3 Campolo Stories on Bono

Three Tony Campolo yarns about Bono:

1) a delightful and little-known
(I'll bet only Jesus and Beth Maynard knew about it...until now) story..

LOL: This story is about the OTHER time he literally stopped traffic. (That one was caught on tape, see 2:41ff here):

Just a participant

Bono has been able to acknowledge his own rock-godness, confront his own massive ego, and move on, as I saw myself firsthand over a decade ago.

I had been asked to speak at Greenbelt Festival, an English Christian arts and music festival that brings together thousands of people every summer. Bono came to Greenbelt that year, but not to perform or pose. He came to attend the workshops and enjoy the music.

Whenever someone told him he looked like Bono, he responded: "I hear that often. That's why I bought these shades, to complete the look."

And when the event's organizers complained that their staff was too overworked to untangle an on-site traffic jam, Bono volunteered to help direct the angry drivers to their parking spots.

Such humility is a far different thing from humiliation, which is something we see quite regularly today. This year has seen a string of greedy corporate executives lowering their heads before judges and admitting that they ripped off their companies and their investors. Michael Jackson, formerly hailed as the "King of Pop," has seen his own carefully honed image self-destruct.

The difference between humility and humiliation is that one is a voluntary admission that God - not you - is the ruler of the universe. The other is involuntary, and painful.

Bono's humility is also seen in his willingness to serve something more significant than his own ego. As a multimillionaire, he could easily pursue unbridled self-gratification. But ever since he and his wife, Ali, visited Africa after 1985's Live Aid benefit concerts, he has used his growing celebrity to serve those whose names will never make the headlines.

"I genuinely believe that second only to personal redemption, the most important thing in the Scriptures - 2,103 passages in all - refers to taking care of the world's poor," Bono told the Los Angeles Times.

So can a rock superstar really teach us anything about humility? Things more amazing than that can happen for those who heed the words of a man who, 2,000 years ago, said, "Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

-Camplo, "Bono: He has learned the power of humility"

2)Watch this (start at 6:05):


(Beth: who is Bono's "elderly" former teacher Campolo talks about here? Is it Jack Heaslip?)

3)And one more.... I told this in a sermon (aha!! a Bono story Beth doesn't know yet!!):

“Yes, Bono’s a believer,"Campolo told us. " I know him and have even worked with him on mission projects.".
.
He continued to address my friend’s question about Bono being a professed believer and using such salty language.

Campolo shot back unapologetically,

“Sometimes our language is not salty enough.”

link;"The Lord Be With You...Even When He’s Not"