Tag Archives: Eugene Peterson

“Where the Streets Have No Name”
U2

I want to run, I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside
I wanna reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see that dust cloud disappear without a trace
I wanna take shelter from the poison rain

Where the streets have no name, oh oh
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We’re still building then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there, I go there with you
It’s all I can do

The city’s a flood
And our love turns to rust
We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled into dust
I’ll show you a place
High on the desert plain

Where the streets have no name, oh oh
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We’re still building then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there, I go there with you
It’s all I can do

Our love turns to rust
We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh and I see love
See our love turn to rust

We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh when I go there
I go there with you
It’s all I can do

Dear God, I woke up yesterday, Thanksgiving morning, and came across a video of an interview with Eugene Peterson (translator of The Message version of the Bible among other things) and Bono (lead singer for U2). They were talking about the impact and importance of the Psalms on their lives. Somehow, and I can’t remember the train of thought that got me there–perhaps it was mentioned in the interview–this song came up and I wanted to spend some time with it and you this morning.

This has always been one of my favorite U2 songs, if not my favorite. Sure, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “God–Part 2,” and “In the Name of Love” are classics that are great, but I think it’s the guitar riff that starts the song that draws me in. Football teams should storm the field to it. It’s just this great little inspiring thing. But I have to confess that I’ve never had any idea what the song was about.

I decided to use Google to search for something that anyone had written about the meaning of the song. I came across this website. Here is this person’s explanation (some of the grammar isn’t perfect for American English, but you get the idea):

There’s a mith about the streets of the city of Belfast in the Northern Ireland. You can know the person’s religion and income of a person only knowing the name of the street where the person live. In Etiopia, where Bono and his wife Ali Hewson are went for an Humanitarian visit, all the streets don’t have name. And Bono sees that this little thing leads to less separation between the people. Less differences and more integration. The lyrics of this song starts all from here.

That explanation really helps to unlock the whole song for me. I couldn’t tell if the place where streets have no name was Heaven or what. But this myth from Belfast is like the keycode that unlocks the cipher. I needed it.

So with that new knowledge, I want to go through this song slowly and see what you might have for me through the wisdom of some fellow Christian sojourners.

I want to run, I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside
I wanna reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see that dust cloud disappear without a trace
I wanna take shelter from the poison rain

Anger and judging others can get so fatiguing. I get tired of other people doing it, but I do it too. I do it to relatives, friends, people I see in the store, and even politicians. I judge them through the lens through which I enter the world. Notice that the second line doesn’t accuse other people of doing this. He is pointing the finger at himself: “I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside.” And he knows what will be there in that place that is free from judgment and prejudice. He will feel sunlight. Evil loves the dark, but truth loves the light. The dust cloud of dirtiness and obfuscation will be gone. And he will get out of the poisonous environment that he’s leaving behind.

Where the streets have no name, oh oh
Where the streets have no name
Where the streets have no name
We’re still building then burning down love
Burning down love
And when I go there, I go there with you
It’s all I can do

I think this chorus is referring to the idea that we will successfully build things, but then, in our humanness, we will burn it down–especially love. If we can just go to that place where we accept and love each other with your grace and your love then we will have arrived in a whole new world.

The city’s a flood
And our love turns to rust
We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Trampled into dust
I’ll show you a place
High on the desert plain

Our love turns to rust
We’re beaten and blown by the wind
Blown by the wind
Oh and I see love
See our love turn to rust

The separations we put between ourselves–where we live, worship, eat out, shop, work, etc.–can’t help but put walls between us. I went back and watched the original music video for this song. They filmed it in a rough part of Los Angeles from the roof of a building the was probably three to five stories tall. Word got out and people from all over the city region came. Rich, poor, black, white, male, female, employed, unemployed, etc. all gathered as one to watch them perform this song. So many showed up that the police had to shut down the filming, but not until after they got some neat footage. But in that moment, no one cared about the address except for the fact that that’s where everyone was.

When we live lives apart and when we don’t allow ourselves to understand what is happening in Central America that is driving refugees to our border, then our love most certainly turns to rust. They have their country (i.e. their street name) and we have our country (i.e. our street name). I’m not suggesting we open up our borders, but I am suggesting that we think more about how to improve their street and reinvigorate our love for others.

Father, help me to apply this to my own life. Help me to apply it to my family relationships. Help me to be sensitive to it in my community and to those who live outside my community. And please don’t let my love turn to rust.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen