Thursday 16 May 2013

Stop and listen to the music

I love this story: Joshua Bell is one of America's most talented violinists. The Washington Post conducted an experiment, with Bell dressed incognito playing in a Washington train station:




It's astounding isn't it? Here's Bell, who sells out concert halls regularly, playing intricate, complicated pieces of music, on a violin that costs $3.5 million dollars. Yet so few people stop and listen to the music.

Sometimes I catch the train to work and often there's a man who busks at Central Station. He's a talented guitarist with an awesome voice and he plays some of my favourite songs. The first few times I would walk straight past him. As time went on I would slow down as I walked past and catch just a snippet of his music. Then I would just stop and listen to him for a bit. Today I saw him again for the first time in months. I stopped and listened and we began to chat about work and life. As we were chatting it blew my mind that this guy would see hundreds of people, if not thousands, walk past him each day, few of whom would even take notice of him. Yet, he remembered me and took the time to ask how I was!

I get that life is hectic. I really get that life is hectic. Working and studying creates some decent sized piles of paperwork on my desk. But how often do we rush through life without taking it in? How often do we stop to hear the music? I don't just mean stopping and listening to buskers in train stations, but stopping and listening to the song of our life.

When I reflect on my life at the moment, I'm working in a job that I love, living with an awesome group of guys, I even get to play basketball on a regular basis - I am tremendously blessed and I'm trying my best to enjoy these blessings each day. But how different would life be if I didn't recognise those blessings? I'd turn into a work robot, or a study machine.

I've come to realise that God is conducting the most intricate symphony in, through and with my life and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Don't be so busy as to miss the symphony that God is conducting for you.


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