Clanging Cymbals

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [1 Corinthians 13:1]

Picture a band comprised entirely of first graders.

Now imagine that they’re all equipped with cymbals and gongs. All different shapes and sizes of cymbals, all sorts of gongs, being played passionately by first graders.

Is that a concert you’d eagerly anticipate?

Okay, now change the picture. Transform the first graders into skilled, highly trained percussionists. Julliard graduates. Big-city philharmonic performers. A stage filled with the best cymbal and gong players in the world, all displaying their talent and creativity at the highest possible level.

No director, no score, every player projecting his version of percussionistic perfection.

I suspect that the second group might not sound much different from the first. A stage filled with passionate cymbal and gong players, regardless of skill or talent, would likely produce chaotic confusion. I can’t imagine anything close to music emerging from such a collection of noisemakers.

I believe I’ve just painted a picture of current public discourse. We live in a culture where debate has degenerated into disrespectful noise.

Last evening I flipped through a few “news” channels and listened as educated, experienced experts yelled at each other. When I couldn’t tolerate any more, I scanned through my Twitter feed and noted the passionate, creative headlines inviting me to read some snarky, negative attack directed at a public figure.

Note the words—passionate, wise, educated, creative. These aren’t first graders. They’re some of our best and brightest—skilled, eloquent communicators and debaters, speaking their version of truth in strategic, logical terms.

And it’s all noise.

No minds are changed, no progress created, no collective wisdom generated. The results are no different than a bunch of little kids yelling at each other on the playground. Bigger words, better technology, same results.

Noise.

When I asked Left, Right, Or Something Else? I wondered whether truth might be found somewhere other than the left-right attacks that currently pass for conversation. But that question doesn’t matter if the stage is filled with noisemakers whose sole aim is to assure that their version of noise prevails.

The Message offers a great picture of 1 Corinthians 13:1: If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

I don’t want to be a noisemaker. I don’t want to contribute to the banging and clanging and creaking. I don’t want to be a more sophisticated screamer who uses words as weapons.

Let’s listen more than we speak. Let’s seek and stand for truth, but always tempered with grace and compassion. Let’s focus less on our rights, and more on what’s right.

Let’s follow the conductor who designed us to make collective music rather than individual noise.

How can you reduce the noise and contribute to the music?