What Are We Missing

Happy Sunday. On a rainy Friday in January of 2007, during the peak of early morning commuter rush, a young man entered one of the subway stations in Washington, D.C. There were crowds rushing by, and the man found a place to stand out of the way, and he opened the violin case he carried. He put his case on the ground, to put a few coins and dollar bills in there to, well, prime the pump, and then he proceeded to play.

This was no ordinary street musician. Uh, his name's Joshua Bell. He's one of the world's greatest violinists. Only three days before this time at the subway station, people had paid between 100, 200 for a ticket to watch him play at Boston Symphony Hall. And now he was in the subway playing for commuters.

He played his heart out on his priceless 1713 Stradivarius violin. He began with a piece from Bach, and he called it a spiritually powerful piece, emotionally powerful, and structurally perfect. It's also one of the most difficult pieces they can play that was ever written.

And can you guess what happened? Do you think that the busy commuter suddenly stopped in their tracks, mesmerized by this great musician, and just listened? Not so much. For the first three minutes of his concert, no one passing by acknowledged anything. Nothing. Everyone hurried by with their heads down, fixed on where they were headed.

At four minutes, one woman tossed a dollar bill into his violin case. After six minutes of playing, one commuter stopped, leaning against the wall to listen to the music that was being played by Bell. He played that day for 43 minutes. He made a grand total of 32 off of 27 donations. Two people stopped to listen. The other over a thousand people who passed by in front of him just missed everything.

Here's a question: if we are so busy in our lives, so deaf and blind that we move past such beauty, what else are we missing? Today I want us to look at a story found in Exodus chapter 3. It's a familiar story. We're told, "One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up. 'This is amazing,' Moses said to himself. 'Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go see.' When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' 'Here I am,' Moses replied. 'Don't come any closer,' the Lord warned. 'Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.'"

I love that story. Thank God Moses took time to notice. I'm glad smartphones were not invented then, because he would have likely had his face focused on his device and would have missed what God had wanted him to see. Now, that's ridiculous, I know, to think of an iPhone 3,400 years ago. But today, look at what people are missing because their focus is on their phone.

YouTube is filled with videos of people walking into fountains or telephone poles or traffic, because people are so distracted. All of us have been in a restaurant and seen families at the same table, all on their device, ignoring one another. If I'm not careful, I can do that as well. What are we missing because we're so distracted?

I believe that there are burning bushes all around us. I believe that we find God in all sorts of places if we just look around. We just need to slow down and keep our eyes open to God. He's always there. We see miracles around us all the time, and we'd better play close attention, or we'll miss some amazing things.

If all you watches the news on television, you could come to the conclusion that this world is a horrible place and that God is nowhere to be found. Sadly, that's the belief of too many. If people spent more time reading God's Word and less time looking at this world, their lives would be so much better. Their lives would be much better, and they would see God.

Just the other day, at the funeral of a dear friend, I saw God. I saw God in the strength of his wife and of his children. I saw God in the attendance of his friends from all over the country, in spite of a pandemic. I saw God in the hospital hospitality of friends that let me stay in their homes in the world, in a world that's on lockdown. When we as God's people slow down and look, there are burning bushes everywhere.

My wife is a burning bush. She's behind the scenes as we do these videos, and without her, none of this would be possible. She does not do this for recognition. She does this because she loves Jesus and she loves helping me. I see God in her.

38 years ago this week, my father went to heaven, September the 1st of 1983. He was a burning bush. Through his life in ministry, I became a believer. He was a great husband and father and pastor and friend. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone, and the fruit of the Spirit was most evident in his life.

We see God in many ways. We just need to look. I did the funeral the other day of a man who was an outdoorsman, and he said, and it was listed in his obituary, how he always said he saw God so much in the beautiful world around him. It's important that we remember the words of Psalm 40:16, 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God. I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth."

So today and every day, take time to be still and look around and see what God is trying to show you. Let me know what you see. Let's pray together.

Father, help us to be still and to look, and to remove those distractions that get in our way of fellowship with you and fellowship with others. Father, thank you for reminding us of that. Thank you for that day when you called Moses to turn aside, and because that, history changed. Change this world's history through us as we turn aside and look and listen and follow. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.