I began this series with my Hymns: 1980 Memories post, so this is the 34th in the series 😀.
Even though 2014 is 11 years ago, it doesn’t feel all that far back. As I get older, in many ways I’m more contented, but life seems duller. Maybe I’m starting to like dullness 😀.
I am wondering when to stop this series. Maybe I’ll close with 2019 and do a single post covering the 2020s 😀.
Worship songs from 2014 include the following:
By the way, Rend Collective are from Northern Ireland.
In 2014, I remember discovering a beautiful version of one of my favourite older hymns; How Shall I Sing That Majesty?
My book of 2014 was Magnificent Obsession by David Robinson from Scotland. I always enjoyed him on debates on the Unbelievable podcast, which I listened to each week throughout the 2010s. He initially was well known for The Dawkins Letters, a response to Richard Dawkin’s The God Delusion.
My favourite Audible book of 2014 was The Courage to Be Protestant by David Wells, who was a regular on the 9Marks podcast. He explores the various new versions of evangelicalism, such as megachurches and the emergent church movement and argues for a return to historic evangelicalism. He used the term “Protestant” rather than evangelical. Evangelicals often avoid the term “Protestant” because it’s too broad. It covers all those theologians and churches that embraces modernism.
Modernists tend to see the Bible as God’s word in a very loose sense. But some evangelicals are happy to stick with the term “Protestant” because true Protestants are those who are governed by Scripture. Here in the Irish republic, evangelicals avoid the word “Protestant” because it aligns people with the “other side” in politics. We like to see ourselves as something new, or something that goes back to the New Testament rather than the reformation. But, like it or not, we are Protestant in theological terms. And in 21st Century Ireland, surely we should have left behind the tribal mentality in both Catholics and Protestants.
The film Exodus Gods and Kings was released in 2014. I attempted to watch it once, but I don’t think I lasted more than 10 minutes 😀. Sometimes, such films are irritating because they don’t accurately represent the story as given in the Bible. I did like the old Ten Commandments film though, and I like the theme from Prince of Egypt – When You Believe. But I’d hope that such films might generate interest in the Bible among people who’ve had little exposure to it.
Musically, I remember buying the U2 360 Blu-ray in early 2014. Back in 1994, I bought the Zooropa video and loved it. The 360 concert was even better. And now, I see the Berlin concert up on YouTube. It’s a great time to be alive 😀.
My favourite songs of 2014 weren’t from 2014. They were old songs that intrigued me for some reason. The first is Bob Dylan’s All the Tired Horses from 1970. I don’t know if he even sings on it. It just repeats the same line. But I couldn’t stop listening to it 😀.
The other is U2’s Magnificent from 2009. I had heard it in 2009, but seeing it performed on my U2 360 Blu-ray disc made it much more special.
We went to London for our holidays again in 2014. I don’t remember going anywhere new there. We just went back to some of our favourite places – Camden Market, Hampton Court, Brighton, Cambridge etc. I do remember visiting the British Museum for the first time in years.
What else do I remember about 2014? We went to St Mary’s Cathedral, here in Limerick, to hear a talk by actor Jeremy Irons. A woman with a beard won the Eurovision. We had a parade with a giant granny in Limerick. And I remember hearing an interview with Bono introducing U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence. It’s funny that whenever I listen to the album, I always just think of that interview. You should always be careful about how you listen to a new album, because the memory of the context will stick.
Bono mentioned an amazing new device that Apple will soon release that’ll change how we listen to music. I never discovered what that was meant to be 😀. Maybe, they cancelled it and he shouldn’t have mentioned it. U2 got into a lot of trouble for loading all Apple devices with their free album. It did have some excellent songs on it though. My favourite is his tribute to his mother.
It’s a reminder to me, not only of my own mother, but the fact that all sorts of people who might be long gone still shine a light in our lives. For me, these include people that I barely knew, but as I grow older, their memory becomes more delightful.
I think of this verse from Hebrews:
Heb 12:1
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
Some Roman Catholics believe that the “cloud of witnesses” are the Catholic saints who we can pray to. I see nothing in Scripture that suggests that we can communicate with people who have passed away. In fact, some argue that attempting to do so is forbidden (See Deuteronomy 18:10–12). But mentally, in my memory, I do feel surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. For the most part these are great spiritual heroes of the Bible and history. But I could even see it as all people that brought me joy throughout my life. They might not even have been spiritually-minded people. But I thank God for them all. And they energize me and help me to run the great race.
In Bono’s interview, he requested that Take Me to Church by Hozier be played. It’s a very impressive song musically. It’s in no way positive towards religion. In fact, it’s very much an anthem of negativity towards religion. When I left the Roman Catholic church back in 1980, it was quite a radical thing to do. Nowadays, much of Ireland is negative towards the Roman Catholic Church for a variety of reasons. Mass attendance is a fraction of what it was in 1980. One positive outcome of that is that those who do attend are more likely to go because they genuinely want to worship together rather than out of social pressure. That was one of the reasons that I moved to an evangelical church in 1980. I believed that evangelical churches were more aligned to Bible teaching but a key consideration was that I wanted to be among people who were enthusiastic, who really believed and who really wanted to be there. As Catholics, most of us just endured the Mass, waited for the end, and rushed for the door to get out. Some just hung around the door for the whole Mass.
Anyway, here are some music, events, and films/TV shows that would have formed the background to 2014. I don’t necessarily endorse all the songs or films 😀.
10 Songs of 2014
- Happy – Pharrell Williams
- Invisible – U2
- Magic – Coldplay
- All of Me – John Legend
- A Sky Full of Start – Coldplay
- Stay with Me – Sam Smith
- Shake it Off – Taylor Swift
- All About the Bass – Meghan Trainor
- Take Me to Church – Hozier
- Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
10 Movies or TV Shows of 2014
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- The Theory of Everything
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- The Lego Movie
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Birdman
- The Musketeers (UK TV Show)
- Paddington
- Muppets Most Wanted
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
10 News Events from 2014
- Taliban massacre 145 people, mostly children, in a Pakistani school.
- In Ireland, mass demonstrations erupted nationwide against the introduction of domestic water charges, marking one of the largest public protests in Ireland in decades
- In the Independence referendum, Scotland voted to remain part of the UK, with 55% voting No and a record 85% turnout.
- The deadliest Ebola epidemic in history spread across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, killing over 11,000 people and prompting a global health emergency.
- Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 Disappearance – The Boeing 777 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, sparking one of aviation’s greatest mysteries,
- Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Shot Down MH17 was downed over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers and crew. Evidence pointed to a Russian-made missile fired by separatists.
- ISIS seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a caliphate and committing widespread atrocities, prompting international military responses
- Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March, triggering global condemnation and sanctions from Western nations
- The extremist group, Boko Haram, kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, sparking the global #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
- In the Indian general election, Narendra Modi led the BJP to a sweeping victory, becoming Prime Minister and reshaping India’s political landscape.
10 Famous People Who Passed Away in 2014
- Robin Williams – Beloved actor and comedian
- Joan Rivers – Pioneering comedian and TV host
- Richard Attenborough – Actor and director of Gandhi, also known for Jurassic Park
- Lauren Bacall – Iconic actress from Hollywood’s Golden Age
- Mickey Rooney – Veteran actor with a career spanning nine decades
- Bob Hoskins – British actor known for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Long Good Friday
- Shirley Temple – Former child star and diplomat, famous for her 1930s films
- Pete Seeger – Legendary folk singer and activist behind “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”
- Joe Cocker – Soulful British singer known for “With a Little Help from My Friends”
- Ian Paisley – A prominent Northern Irish political and religious leader
Hibernia Gospel 