God-centered resources from the ministry of John Piper

I want to make a couple follow-up points to my entry about the Washington Post story in which Joshua Bell played for uninterested passers-by.

Here's a clarification: I don't think it was actually wrong to be one of those who walked past without the least interest. It's no more wrong to ignore Mr. Bell and his violin than it is to ignore an old man with a 3-string guitar playing bad covers of Bob Dylan. My point was to draw a comparison between Bell and God--both creating beauty and being disregarded. It is only immoral to ignore the beauty of the latter.

Nevertheless, from the response this article generated, it is clear that people were moved. Seth Godin wonders why it struck such a chord and answers:

I think it's because people realized that if they had been there, they would have done the same thing. And it bothers us.

It bothers us that we're so overwhelmed by the din of our lives that we've created a worldview that requires us to ignore the outside world.

As a marketing guru, Godin is interested in how to break through to people who are programmed to ignore so much of what surrounds them. As Christians, our goal is similar: We want people around us to have their eyes opened to the splendor of Christ that is everywhere. So we, too, ought to wonder how to break through to them.

Godin writes,

I don't think the answer is to yell louder. Instead, I think we have an opportunity to create [I would say "show"] beauty and genius and insight and offer it in ways that train people to maybe, just maybe, loosen up those worldviews and begin the trust.