Courage and Heart, More Important Than Talent

In this time of dour news and economic upheaval, we want to see something good. We want to see an underdog come out on top. We want the little guy to succeed.

The world has its share of over-hyped pretty girls that can carry a tune but when Susan Boyle got up to sing in front of three judges, one of them being the infamous Simon Cowell, and a live audience; she walked away leaving the audience in a frenzy and the judges welcoming her to the next round of "Britain's Got Talent".

Why has this unknown Scottish woman made such an impact on the world? At last count, there are at least 20 videos on YouTube that contain the now famous audition clip as well as recent television interviews. One of the audition video clips has been hit 11,700,393 times to date!! Every major news carrier has run a story on how this plain, 47 year old woman with bushy eyebrows, who self-deprecatingly admitted she has never been kissed, made even Simon Cowell eat his words. Comments from people all over the world speak of how her performance touched them in some way. Her performance made them cry. They saw beauty where they had never seen it before. They felt blessed to hear her sing. Most people comment on how they hope Susan Boyle walks away with a record contract and becomes the famous singer she has always aspired to be.

Why has this woman and her performance touched people all over the world they way it has? Because in some ways, the majority of us are just like Susan Boyle. At sometime in our lives, we all aspired to be great or famous at something. We dreamt of making big money or curing a deadly disease. We wanted to see our name in lights or to know that something we did in our lifetimes moved people to action. We all dreamt it but very few of us got there. Life got in the way. We got married. We had kids. We have time consuming jobs. Our parents got old and feeble and needed our care. We got sick. Our husbands or wives got cancer or Alzheimer's . We lost our jobs. We got divorced. We've been alienated or called names. We've been shunned for being different. A million things happened that stood in the way of our dreams and slowly but surely, the dreams faded into the background and all we had left was a vague feeling of time slipping through our hands.

Then all of a sudden, someone like Susan Boyle comes to our attention. She is not what society would call attractive. She is 47 years old and still harbors a silly, childish dream of being famous. She has lived her life in the service of caring for her ailing mother and is not employed. What Susan Boyle does next is the part that captures our attention...she has the audacity to draw attention to herself and to tell the world that her dreams are still valid. Her dreams still matter. And she has the courage to do that in front of the world. At the point where she is most vulnerable to attack and prejudice and judgment, she opens her mouth and with a voice that silences everyone, makes her dreams known through song.

We admire her strength, her courage, and her ability to make others see that it's not what's on the outside that matters, it's what you carry in your heart and soul that make you the person you are. She reminds us of the dreams and goals we once carried in our hearts and lets us know it might not be too late for us either. She proved not only that she has talent but that she has courage and heart. In this world of hardships, murder, and sorrow, she has given us all a glimpse at personal happiness and a reminder that God blesses us in ways that can't always be seen by others until we have the courage to show them all.