Mark Batterson relates how on a January morning in 2007, a world-class violinist played six of Johann Sebastian Bach’s most stirring concertos for the solo violin, on a three-hundred-year-old Stadivarius worth $3.5 million. Two nights before, Joshua Bell had performed a sold out concert where patrons gladly paid $200 for nosebleed seats, but this time the performance was free.

Bell ditched his tux and coat tails, donned a Washington Nationals baseball cap, and played incognito outside the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station [as an experiment]. The experiment was originally conceived by the Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten and filmed by hidden cameras. Of the 1,097 people who passed by, only seven stopped to listen. The forty-five minute performance ended without applause or acknowledgement. Joshua Bell netted $32.17 in tips, which included a $20 spot from one person who recognised the Grammy Award winning musician.

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the greatest musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, on one of the most beautiful instruments ever made, how many similarly sublime moments do we miss out on during a normal day?

Source: Mark Batterson, 2014, The Grave Robber, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, p.15-16