Susan Boyle and Paul Potts...Beauty Where It Counts

If you haven't heard the incredible vocal abilities of Susan Boyle or Paul Potts, you should google their names and get an earful. Paul Potts won Britain's Got Talent a couple of years ago, and has since produced two CD's. He has a superb voice, gifted for opera.

Susan Boyle is the most recent hit from Britain's Got Talent. Within hours of her flawless performance, web sites and fan clubs were bursting from internetland. She sang "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables.

What do these two talented and previously "unknown" people have in common? They have both been gifted by God with absolutely incredible, beautiful voices. They both led normal, fame-free, neighbor-next-door existences until their talents were recognized. They were both bullied in school. They have both been portrayed as, how can I say this politely, less than model-perfect in their physical appearance. This is my subject matter for this post.

When is our infatuation with beauty ever going to reach further than the surface of one's physical make-up? I have read so many articles about Susan Boyle...referring to her as the "ugly duckling" making it big. Why do writers have to use such words when describing another human? Why does it matter what a talented person looks like? When someone like Paul or Susan has such a beautiful, awe-inspiring voice, why do writers focus on what they look like? Hello? Their talent, the part of them that they are choosing to share with the rest of the world, is their voice, not their body or their smile or their hair or whatever other feature critics choose to attack. None of the other stuff is important anyway - beauty is fleeting.

Has anyone noticed that the once incredibly good-looking male actors and singers of the 1950's and 1960's are aging, getting fatter, getting greyer, getting balder, getting "wrinklier," getting old? Their female counterparts pay gross sums of money to have their bodies sucked and tucked and plumped and filled in order to stay looking "young." For what purpose? Does the exterior make the interior? Of course not. There is SO MUCH MORE to a human being than their looks! When the book of Genesis says God created man in His image, it does not say He only creates the "pretty" people in His image. We need to learn to see past the physical - to see the real person. Sometimes the "pretty" people have ugly personalities: they are selfish, cruel, unfeeling, haughty, shallow, and filled with pride. So what if they are handsome or gorgeous? Yet we continue to judge a person by their exterior, without taking the time to know their inner person.

I, for one, hope many things for Susan Boyle. I hope she wins Britain's Got Talent, I hope she makes a ton of money from CD's (I'll buy some!), I hope she travels and enjoys the blessings God bestows on her, and I hope God protects her from miscreant suitors who would have never given her a second look before her fame. I hope she remains the obviously caring person she has been; she looked after her mother until her death two years ago. She volunteers with her church. She's done things for charity. This is Susan Boyle's beauty. This is her character. I hope God protects her from those that would use her for their own fame and rank. I hope Susan Boyle recognizes that her talent comes from the Lord, Who loves her and gave Himself for her. I hope He gives her wisdom and true friends and the ability to judge rightly and not be hurt or used.

True beauty stems from within a person. It is their character, their moral standard, their kindness, their compassion, their ability to feel and help their fellow man. For those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it is His beauty that flows and reaches out to others, spreading the Gospel and reconciling sinful man to their Holy Creator.

Are we not yet filled to overflowing with fake beauties who live for their next hair appointment and wouldn't consider a humanitarian task which might cause them to break a nail?

I have told my children for years, and will continue to do so until they are all married, that beauty is fleeting. The Bible says beauty is short-lived. The book of Ecclesiastes says all is vanity, and truly we are a people obsessed with vanity.

When you find someone to marry, do it for the person inside, not the outside. We live in a sin-cursed world, which is why God the Creator had to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die and pay for our sins. Because of the nature of man and the curse of sin, bad things happen. The Scriptures say that it rains on the just and on the unjust. Accidents, birth defects, illness, and disease happen to people of all races, ages, nationalities, denominations, color, and financial position. If you marry a woman because she is beautiful, and then she suffers an accident and her beauty is gone, does that change who she is? No. Yet so many men will divorce or obtain a mistress because "the wife" is no longer lovely to behold. The same is true of women when a husband loses his looks. What that really reveals is the extreme shallow character of the one who was not marred.

God has made each and every human being on the planet. The Bible says He knew us before we were formed. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says He hath made every thing beautiful in his time. Why then do we stand and judge that which God has created? Yes, some of us are not "lovely" by a dictionary definition to look upon while others are exceedingly beautiful. Most of us are average. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble. But does it matter? God says we are created in His image. Is that not beauty enough? We are to live for Him, to bring honor and glory to Him. A beautiful voice can be a tremendous way to bring honor and glory to the Creator.

I hope that many people will see Susan Boyle and Paul Potts and see that there is so much more to behold than just the outward appearance. Scripture says man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. May our hearts be right before God.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.