Jumping on the Susan Boyle Bandwagon

Ok, so I know I am a little bit behind the times here, finally blogging about Susan Boyle. I had actually bookmarked the video on YouTube more than two weeks ago, but just didn't feel inspired to write a blog post about it. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, watch the video above.

At the most basic level, I love the musical Les Miserables and enjoy the music from it when it is sung well. So I enjoyed the peformance for that reason, but that certainly wasn't enough to insipire a blog post and it wasn't what everyone else was talking about either.

There was the surface level analysis of the performance "the ultimate don't judge a book by its cover" statement that I could have made. But that seemed a little trite and cliché, more CNN.com stuff than bloga de gregorio stuff.

So I sat on the video and thought about it some more, looking for inspiration. As it turned out, the pastors at my church have incorporated the Susan Boyle story in to their sermons for the past three weeks. On Sunday morning, pastor Pattie Kitchen talked about it again and even showed the video for those who hadn't seen it. It was her sermon and analysis that finally inspired me to post something about this.

So much in this world and in our lives centers around striving for acceptance. We don't want to be laughed at, made fun of, mocked, or disrespected. We want to be accepted and feel loved.

This is a nearly universal human desire, to feel accepted and loved. And we have all struggled with it, some more than others. I have no doubt that Susan Boyle has had her share of struggle wanting to feel accepted or loved.

Seeing the way the crowd initially reacts to her when she comes on stage made me sick to my stomach. It brought back flashbacks of awkward and painful moments in high school. Somehow I was relating to a 48 year old woman in Britain on a very basic level. Susan Boyle and I had something in common, we had both been treated unfairly by people who didn't even know us. People made assumptions about us based on appearance or on one or two things we had said without caring enough to get to know who we really are.

And then, the glorious redemption! As soon as she opens her mouth and begins singing, the crowd cheers for her and is brought to tears. A standing ovation follows! But why did it take an angelic voice for people to treat Susan Boyle with basic respect and dignity?

Dig deep here, think about yourself, the way that you treat and interact with people, strangers, or people who you have only exchanged a few words with. Now reflect on your faith and what accepting the love of Jesus calls you to do and defines how you should treat people.

I hope and pray that the Susan Boyle example can impact the way that you treat people. Be the person that God created you to be and let the love of Jesus shine through you, especially in how you treat other people.