The latest YouTube sensation is none other than a 47 year old single woman named Susan Boyle. The phenomenon has to be greater than her singing talents. She’s unquestionably talented but you can’t say her vocals alone warranted a record number of YouTube hits. If that were the case than someone like Andre Bochelli should also be at the top. So what’s the deal?
A lot of her success was about the triumph of the unattractive. She was mocked in the beginning for her ambitious desire to sound like a top musical star. But nobody would sneer if she were an attractive twenty-something woman. She wouldn’t be a story if she had covergirl looks. But something so beautiful came out of someone who was frankly not. A lot of people find Boyle inspirational because more people can relate with her than with Beyonce. We all inwardly rejoice in the weak triumphing over the strong.
This build-in paradigm and longing is a reflection for our deepest longings found in the gospel. In 1 Corinthians Paul writes, “26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.”God’s triumphs by using the weak to shame the strong. God triumphs by using the ugly and marginalized to triumph over the outwardly beautiful and shallow.
The cross challenges our assumptions and values. It shows us the beauty of God’s upside-down wisdom. Out of death comes life. From the mouths of babes, God has ordained praise.
Filed under: Music
