Within the lines of "Does Anybody Hear Her" is a message of defining yourself and setting a direction and path in life. With everything of this world tugging at her in every possible direction, judgement piercing her no matter which way she chooses to go. The woman in the song faces the everyday struggles of life that some may deal with but others live with. It seems that in the beginning the ways and temptations in life are beginning to control her life. She tries and tries to be her and to catch up to reality but she gives in to the world, she gives herself away. The further she strays the further she is behind and more difficult it will be to catch up to the path she wants to be on. Nobody listens to her feelings and thoughts, acknowledging her not, causing her to stray in this direction. Those who should care the most are the least she gets the comfort and encouragement she so desperately needs. The mistakes she has made and has to live with for the rest of her life gets "lofty glances", stares, and banishment from the people she once knew, she seems as if she has been ostracized from the world.


This young girl is lost and confused about life and which direction she should go in. "She is running, a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction," (lines 1-2). I believe she is struggling through her walk in life. Things may not be going the way she hoped or planned. It seems as if everything is going against her and the things of importance are floating away. The things of bad are becoming her life, they are taking over her life she once had. But the struggle keeps getting worse and worse and more complicated. In lines 4-8 it tells how bad the situation is: "But the canyon's ever widening, in the depths of her cold heart, so she sets out on another misadventure just to find, she's another two years older and she's three more steps behind." She is trying with everything she has to change but the canyon or troubles widen and get worse making it even more challenging to change and go in the right direction in which she so desperately wants to return to. And because she feels unable to change she continues on her path making it that much more behind.

What is our world coming to, and the place that should be counting the most, our churches. We need to be there not only for each other but also for the lost and lonely people who need to hear the truth, encouragement, and support they don't get anywhere else. But that's the one place where they may get the brunt of it all. In lines 9-14 it states, "Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see? Or does anybody even know she's going down today." We need to be the one's who give them the love and support the world never gives them. We need to look deeper into the hearts of the people not for their outer appearance but for their inner beauty. To dig a deeper tunnel to understand and see their troubles and difficulties they are dealing with. "Under the shadow of our steeple, with all the lost and lonely people. Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me." Our actions in the church should match our actions in public, there should be no difference. Our churches should not be transforming into the way the world is acting and what the world believes is right and that's what seems to be occurring. We as a church body need to stand our ground and do what a church should. (lead those who need Him into the right direction and not push them away). We need not be the stumbling block and reason those who come to receive the Word turn and run the other way. We have to be that person who isn't different in different settings, there's so many out there who are looking for the hope that's tucked away in us. But how many people stray from us because of our actions, how many have we truly let fall.

We need to be that one she (or anyone) can run to when they're in that certain time of trouble. We never know what is truly going on in someones personal life, which is why we need to be that person they can run to for support and comfort. "She is yearning, for shelter and affection, that she never found at home. She is searching for a hero to ride in-to ride in and save the day," (lines 15-20). But if we turn the other way she will yearn for something else to meet and accomplish her needs. "And in walks her prince charming, and he knows just what to say, momentary lapse of reason, and she gives herself away," (lines 21-24). Because of the ignorance and selfishness of the people she needed most, she desperately went to a different source to receive it. Men have a way of sweet-talking a girl and making them feel absolutely amazing. Because of his smooth moves and delicate way of making a woman feel good, he got what he wanted and she now has the comfort and support that was empty, she so desperately needed. Being as desperately as some and not having the attention she needed the most she may have chosen a man who may not have even been the one she really wanted in life but she turns to him for the comfort and support he will give her. Seeing this happen on a daily bases is so disappointing, the church and others as well need to be there for the friends, family, neighbors, and strangers around them.


Along with the complications occurring in her life comes the dreadful situation of having sex out of wed-lock and becoming pregnant. As a church body, most look down on that when really we need to be looking deeper into their heart and feelings. In the last few lines, lines 25-28, saying "If judgment looms under every steeple, If lofty glances from lofty people, Can't see past her scarlet letter, and we never even met her." Most of us know the story behind the meaning of the scarlet letter but some of us including me hadn't heard of that at all and never knew what it meant. In the year of 1642, in a Puritan village a young woman was sent to prison. She was being punished for adultery. In the summer of that year she left the prison with a baby in her arms and a scarlet cloth with the letter "A" printed on it pinned to the breast of her clothing. The scarlet "A" was a label meaning adulterer and a sin patch so to speak for all to see. She took on all the guilt and shame upon herself, the father of the baby was not known due to protect himself from humiliation and reputation.

We haven't even met those who come into the church but yet we continue to give them unreasonable glances judging them for what we have no idea what is going on in their life. We need to step out of the "you're not good enough for us" state of mind in get a wider grasp on what truly is going on in someones life. We need to help them and not push them further away. For if we don't we are making those who don't know Him and need help, stray in the other direction. We're pushing them further into their troubled life they were trying to get away from and get help for. Now really think..how many have you let fall?