Bono on Faith

I was listening to an interview that Bono, the lead singer of U2, agreed to do for a Christian conference with a pastor of the huge church that was putting on the conference. Now, I don't know if everything Bono has ever said, done, or sung is theologically correct, but I do know that he said one of the most Christian things I've ever heard uttered. I say that because it was not in a church service. He was not on a soapbox. He was speaking about his own life.

The pastor asked the rock star something about his view of Christianity. Bono started by saying that he has never had a problem with Christ. It's mostly Christians he's had problems with. That made the auditorium full of Christian pastors and leaders laugh. Then he said something like this: "I have always believed in grace. I'm kind of counting on it."

That made the room chuckle, too, for one of two reasons. It's possible we were laughing because we know rock stars. Rock stars don't exactly have reputations for holding up high moral values, and Bono and U2 have been known to drink, smoke, and cuss. So, maybe we were laughing because we agreed that Bono really needed grace. I hope not. I hope we were laughing because it was so profound that this non-theologian had described the essence of grace and faith without an outline for a sermon or a pulpit to set it on.

The thing is, each of us could have said the same thing about counting on grace and it would have been true. The problem is that most of us don't think about ourselves that way. We know people who are going to need grace when they reach the day of their death, but we don't always count ourselves among their number.

I don't know about you, but all this trying to make myself good has me thinking it's possible to achieve goodness on my own. That's just not true.