Bono Much Music in Toronto interview text

From the Canadian interview after the Liberal Party convention:

George: How's your relationship with spirituality changed?...

Bono: Well, I think what you discover is God is even bigger than you think. It's very hard--

George: That he doesn't need your help? (chuckling)

Bono: (laughs) That's right, he doesn't need your help. You go, "I can help God here, I'm sure he's stuck, those kids in Africa and all; I'll help." God doesn't need your help, but, there's a blessing. Somebody said to me - I said this to you last night. A wise man, a spiritual man said this: he said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing, Bono. Find out what God's doing; it's already blessed.

You don't have to guess what's on God's mind. If you're looking for God, and can't find God, he's with the poorest, most wretched, most vulnerable lives. That's where God hangs out. If you want to get closer to God, that's a key. In your own moments of despair, in your own moment of wretchedness, you're also closer to God. [And, you knew it was coming, here it is...] But I don't talk about God very much because I'm not a very good advertisement for it.

I've corrected punctuation and one line, the end of the (unattributed) quote from Bill Hybels about not asking God to bless what you're doing. I have to smile at Bono's avoiding naming him, but I do sort of hope it gets back to Hybels that the sentence he gave Bono a year ago is now part of the playlist.

(However, an aside: I strongly associate that line with John Wimber. Any Willow Creek or Vineyard type readers out there who can tell me if Hybels might have been quoting Wimber, or is that also a Hybels line?)

And one more comment: within about a 10 minute interview (intercut with clips of his Liberal Party speech and U2 songs to make it 30), there are two quotes from the New Testament (one unattributed, and one credited to Bob Geldof). I want to comment on the first of them, when the interviewer has asked about bands who lose touch with the spark of greatness that got them started:

Bono: They say where your treasure is there your heart will be also. I know people who have a bit of success, make a bit of money, get a nice apartment, hang some art on the wall, you know -- as Ziggy Pop says, "here comes my Chinese rug." They get into all this stuff and suddenly music is not where they're at, they're more with furniture... it's not a great trade.

Anyone out there who leads a parish, or a Bible study, or whatever: isn't that exactly what we we all work so hard for, trying to inspire people to integrate the Bible? So that when someone asks them a question that is ostensibly a completely secular matter in their professional life, the first thing they will think of is, "Oh, what explains this phenomenon is a principle Jesus taught." What percentage of our folks have Scripture deeply enough integrated that they'd give an answer like this? (I'm not sure I want to know....)