves. The newly freed Israelites spent 40 years wandering in the desert before entering the Promised Land. And, just before Jesus started his earthly ministry, he spent 40 days fasting in the desert, being tempted by Satan for much of that time.

For each of these long periods of waiting, God had a specific purpose to accomplish. As these people went through trials, they had to fully rely on God and trust in his deliverance. In the same way, God uses the “fortysomething” periods of our lives to prepare, transform, and bring us closer in relationship with him. Author Oswald Chambers observes that God deals with us just like he did with his Son Jesus Christ: “God engineers our circumstances as He did those of His Son; all we have to do is to follow where He places us. The majority of us are busy trying to place ourselves. God alters things while we wait for Him.”

On this earth, our spiritual blood streams will always have a mixture of “Now genes” and “Waiting genes”. When we are young in our faith, impatience for immediate results will rule our lives. But, as we grow closer in our relationship to God and allow Christ to be the “Rock” of our lives, he begins a spiritual transfusion: replacing the “Now genes” one at a time with “Waiting genes”. As we permit this to happen, we become molded into, to borrow a C.S. Lewis term, “little Christs.”

Action Steps

In “40”, U2 explores the rollercoaster nature of the Christian faith. As you ride that coaster, take the following action steps:

On a piece of paper, draw a maze that has a path from a beginning opening to an ending. Then, trace a route from start to finish. As humans with a limited perspective, we can only see life in the here and now, while God sees now in light of eternity. It’s as if we are going through a life-size maze in search of the exit door. Yet, as we walk through this giant puzzle, we can only see what’s immediately before and behind us. We can’t even grasp how far our current position is from the exit nor make sense of how where we are relates to the overall maze. In contrast, God has a bird’s eye view of the entire puzzle: he clearly sees the best path to take between the beginning and end points. As we walk through the maze, his path can seem dead wrong – an unnecessary series of twists, turns, and detours. But, from God’s standpoint, he knows the path you are on is necessary to accomplish what he has purposed – reaching the prize.

Watch the film Signs and observe how God engineers circumstances in the life of Graham Hess to lift him from the “miry clay” to save his son and restore his faith. Remember that in real life, God does the same thing.

Diving Deeper

Psalm 40, 6, and 13. James 5:10-11