( photo from blog.sonyworks.com)My friend Yna Reyes recently forwarded an article about famous violinist Joshua Bell playing incognito at a Washington DC metro station—a social experiment conducted by the Washington Post two years ago on “perception, taste and priorities of people.”
Bell’s Boston concert two days earlier cost avid music fans a whopping $100 dollars per seat. Yet this 45-minute performance at the metro station—where the grandiose sound of his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin melded with Bell's passion for Bach—bagged only a handful of appreciative onlookers and $32 in coins.
How could have thousands missed this awesome brush with greatness? It was free yet only a few cared to stop and savor. If they only knew!
Some caught the moment though. A three year old boy stopped and listened. Egged on by his mother to keep moving, he nonetheless tarried. “This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on,” noted the author of the forwarded article.
Busy? Don't allow your day-to-day activities dictate your priorities or you'll miss life’s rarest gifts.
Getting things accomplished makes good sense; it's a prescription for success. But we must not lose life's breathtaking "wow!" moments. And they come when you least expect them, yes even when you're rushing, catching a ride to somewhere.
We spend a lot of money on entertainment or some form of therapy, believing that these will soften the blow as life takes us on sharp detours. But really, the best things in life are free!
Children know that. Like God’s gift of salvation in Christ. We didn’t earn it. He gave it freely because He loved us. And He doesn’t ask anything in return. For it is by faith, not works, so no one would boast.
That’s why Christ taught us to be child-like: (Matthew 18:3) “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of God.”
Joshua Bell paid a handsome price for his Stradivarius, making sure that with his talent and his instrument, music lovers would experience the extraordinary. But commuters just passed him by, oblivious to a prince in their midst; some dropping a cent or two, probably to assuage their guilt.
Jesus paid with His life. It is a free gift. None of us could ever pay for what He did on the cross. All because He wanted our journey to lead us heavenward. The Prince of Peace, more than that the Savior, awaits your audience. This we could not miss!
Joshua Bell paid a handsome price for his Stradivarius, making sure that with his talent and his instrument, music lovers would experience the extraordinary. But commuters just passed him by, oblivious to a prince in their midst; some dropping a cent or two, probably to assuage their guilt.
Jesus paid with His life. It is a free gift. None of us could ever pay for what He did on the cross. All because He wanted our journey to lead us heavenward. The Prince of Peace, more than that the Savior, awaits your audience. This we could not miss!
"There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
That’s more than extraordinary. That's priceless!
Nikki could have been one of those who stopped for Bell's music.
That’s more than extraordinary. That's priceless!
Nikki could have been one of those who stopped for Bell's music.
I would have stopped to listen! I stop to listen to birds during my early morning walks. People are missing a lot.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Grace! That's the stuff of life. And they're priceless.
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