One

My favorite band is U2. In December I am going to see them with my best friend Dave. My favorite song (not just my favorite U2 song, but my favorite song. . .ever. . .period) is One. In my opinion it is the best song ever written by any man, and, when Bono sings it, it is the best song ever sung. It's hard to choose one favorite line in the song, but one that runs through my head, with the thought of Bono crying out from his soul is this:

You ask me to enter,
But then you make me crawl,
And I can't be holding on
To what you've got
When all you've got is hurt.

In this song I hear Bono calling out, begging for us to let go of our hurt and bitterness and pain, and allow others to be a part of this life we live.

One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers

What could be more powerful to a hurting, confused world than to see people walking together through the pain without ignoring that it is there? What could be more appealing to the left, the disregarded, and the given-up on than to see others who have experienced this also giving up their pain to one another and to a man named Jesus?
Jesus is not a concept, he is a person. He is a man who lived as we do.
My favorite thing that Jesus said is at the end of Matthew 11
Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for I am humble of heart and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls.
Who is not weary? Who is not burdened?

Did you come here for forgiveness?
Did you come to raise the dead?

Sometimes I think that it can sound whiny to talk about the hurts we have felt and the wounds that we own. I think this is a valid danger, but there might be something much worse that happens if we don't allow ourselves to acknowledge that even in the best of circumstances, this life has hurt us deeply in ways that we cannot fix. If we ignore this, then our wounds grow more and more unfixable.

Well, it's too late tonight
To drag the past out into the light

This life is beautiful and it is tragic. It is heroic and it is painful. Thank God that we don't have to figure it out alone. Jesus is our older brother who has gone before us. He is our captain and our leader. He is our source and our sympathizer. He is not a concept, he is a man. And life now makes sense and has hope with him walking next to us.

One love, One blood,
One life, you've got to do what you should

While we are all different and have experienced different hurts, we all hold the beauty of God's image, and we all have experienced pain. I wonder if this in itself is enough common ground for us to truly understand and help each other. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Jesus came. . .in fact, according to Hebrews, it was.

We're one
But we're not the same.