No Line. Get On Your Boots.Now.

Get On Your Boots, the first single from U2's new album No Line On The Horizon, will be released as a digital download on February 15th with a physical format to follow on February 16 through Mercury/Universal (UK).

Produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, sessions for No Line On The Horizon began in Fez, Morocco, and continued at the band's Dublin studio, New York's Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and London's Olympic Studios.

Released on March 2nd (March 3rd in the US), the album will come in a standard format with 24 page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album's companion film "Linear" by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition 64 page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl. (More on the formats below)

The album cover artwork is an image of the sea meeting the sky by Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Here's the full tracklisting:

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez - Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon


awesome.

God's Desire, My Apathy.

“For this [is] good and acceptable in sight of the Savior, our God, who all people he is desiring be saved and into knowledge of the truth to come.” 1 Tim 2:3-4


:: Upon a cursory reading of the second chapter of 1 Timothy, the first six verses are easily passed over far too quickly; either as simply an extended exhortation to prayer en route to many further exhortations regarding all manner of doctrine and practice, or as a straightforward build-up on the way to more difficult and/or controversial passages. To do so, however, is to bypass the heart of all that Paul proceeds to say afterwards; the foundation and wellspring of his passion for these matters at hand. Most simply put, upon deeper examination of these few verses, I find the Gospel itself, hidden in plain view; with no less than the heart of God presented as the reason and resource for all that the Church is called to be and do. God desires the salvation and restoration of all people, because in Jesus Christ he has ransomed all people; as such he calls forth his Church, in witness, teaching, ministry and prayer, to purpose itself unto the benefit of all people. God’s heart is ever and presently bent in love towards the whole world; in the outworking of the transformation of redemption upon our own hearts, the same ought be true of us.

Too often, whether through fear, discouragement or simple apathy, I find that it is easy to pursue the eternal benefit and healing of those around me in a half-hearted manner, if at all. Too easily I resign myself to the foregone conclusion that not everyone will respond positively to the gospel; I set my expectations low, as not to be disappointed. I do not risk myself – my pride, my time, my reputation – for those around me. I call it “reality”; at the heart of my inaction, however, the truth is that I simply cannot surrender myself and my self interest enough to care – or at least, not to care enough. I build this inactive response upon my ‘knowledge’ and my own experience, and while I might honestly say that this subconscious pessimism is simply realistic, it is ‘realism’ of this sort that brings death to our compassion. It is this subtle line of thought that leads people, and churches, to insularity; gradually setting our sights and hearts only upon those who we naturally find in our midst on the basis of easy affinity, with little thought or capacity to care about those we don’t.

Paul’s words here regarding the nature of God’s longing draw a stark contrast on this point. This God, who due to his infinite knowledge and boundless foresight has infinitely greater justification for pessimism and resignation than I, is yet defined, in God’s very character, by hope. Some will reject, many will refuse his love, yet knowing this more clearly than I will ever have the capacity to know, this God even now continues to desire for the salvation, the healing and redemption of every person. Is this simply divine naïveté, or is something deeper at work here? Is God eternally unrealistic? No, God is more realistic than we can ever hope to comprehend. In fact, it is this reality, this “knowledge of the truth” that God most longs for every person to take hold of. To be saved, in this light, is to repent of our unreality – to turn from the lies in which we live that tell us that we are alone, hopeless, un-vouched for and unloved. To “be saved” is simply to come into knowledge of the truth that we HAVE been saved; ransomed, paid for, and set free. To remain in darkness is simply to refuse to open our eyes. To remain in slavery is simply to refuse to accept that we have been ransomed out from it.

As such, God himself is perpetually moved in compassion and desire for all people; in heartbreak for their self-deception and in hope for their redemption in the truth. And, in those of us who have been brought to life and freedom, the heart of God compels us into compassion, action and witness, for the sake of all people, in resonance with the hope and desire of God himself; in prayer, teaching, and action.

Phillipians 3

pastor chris.

When we are young, we constantly strive to be perceived and regarded as somewhat older than we are. We relish any opportunity to be included in the conversations or activities of an older caste; hanging out with the 'big kids', being able to sit at the 'grown-up' table at family gatherings, etc. Growing up itself is, in many ways, a process of testing the limits of when we might genuinely come to be included, in the perception of our peers and community, in that cumulative tier of maturity that is, at present, just beyond us.

Until such a time as this is the case, we pretend; enacting adventures, both dangerous and docile, smoking a stolen cigarette, or driving the parents car around an empty lot. We pretend until our fantasy of greater maturity is actually attained, at which point we set the sights of our hopeful pretense yet another rung higher. At some point, this process of pretense and attainment begins to climax; the distance between reality and what was initially only fantasy becoming less and less.

When I was six years old, perhaps I would pretend that I was a grown man with a job and a family, mimicking my father in the form of something that might be decades away. When I was in high school, perhaps the thought of college life captured my imagination; this only four years removed from my present. In our twenties, maybe it is a job we aspire to, or a promotion; ultimately things only months out of our reach, depending on circumstance... At some point, we are finally forced to realize that we have arrived at 'maturity'; that place of regard and responsibility that we have been striving and pretending at our whole lives, whether or not it actually looks like we had thought or hoped. Eventually, after coming to grips with this climax, many people find themselves, suddenly and strangely, wishing that they were younger.

But alas, the march of time knows no reverse. Our pretense only works in one direction.

It seems that I have arrived at a place that was only once a distant dream; career, promotion, responsibility... a wife, a house, and soon a child. I look around now, and I realize that all these people around me believe that this is who I really am; mature, responsible... an adult. And, I can't help but wonder when they'll find me out... when they'll realize that this is just a game. I wonder when they'll realize that I am really just a child who has been pretending to be grown... Because I don't have this thing figured out yet. I don't really know what I am doing. I'm just making all this up as I go along.

Life these days feels as if I am riding the crest of a wave; who I am and where I will be tomorrow doesn't actually exist until the moment I arrive... as if the ground itself that I am walking on does not exist until the moment my foot falls to meet it. I worry about the day when my imagination will fail me, when I will fail to imagine the next step into existence, causing me to stumble, and this house of cards to collapse. Because this is uncharted territory, filled with the unknown, threatening to bring me to the end of what my competency can muster.

But then I wonder if maybe... maybe this is what it means to walk by faith. Maybe this is the essence of what it means to allow God to lead us into the heart of a calling and a life that is greater than ourselves; greater than we can even imagine. Maybe it is here, as we are forced to reckon with the inability of our own competency to lead us into the realization of tomorrow, that we discover what faith really is. Maybe to be grown is not to come to the place where we believe that we've got this life figured out, but rather to realize that we never will; to surrender to trust that God will guide us into tomorrow, creating it before us even as we go.

The dew of creation is yet fresh upon this day. I did not know what it would hold before I got here, and tomorrow is hidden by the mists of pre-existence. But I will walk forward in the trust in my creator and sustainer; the giver of breath to my lungs and words to my heart. I do not have wisdom enough for even today, but his wisdom and love is sufficient to bring about all my days that have yet to be. So I cast myself upon Him, His hands and heart and purposes, in trust and faith, and in the divine joy that is found in surrender to the one who is truly sufficient for me.