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

by Pastor Jason Kramme

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

This is the opening verse from the iconic 80’s hit by U2 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. This song, according to Bono, is an anthem for people who are on the search for transcendence but have yet to fully arrive. Though it was a song written more than 30 years ago, it is a song that rings ever true.

One of the profound things about the musicianship of this tune is the way Bono holds the note on the word “still.” Can you hear it in your head? “and I stillllllll haven’t found…” When asked why he sang it that way, he said that he wanted to communicate that he was still looking, still searching. He hadn’t given up.

It would have been easy for him to do so. Life wasn’t exactly a bunch of roses in Dublin during the 80’s.

As a people experiencing a similar cross-pressured feeling in deeply immanent time in history, it can be tempting to stop listening to the still small voice that calls from outside our immanent frame. The voice that calls from the margins, the wilderness, and a manger that there is more; that we are more.

My encouragement to you today is to keep listening. To keep holding the note. To keep searching until you find what you’re looking for.

Jason Kramme serves as Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Stewardship