Chapter 15. The Art of the Spiritual
U2. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run, I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of the devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone (mm, mm)
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes, I’m still running
You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
In 1987, Paul David Hewson, Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen, and Dave Evans, the members of the Irish Catholic band U2 recorded an album which included a song of yearning. But yearning for what?
We might get a clue from a breathtaking 1988 performance of the song found in the Rattle and Hum record and documentary movie. The band travels to Harlem and sings the song with Dennis Bell’s New Voices of Freedom gospel choir in the Greater Calvary Baptist Church. This song is at heart a gospel song. Please have a listen on YouTube. Maybe you’ll be able to get through the tune without tearing up as I do even thinking of that magical Uptown moment.
But, you know, gospel songs have a way of touching on wide ranging aspects of life. This song’s lyrics touch on the passions of life, but those passions cannot arrest the focus. The lyrics reach on toward a higher horizon seeking union with … “you.” You? Pretty clearly not a lover. Somone else. Something else. The song draws on Christian imagery and concepts, but they open out more broadly to express a universally human yearning for something this life doesn’t seem to be able to deliver.
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| Caspar David Friedrich. (1818). Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist. Oil on canvas. |
Art all over the world asks universal human questions: Where do I come from? Why am I here? What is this yearning inside me that doesn’t seem to be satisfied by anything concrete? How do I connect with the forces that made me? What happens when I die?
Art is a deeply human enterprise. Through it, people and cultures try to make sense of and manage their life in a world that seems to overwhelm them. One of the richest wellsprings of art is the domain of the spirit. In this text, we have been operating with a definition:
Spiritual Dimensions of Art
Evocation of a mysterious human inwardness …
Yearning to transcend life & death …
And connect with forces of creation
References
Friedrich, C. D. (1818). Wanderer Above the Sea of Mist. [Painting]. Hamburg, Germany: Kunsthalle. Jstor https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.18135192 https://ezproxy.bethel.edu/login?url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.18135192 Oil on canvas.
Hewson, P. D., Clayton, A, Mullen, L, and Evans, D. (1987). I Still Haven’t Fount What I’m Looking For [Song Lyrics]. The Joshua Tree. Dublin, IR: Danesmoate House.
Iovine, J. (1988). I Still Haven’t Fount What I’m Looking For. Rattle and Hum. (Film and Recording]. Jamaica: Island Records. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8Wt3dhF4fU