I’ve been meaning to put this in words for awhile, but I
wasn’t sure where to start. I might as well start back about 2001, the year I
turned 17. It was also the year everything changed – the first time. I had
discovered a certain Irish band (where had I been, seriously??), and many I
went to high school with can attest to this. Within a year I had all their
albums, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Suffice it to say, I thought U2 was
the best band ever, and they’re still up there for me, almost ten years later.
September 10th, 2001. I turn 17 and unwrap U2′s All That You
Can’t Leave Behind. It had been out for a year, but I was just getting it. You
know how when you listen to an album, the first time is always unique, of
course, because, well…it’s the first time. This was different though, and I’ll
tell you why. Remember the date. September 10th. 2001. I listened to that album
once and the next day, everything changed, beginning with the New York skyline.
Everything fell apart. At school, at home…at school that day, we did nothing
but watch TV from 5th period on. I’d first heard earlier, but the news didn’t
officially break til the end of the 4th period. Sidenote – you know it’s bad
when the principal gets on the PA system. But anyway. I get home after school,
and my parents are all, “Oh, aren’t you going to watch the news with us??”
Guys, what do ya think I’ve been doing all day?? Mum watched the news that
night and then went back to her regularly scheduled programming, if you will.
My bro was at that age where when things happen, you sort of get it, but the
world hasn’t yet exploded. Sort of occupied with other stuff, you know? My dad,
now…days, weeks, afterward, he was on the Internet. All. The. Time. So in a
sense, I was left alone. No one to really talk to or anything…but remember that
album I got? I turned to that. Over and over again. To this day, it’s a
reminder of that day, but at the same time, it’s always been a source of
comfort. I don’t even know if I can explain this, but I have to wonder if God
was knocking and I was ignoring Him. People familiar with U2 know about the
religious messages in their music. I was an atheist at the time, so some might
wonder why I found this band fascinating even then. But I did.
Fast forward eight years, and I’m up at 2 AM in my apartment
on UB North, waiting for U2′s No Line on the Horizon to show up on iTunes,
which it does, and I snag it. I’ve been saved for just over a year at this
point. I was hearing my first new U2 album since finding God. I had heard all
the rest of the albums from both sides, if you will, so this was the first
album I would only ever hear from one side…I wouldn’t even look at the other.
Trust me…there’s a cross around my neck everywhere I go…there’s no going back.
So this one, along with All That You Can’t Leave Behind, is very special.
Right now, I’m reading about U2′s spiritual journey in Walk
On, by Steve Stockman. When it first came out, I saw it in a bookstore. Picked
it up, saw what it was about, and put it back down again. I forget when this
was…maybe 2003? Some seven years later, I’m reading it. In U2′s music, the
religious messages are there, but if you don’t get them, you don’t get them.
The band isn’t exactly hitting you over the head with a spiritual sledgehammer.
Like I said earlier, God may have been behind the door in 2001, but
it took a football team and a friendship forged over a love for that team to
break the door down. Over the past two years, I’m seeing everything
differently. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
