We miss beauty in the every day.
Recently as an experiment, Joshua Bell, arguably one of the world’s most accomplished violinists, busked on Washington’s metro system. He, and the Washington Post, wanted to see what the reaction would be to his playing from ordinary people at an ordinary moment in their day. Bearing in mind his gifting and his sell-out gigs everywhere he goes, this was an interesting premise.

So, unsuspecting commuters were treated to a virtuoso performance from a guy in a baseball cap and unassuming T-shirt. Ending his 43-minute set with an amazing rendition of Bach’s D minor Chaconne this was no ordinary busker, but people seemed not to notice his talent.
You might have imagined a crowd would develop, stop and be wowed by his playing. Perhaps Bell himself hoped that he would make the whole station come to a standstill, causing spontaneous applause as he came to an end.
However, this was not the case. Out of 1097 people who passed him (the Washington Post counted every one of them), a grand total of 7 people stopped to listen for more than a minute to him. He earned only $32 and a few cents. Not enough to get a ticket to one of his own gigs.

So what can we learn from this?
Is Bell still talented, although no-one noticed? YES, of course! The beauty of his playing is not in question. It is just that so many of us are too busy to stop and notice beauty right in front of our faces.

We expect things to be showcased, dressed up and parcelled in such a way that we are ‘helped’ to see them. The “Mona Lisa” is not in a grubby Mcdonalds in Slough. Prize portraits are given expensive gilt frames and shown in white-walled hushed spaces. Talent is packaged, thrown at us, critiqued and discussed.

The exercise – really a stunt, which Bell conceived over a cup of coffee with a Post journalist – actually proves the power of context.
We all perceive things within their context. We cannot easily do otherwise. We look at our lives for what they appear to be in the now. But we are not always right to do so.

God may be hiding something in us that is hard to see, especially if we are too busy to stop and value it.
I used to be believe that I was destined for greatness. That I would sing on big stages and speak to large audiences. I am realising that God may never have wanted that for me at all. That may have been entirely my dream and the dream of other misguided voices in my past. Being kept as a spiritual busker in these days is interesting”¦ and hard. No-one recognises who I am or what I can really do. But that is the point of now.

For many of us this is true. We have not yet reached our full potential. We have been born, we have made some small impact on the world but we are yet to fulfill what God has written over us.
It doesn’t deny that God has gifted us, or set us apart. But for some reason those things are not yet seen or heard.

Joshua Bell’s concerts are turned into unforgettable experiences by a communal act of listening – sitting in a beautiful place with expectant people, ready to hear and do nothing else.

Perhaps we should devote more of the every day to stopping and listening to the normality around us and see if we can spot something God has hidden there for our delight and destiny?