Driving from Norfolk back to Michigan, a U2 song I had not heard before came on the radio. I was madly in love with it the moment I heard it. I immediately purchased the album, Songs of Innocence. The song was “Song for Someone”.

I was a raving U2 fan in high school and college. While I still purchase every album they release, I had not heard of this one. I must have had my head in the sand, because it was the iTunes giveaway that angered people and I wasn’t paying attention. Thank goodness for West Virginian radio. This song carries the thick acoustic guitar from the older U2 I adore.

Edge plays the guitar so softly and beautifully on this track. I was entranced. Then the lyrics captured me. Bono’s voice cuts through me every time I listen to him, but this message had so much love, so much hope… it was as if I were hearing him for the very first time.

[tweetthis]Bono’s voice cuts through me every time I listen to him, but this message had so much love, so much hope.[/tweetthis]

Apparently, they sang it on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on May 8, 2015. I wish it were on YouTube, but it is not. However, this is the version from Graham Norton. I believe it is about a hurting Paul Hewson falling in love with Ali (Stewart) Hewson in high school in the 70’s… but really only Bono knows.

“Song for Someone” had an impact on me, though, from a faith perspective. My favorite lyric:

And I’m a long way
From your hill on Calvary
And I’m a long way
From where I was, where I need to be
If there is a light you can always see
And there is a world we can always be
If there is a kiss I stole from your mouth
If there is a light, don’t let it go out.

While I realize that this may not be the intention of these lyrics, it reminded me of my own relationship with Him. It haunts me and calms me at the same time.

And, the entire album seems to do this to me. I invite you to check Songs of Innocence out and see what it says to you. Listen to everything… through to the end, and see what hits your heart. As a U2 fan, I fully believe that we can look to their closing tracks to find their most spiritual themes. Remember “40” (“He set my feet upon a rock; made my footsteps firm”) on War then “Yahweh” (“Take these hands; teach them what to carry”) on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and “Grace” (“It’s also a thought that changed the world”) on All You Can’t Leave Behind?

With this in mind on Songs of Innocence, listen to “The Troubles”, then go read Jeremiah 17:9 and consider the song as a conversation with one’s own heart. (“You think it’s easier; to give up on the trouble; if the trouble is destroying you. You think it’s easier; but before you threw me a rope; it was the one thing I could hold on to”). That conversation never ends, but the song, and the album, fade away.

It’s not an album for the new U2 listener or fair-weather fan, really, but one for those of use who have been with U2 since the beginning, as I believe they are finally inviting us inside.

Even the cover, Larry Mullen, Jr., the band’s drummer (unknown to some), clinging to his son, Aaron Elvis Mullen, seems to convey a hope and an inner struggle. It’s like a peek into an private moment that is just a bit uncomfortable. I see how it subjectifies the struggle of religion in our culture and lives today. The church is flawed just as we as humans are flawed. Peeking into something as personal as our own walk with God, can leave others uncomfortable. I also love that the cover calls out the War cover from the early 80’s… a time when I clung to every note Bono sang, and is a nod to Achtung Baby. What is it they are trying to say? Really? I love the mystery.

Back to Song for someone. I think that ‘being a long way from where I was, where I need to be’ speaks to me about that same heart conversation. When I dive inside, voices of fear judge me, but I also see how much closer I am to the walk I desire so deeply than I have been in the past. He is as close as my skin when I want to feel Him… I can.

I’d love to know what you think of the song and the album after you give it a listen. Give it a more intimate discovery for a while… and see what hits your heart. Then, would you share that with me?