3243) A Sign of Hope

     Our country is not what it used to be, and I think we are heading in the wrong direction in many ways.  I was a minister for forty years, and I watched church attendance decline and young people abandon their faith; which is the trend all over America.  Fewer people are getting married, and those that do, marry much later in life than years ago, and will often split up as soon as they face some tough times.  More and more couples, married or not married, are choosing not to have children.  For many people today, children would just get in the way of their search for personal fulfillment.  And despite all the wonderful blessings of life in this free country, with prosperity unimagined by much of the rest of the world, an increasing number of our people struggle with depression.  It is enough to make this old grandpa worry plenty about the future for his grandchildren; just like my two grandfathers back in the 1960’s wondered if this world would hold together long enough for me to grow old– and I did.  So, I don’t give in to my worries, and I keep looking for signs of hope.

     I saw such a sign Monday evening on the finale of this season’s American Idol.  I like that show.  Regular people come from farms, high schools, colleges, faculties, repair shops, churches, homes, hair salons, factories, and stores all over the country, to audition for a long shot at fame and fortune as a singer.  They all have a story, and American Idol does a wonderful job telling many of those fascinating and often inspiring stories.  Each year, there are dozens of great singers, and each week, several really talented people get sent home.  But a few go on, and on, and on… until there is just one.  This year that ‘one’ is Hannah Harper.

     In the initial round of auditions, three judges select who will and will not go on.  After that, the nationwide audience selects what contestants will go home and which ones will compete again the following week.  Hannah Harper was a fan favorite from the very first week when her audition went viral.  It has now been viewed more than a hundred million times.  She sang “String Cheese,” a song she wrote herself.  The title may not knock your socks off, but the song will– along with bringing a tear to your eye and a lump in your throat.  It does for me.

    Now back to the ‘sign of hope.’  What Hannah sings about in “String Cheese” is the exact opposite of everything I am worried about for the next generations.  Hannah married at eighteen, had her first baby at nineteen, and two more by the time she was twenty-one.  Her husband Devon sustained life-threatening injuries in a car accident that left Hannah facing the possibility of life as a single mother.  He survived and is all right now, and the marriage survived.  But after the birth of her third child, this stay-at-home mom struggled with post-partum depression.  She survived that by realizing that being a mom is where she is “meant to be,” and that is what “fills her soul.”  Hannah has a strong faith and spoke of that faith many times during the American Idol competition.  Her life is made up of all of those things that America seems to be abandoning these days… and yet, America loved her, loved her song, and voted to make her this year’s American Idol.  It might just be wishful thinking, but it looks to me like those traditional values are still cherished by many people… and that is a sign of hope.

     Here is Hannah Harper telling her story, and then singing String Cheese for her American Idol audition.  (Lyrics below).  Don’t miss it.

     ———————–

STRING CHEESE