What Are You Missing?

The following entry is a true story and was sent to us by Greg L., one of our ministry members. Thanks, Greg!

Enjoy!
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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars!

Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: 

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

From Frank: WOW! What a story! It made me wonder — how much is God trying to show us that is just totally going over our heads? We expect to hear God, we expect Him to talk to us and He tries to. I just think we put Him in such a box sometimes, that while He's SCREAMING to get our attention, and since we expect Him to speak in a certain way, we miss Him. Since we never expect to hear Him in an unexpected context, we miss Him.

Expect God to talk to you however He wants. He wants to speak to you. He wants you to hear Him.

Selah.

Love Letter No. 1 - by Christina Sasso

I remember the first time God gave me a tiny taste of His love for people. ALL people. For God so loved the WORLD, He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus. The WORLD. Not the saved world, not the "holy" world. THE WORLD! It was about 7 years ago, we had recently moved into our home and were doing restoration work. I was sitting in our backyard, just sitting and thinking. (I do that a lot) My neighbor was in her yard screaming about something I don't really remember. What I do remember is I hated her. Yep, HATED her. I was praying her out of the neighborhood. (I really have to laugh at this now, and weep at the same time). So, as I'm sitting there, wishing her to the cornfield, I literally feel the Holy Spirit rain down love on me. This is hard to describe... It felt like a huge, drenching bucket of water over my head and body, but it wasn't water. It was overwhelming, all-encompassing LOVE! I couldn't take it. I started crying uncontrollably. I was repenting and weeping. How dare I hate her. (I'm crying now writing this) How dare I hate her when Jesus and The Father loved her so much. In that moment God changed my heart. I fell in love with my neighbor. I prayed, "Lord, give me another chance to show her friendship and love". Well, God, ever faithful, gave me that chance. It might have been that very same day when my neighbor came stomping into my yard, uninvited. (which, in the past, would have ticked me off to no end) This time, I thanked God. It was not easy or "natural" for me then (I've gotten much better at it) but I was determined to be loving, kind, and patient with whatever she (and God) had in mind. An hour and a half later, I was back home after getting a tour of her house. (basement and attic included) Seeing her vast "collections" and then having her choose something from that collection to give me as a house-warming gift. Coming up on 9 years later, I now know her, prayed with her, stood with her and her family, and love her. Yep, LOVE her.

Ok, What Needs To Come First?

Character or Transparent Relationships. What do you think needs to come first? Well, if you have character, then relationships, (especially transparent ones) are really easy. If you have no sin in your life, and the person you’re talking to has no sin in their life, then you can talk about anything you want to talk about because you have nothing hidden. You’re both walking in total righteousness and transparency and it's easy in that kind of environment. Unfortunately, we’re not born mature. We're born immature and we have to go through this process of becoming mature.

The reality is that we become mature by God and other people helping us to see the immaturity in our lives and fix it.

We don't do Christianity alone!

It’s not possible. You don’t do Christianity with just you and Jesus! That is not possible. In the garden, Adam was alone with God and it was not good. (Genesis 2:18) So, He made woman. In order to grow and develop the God kind of character, we need to have transparent relationships in our lives.


James 5:16 - Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.


We're supposed to share with one another the problems we're having and the fruit of that is that we'll be healed. That word "healed" means "to make healthy, whole, or sound; restore to health; free from ailment." In other words, no more limping. If you want freedom, from some of the things you're struggling with, you need to confess it to the Lord and to one another. It's in that confession that we're made whole. It's not some magical thing! It's a character development thing! When you share with someone what you're struggling with, you provide them an opportunity to help you. This is, of course, if you're confessing it to someone you can trust. You don't want to tell someone something and then have that person go and share that with other people.

For example... 

I struggled with lying for a long time. I lied as a kid, and a I lied as an adult. I thank the Lord and my wife, Christina, for helping me overcome it. It was a stronghold in my life. And the only thing that can truly take care of a stronghold is getting a revelation of what the Word of God says. That doesn't always happen overnight. Now, if I had a child and he lied to me, here's how I would handle it... by blessing him. "What? Blessing him? You obviously don't have kids, Frank! I'd show him the back of my hand and punish him!" Yes. I'd bless him. I'd say to him, "Son, do you know why I'm about to bless you?" He would probably say, "No?" I would answer him, "Because you lied to me".


The reason I would do that is to show my son that there is something more important to me than his behavior, and that something is the relationship he has with my wife and I, his parents. The thing my wife and I would want to guard and protect is the connection our son has with us. Not to mention, the safety that our son should have in communicating with us and coming to us with what he is struggling with. If he can come to us, then he can get help. If he can come to us, we can instruct him on the finer points of behavior. 

God is the same way!

He is a lot more interested in protecting our relationship with Him, so that we can come to Him and we can grow. That's how the environment should be with one another. If the consequences for confessing your sin is so high, you would never confess them. I mean, who would ever share what was going on in their lives?

Why? Here's why!

Because the consequences for being transparent were so high, that he couldn't possibly be transparent, and when it finally did come out, he lost everything.


So, in our relationships, we have to guard in setting the consequence for transparency so high, that transparency could never happen, because what that does is instill fear. Am I saying that you have to go around all the time confessing your sins wherever you go or just spewing them all over someone you just met? NO! Have some balance. But, when you're allowing thoughts like "I can't let anyone find out about this!" or "If anyone finds out about this, bad stuff is going to happen!",  that's not going to produce fruit and...

...when you have that attitude, you can't grow!