Sometimes you can’t make it on your own.

Yes, it is another song reference for the blog post. This time it comes from a song by U2. It is the third track from their 2004 album ‘How to dismantle an atomic bomb’. Bono wrote the song in 2000 about his relationship with his father Bob Hewson who was at the time dying of cancer. To Bono, his father had always been a tough character, indeed the original title of the song was ‘Tough’. In his own words Bono describes his father as “A tough old boot of a guy. Irish, Dub, north side Dubliner, very cynical about the world and the people in it, but very charming and funny with it.” The song won the ‘Song of the Year’ award at the Grammy’s in 2006.

In the song Bono is crying out to his father to share relationship with his son, for Bono to be able to help his father through this tough battle he was having with cancer. The chorus of ‘sometimes you can’t make it on your own‘ is all the more poignant with the knowledge of what Bono & Bob were going through.

Last Sunday night at Redefine we had the last in our ‘We Believe’ series, looking at ‘You can’t do life alone’. As Christians we are called to live in community with other believers and with God. We are called to ‘bear one another’s burdens‘, to ‘not give up meeting together‘, to practice hospitality, and serve one another.

We were never meant to go through life isolated. Indeed, right at the beginning God said it was not good for man to be alone.

One way to ensure that we do not do life alone is to engage in community with a local church. Now, many people have negative viewpoints of church, due to many different reasons, most involving being hurt in some way or another by churches and the people in them. However, we are all imperfect, broken people, that are being healed and made whole by God, and as a result, hurt and offence does occur. Does this mean we should give up on church? Should we stop doing life with other believers because of past issues and hurts?

No.

Not at all.

Jesus told us offences would come, but we need to forgive and move forward. Continue to do life together. As the Jack Johnson song says ‘it’s always better when we’re together‘. This goes for doing life with each other, and its especially true of doing life in relationship with God. Life is definitely better with Jesus.

The Third Day song ‘When the rain comes‘ talks about how when we go through bad and difficult times, it is better to go through them with God, even if we still go through the tough times; God is with us, holding us.

So I encourage you, as we encouraged the young people last Sunday night. Don’t do life alone. You were never designed that way. God wants you to live life with Him and with each other.

Be blessed!