I don't know if you've seen it, but I've just been watching Susan Boyle's performance from last Saturday's Britian's Got Talent again on Youtube. I think this is a bit of a parable of our time.
She is a singer of enormous talent, who cared for her widowed mother until she died two years ago. Susan's is a combination of ability and virtue that deserves congratulation. So how come she was treated as a laughing stock when she walked on stage for the opening heat of Britain's Got Talent 2009 on Saturday night? The moment the reality show's audience and judging panel saw the small, shy, middle-aged woman, they started to smirk. When she said she wanted a professional singing career to equal that of Elaine Paige, the camera showed audience members rolling their eyes in disbelief. Susan Boyle from Blackburn, West Lothian, was presumed to be a buffoon.
But why? Britain's Got Talent isn't a beauty pageant. It isn't a youth opportunity scheme. It is surely about discovering untapped and unrecognised raw talent from all sections of society. And Susan Boyle has buckets of talent. If, like Susan (and like millions more), you feel that you don't fit the world's mould, maybe you're not in the best physical condition or too poor or too unworldly to follow fashion or have a good hairdresser, then I'm sure you'll share that rosy glow I felt when watching this clip.
This brave, excentric lady took her dignity in her hands to pitch at her one hope of having her singing talent recognised, and was greeted with a communal sneer. Courage could so easily have failed her. Yet why shouldn't she sound wonderful? Not every great singer looks like Lilly Allen or Lady GaGa. And yet, just because of her looks, she is a veteran of abuse. From looking through various blogs, a trip to Wikipedia and some clips on the BBC site, you can easily find out that she was starved of oxygen at birth and has learning difficulties as a result. At school she was slow and had frizzy hair. She was bullied, mostly verbally. She told one newspaper that her classmates' torrent of bullying left behind the kind of scars that don't heal. She's never had a boyfriend or been snogged and she lived with her parents in a four-bedroom council house and, when her father died a decade ago, she cared for her mother and sang in the church choir. A modest lady, but then she isn't the glamorous type. Carers don't often get invited to sparkling dinner parties or glitzy receptions, so smart clothes rarely make it off the hanger.
Then, when a special occasion comes along, the only option is to go for the outfit bought for a family wedding. But it is often evidence of a life lived selflessly; of a person so focused on the needs of another that they have lost sight of themselves. Is that a cause for being mocked or a reason for congratulation? Would her time have been better spent slimming and exercising, plucking and waxing, bleaching and botoxing? Would that have made her voice any sweeter?
Susan Boyle's mother encouraged her to sing. She wanted her to enter Britain's Got Talent. But the shy Susan hasn't been able to sing at all since her mother's death two years ago. She wasn't sure how her voice would emerge after so long a silence. And yet, here was a voice that gave Piers Morgan 'the biggest surprise he's had over the three years of the show.'
So why is it that I find myself, and those around me, judging the preverbial book by its cover, giving the most attention to the colleague who shouts the loudest, engaging with people who don't challenge my prejudices. I know God looks at our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), and yet why am I not looking past the exterior? If people judged me on my looks, it would definately suck for me.
I challenge you to see people through God's eyes, refuse to judge others and be Jesus to the people that He loves. If it wasn't for the opportunity to allow us past the first impression, Susan Boyle would still be a name that no-one knew.
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