Why hasn’t Susan Boyle been “discovered” before this time?  I think she’s sensational.  What a blessing the world can now hear her interpretations of the music that not only is sung out loud, but obviously resides inside her heart, as well.  Truly, music is the universal language.  I hope you like this song sung by Susan Boyle as much as I did.  ENJOY!

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Remember when your mother told you to never judge a book by its cover when you were growing up?  It was to teach us not to assume we can glean to know someone/something about which we’ve just laid eyes on for the first time – especially by physical appearance alone.  If you never heard this expression before, you’re not alone, but I think the whole world now knows what this saying means after viewing Britains Got Talent 2009 the other day when the audience saw Susan Boyle for the first time on stage.  She was auditioning for Britain’s equivalent to our American Idol competition.  This 48 year old, matronly woman stood on stage with a mic in her hand; Simon asked her name, where she came from, how old she was, what her “dream” was, and what she was going to sing for the judges – all while the audience was tittering and laughing and looking at her with disbelief.   She maintained her poise, dignity and humor throughout the initial questioning and finished by telling the audience she was going to sing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables. Then she cued the music; she only got out a couple of notes when the audience went absolutely bananas clapping, whistling, and uttering all kinds of pleasant sounds.  See for yourself!

I was totally stunned by her performance; found myself crying with joy for her towards the end of her performance – actually, it was when she sang the line, “as they turn your dream to shame,” and she held that note on the word shame for as long as she did.

Absolutely spectacular!   What can I say?  Susan Boyle had me at hello.

Here are the Lyrics (Thanks to NewHotdox via YouTube)

I Dreamed a Dream

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame.

And still
I dream he’ll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather…

I had a dream my life would be
So different form this hell I’m living
so different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.

God Bless Tom Wright for telling it like it is, namely, that the Church has been trivializing Easter and that “Christians must keep their nerve – the Resurrection isn’t a metaphor, it’s a physical fact.”  Amen, Brother!

Tom Wright’s article, The Church Must Stop Trivialising Easter, is one every Christian ought to read and that’s why I’m providing a link to it today.   Here’s just a few of Wright’s gems embedded in his article:

• Easter was the pilot project.  What God did for Jesus He intends to do for the whole creation. Christians are called to be new-creation people here and now.
• True meaning has remained hidden; the Church has trivialised it; the world has rubbished it. Church has turned Jesus’s Resurrection into a “happy ending” after the dark and messy story of Good Friday.
• “Resurrection” to first century Jews wasn’t about “going to heaven” rather the physically dead being physically alive again. Nobody back then expected just one person to be bodily raised from the dead in the middle of history.
• The Resurrection is not what social science calls “cognitive dissonance”. Resurrection is not about someone coming back into the present mode of life, rather, someone going on into a new sort of existence, bodily.
• Split between God and the “real” world produces a public life lurching between anarchy and tyranny; an aesthetic swinging dramatically between sentimentalism and brutalism.
• Politicians can not save the world.
• Death is final weapon of the tyrant, the anarchist; resurrection indicates this weapon doesn’t have “the last word”.
• Church must work with Easter energy of justice and beauty, facing down skeptics, speaking once more of Jesus in a way that will be heard.

The Right Rev Dr Tom Wright is Bishop of Durham

..to jumpstart my heart, as well as this blog, don’t you think, dears?  I could spend way too much time here explaining my absence due to a number of hardships, but it would pale in comparison to the hardships most people are going through at this time.   Let’s just say the last half year has been quite challenging, and still is.  However, I know my attitude and well-being is tied into my writing and instilling hope and perseverance in others.  I appreciate all of you who have stopped by to leave comments and wisdom to share with others.  So, to all my former readers out in the vast CyberWorld – Welcome Back!