Monday, April 20, 2009
A Lesson In Humility From A Funny Place
Everybody has seen the Susan Boyle video by now - so much so, YouTube has disabled embedding, probably due to server overload. There has also been much comment on it. But I especially liked this from Jeanne McManus in last Friday's Washington Post:
Humility is not about not being worthy, it is about know precisely your worth, and the source thereof. In our media saturated age, when it seems like self-promotion is a never ending battle just to accomplish the slightest thing publicly, this woman did it based on talent, and without a hint of self-promotion.
Susan Boyle is the biggest thing to hit the Internet since "Snakes on a Plane" and I actually think she is much, much bigger.
There is a lesson for the church in all of this. Real, genuine, widespread appeal lies not in the self-promotion and posturing of our media culture, but of being good at what we say we are good at.
Think about it.
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Sure, it would be nice if Boyle goes on to win the finals of this competition -- and even to meet the queen. But to me that's not the point. In a world that is sometimes rife with bloated résumés, stage mothers, fawning friends, self-adulation, narcissism and bedroom shelves holding too many meaningless trophies from middle school, here is a woman who took an accurate measure of her worth and put it to the test in the white-hot crucible of reality TV.Woulda thunk that? The real appeal here is the woman's genuine humility?!?!?!?!? Actually, that is exactly what I liked about it.
There's nothing wrong with pride. It's false pride that is the problem.
For now, the 47-year-old single woman has returned to Blackburn, her small village in Scotland, where I pray she can be preserved and defended from stylists, colorists, manicurists, eyebrow waxers, record producers, morning talk shows and other makeover mavens who will seek to dye her roots, define her waistline and steal her purity.
Humility is not about not being worthy, it is about know precisely your worth, and the source thereof. In our media saturated age, when it seems like self-promotion is a never ending battle just to accomplish the slightest thing publicly, this woman did it based on talent, and without a hint of self-promotion.
Susan Boyle is the biggest thing to hit the Internet since "Snakes on a Plane" and I actually think she is much, much bigger.
There is a lesson for the church in all of this. Real, genuine, widespread appeal lies not in the self-promotion and posturing of our media culture, but of being good at what we say we are good at.
Think about it.
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