Monday, August 31, 2015
Clanging Cymbals
I don't know about y'all, but I've just about gotten to the point where I can't watch the news anymore. It will just make you want to stick your fingers in your ears and go crawl in a hole somewhere if you watch it long enough. They have a hard time squeezing all of the murders, terrorism, and violence into a half hour, these days. Last week seemed especially rough with the news crew murders, the two officers killed in Louisiana, and the deputy shot in Houston. And you can always count on a story about a random shooting, young people trying to join ISIS, and riots and unrest of every description.
You watch 30 minutes or more of that and you'll be left feeling like there's just no love left anywhere in the world.
And that's just the crime and violence.
Then, the news shows get these panels of experts on to discuss the roots of the problems and offer solutions and their discussions quickly rise to decibels that are unbearable. Everyone is shouting their opinion. Talking over each other. Nobody's listening to what anyone else has to say.
You get online and your newsfeed is FULL of articles and more articles.....and memes with jabbing captions aimed at the other side of a thousand issues. It's an "in your face" mentality. Everyone wants to get their point across and make their opinion known. Some of it is truth spoken by Christians, but the delivery......well, it's hard to tell if it serves to heal or divide. Discord and hate and controversy are just blaring at us no matter where we turn.
It does leave one to wonder where the love is.
If we don't have love, the Bible says we sound like clanging cymbals.
YES! That's it! That's what it's all starting to sound like! A room.....with horrible acoustics.....full of clanging cymbals.......played by people, whose only goal is that their cymbal is heard above everyone else's cymbal.
We're all just about to OD on the noise. Our lives are so full of noise. Loud, chaotic, swelling noise. It's become all about the cymbals and the 24 hour news cycle, the internet, and social media.....they have made it possible for us to hear every single, obnoxious, clanging beat.
That wears on you after a while.
Some days, I wish I could do just what we, parents, have to do when all the kids are fighting in the backseat of the car. I just want to slam on the brakes, put the car in park, and turn around and scream.......
"SHUT UP!!! Every, single one of you just SHUT UP!!!!! That goes for ALL of you! I don't care who's right and who's wrong, I DON'T want to hear another word out of ANY of you! Do you understand?!?"
The Bible defines love for us in 1 Corinthians. It's very specific about what love is and what love does.......(oddly, I don't see where "Shut Up" is listed)
Love is patient; love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it keeps no record of being wronged;
it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Since hate is the opposite of love, we can use the Bible's definition of love to define hate. It is everything that love is not.
Hate is impatient; hate is cruel;
Hate is envious, boastful, arrogant, and rude.
It insists on its own way; it keeps meticulous records of being wronged;
It rejoices in wrongdoing and rejects the truth
It perseveres in nothing, has faith in nothing, hopes in nothing.
Hate always fails.
Whoa. Sound familiar?
I think I can add even more to that....
Hate is mean spirited; hate is cold.
It is never satisfied; always hungry for more.
Hate seeks revenge; it takes delight in destruction.
It is contagious and enjoys an epidemic.
It is contagious and enjoys an epidemic.
Hate is all-consuming.
Hate never finds what it's looking for.
Hate never finds what it's looking for.
With the news like it's been, I've detected a social media trend of people sharing pictures and stories of love and kindness that they see along their path. It's an attempt to change the lyrics. To slow down the tempo. To play their instrument above the brash cymbals.
I wonder if we heard more about them.....
And less about them........
I wonder if we quit giving all the solos to the cymbals......quit letting hate lead the music.......and tuned our responses just a bit.........would it change anything?
We've got enough cymbals.
As God's children, we need to pick another instrument if we're going to join the orchestra.
Let's all share something good that we see today!
Have a great one!
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Clanging Cymbals, a good analogy. Yes, show more kind hearted people across the great divide helping each other, not for their own gains, but just being humans. The Lord gave us choices. Kathleen in Az
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! Today I shall keep my thoughts on the good and my eyes on the Lord and the final goal - Heaven!
ReplyDeleteSo good. Thank you, Joni!
ReplyDeleteDeanna