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Noise That Matters
“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”
1 Corinthians 13:1
Ever since I was a child, I have loved people. My mom has told me stories of when we would go to restaurants and I would suddenly be gone — only to be spotted a few tables away, speaking to people I didn’t know because I wanted to meet them. I love meeting new people. I love starting random conversations with them, and I love speaking in front of people. People give me energy!
An acquaintance of mine named Curt is also this kind of person. He recently shared that he will always say “yes” to a social invite, even if he doesn’t have all the details — and I could totally relate. “Did you say people will be there?” Great, count me in!
He was telling a few of us that his mutual friend invited him to a morning gathering in the park hosted by the “Dallas Yell Club.” Out of sheer curiosity, he decided to attend — and to his surprise, the activity was exactly what the title said. It was just a bunch of people gathered in a park on a Saturday morning who, at the prompting of the leader, would yell at the top of their lungs. According to Curt, they did it at 6:15, 6:17, and 6:20, and then went home.
Now, to be honest, it sounded like a stress-relief session at first. But the more I thought about it, the more it felt like an unnecessary waste of the people’s time and voice who attended. In the end, no words of life were spoken. Hope was not shared. And sadly, love was absent.
This made me wonder how many times, as believers, we just go through the motions on Sundays. We “make some noise” and then go home. Is it possible that we’ve misunderstood what the Lord has for us — or where He wants to meet us — in the worship we bring?
The apostle Paul was addressing division among the church in 1 Corinthians. He explained that those who had various gifts misunderstood the purpose of those gifts. In response, Paul admonishes them: even though they are using their gifts, doing so without love boils down to just noise — annoying noise at that. Ouch!
When we seek to use our gifts, time, and energy for the Lord, it is He who is glorified — not us. 2 Corinthians 4:5 says, “For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.”
And as the famous hymn written by George Kitchin proclaims, “Lift High the Cross.” Out of all the gifts we have, and all the noise we can make, love must reign — so that the sounds offered up in our lives, worship, and gifts may be a sweet melody of praise.
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