I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

This has always been one of my favorite U2 songs. It’s a song of longing. It’s a song of seeking. It’s a song of not being content with the world as it is being experienced at the moment. It’s a song about the idea that; now that we’re children of God, what’s next?  Just claiming and accepting the love of God simply can’t be the end of the story.

“I have spoke with the tongues of angels, I have held the hand of the devil; it was warm in the night, I was cold as a stone. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” I hear him echoing Paul; “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” (1 Corinthians 13:1 NRSV). I’ve done these things, both good and bad, and I’ve made my choice. But it’s not enough if I don’t take the Gospel to the next level.

The last verse of the song has Bono singing: “You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains; carried the cross and all my shame, all my shame. You know I believe it. But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Some think this is a rejection of the salvation story. I don’t hear it that way. I hear it as asking what the next step is. If we’re content with simply taking the Gospel into ourselves and leaving it at that, we’re missing something. That’s what I hear Bono saying. “Is this all there is? Or do we now have a greater responsibility?” For me, this is not a song about looking for an alternative to the story of the Man who “carried the cross and all our shame…” It’s a song about what we do with that story now that we believe it.

We still haven’t found what we’re looking for. But we’re still looking.

How is the Gospel fulfilled? When we take it somewhere it’s never been. My family and I have found a way that we can take the story somewhere it’s never been. We have that chance. We have the opportunity before us to share the love of God and the story of Christ with people who have not had the experience of hearing it before; helping to bring the Holy Spirit into a land of spirits. The call of God leads us to various places. For us, it is leading to Thailand.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,’ says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29:11-14a NLT).

We haven’t found what we’re looking for, but we know where we’re going to look next.