DON’T BE A GONG

ME, A GONG?

I Corinthians 13:1 tells us what we are without love.  One is a resounding gong.   Surely those sweet grandbabies of mine aren’t gongs.  Following is a story from Ebenezer and Ninety-Eight Friends

Am I a Gong?

            Chopsticks!  I hate hearing those kids play chopsticks on the piano!  Over and over they play it because they don’t know any other music.  It’s not a bad tune.  When you play both parts, it even has a little harmony to it.  It’s just that they play it again and again as if everyone were enjoying a fine performance. 

            This is what I think of when I read in I Corinthians 13.  If we don’t have love, we’re playing chopsticks over and over again—and thinking everyone is enjoying it.  We’re like a “resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”  

We have a set of presently unused percussion instruments at our church.  After the service, children bang on them until told to stop. 

            Do we go about our measured, repetitious lives like a sounding gong—making a lot of noise and motions, but with not much lasting results?  We may even irritate a few onlookers along the way.

            The Bible says we’re nothing if we don’t have the gift of love—even if we have mountain-moving faith.  If we give our possessions and even our bodies to be burned and we don’t practice love, we gain nothing. 

            Love is kind.  Am I kind to those who are not kind back?  Even sinners know how to be nice to people who are nice to them.  (Luke 6:32)

            Love doesn’t boast.  I can’t imagine a loving boaster.  It’s an oxymoron.  Rude and loving don’t go together, either.  Can you picture loving the guy you’re cutting off in traffic? 

            “You owe me.  I have my rights.”  Try to love a person while saying those words to him.  It’s harder than rubbing your head and patting your tummy.

            A loving person wants the other guy to succeed.  I like being that other guy.  But if we really want to succeed, we’ll be the cheerleader for so many around us who need more than a piercing sound. 

            Uh-oh.  Paul says in verse 4, love is patient.  I guess I’d better go back and apologize to those young chopstick players and gong resounders and clanging cymbalists.  I don’t want to be a gong.   

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Don’t be a gong.  Go out and buy  a copy of Ebenezer and Ninety-Eight Friends.  But I’ll be your friend even if you don’t.

Blessings!