Noisy Cymbals

I used to be a school bus driver. I had a regular bus route every morning and afternoon.

But to make extra money I began driving the band to and from football games.

Boy, they were always wound up and rowdy  on the way to the games and if the team won it was a noisy ride home. 

But if we lost, the ride home was usually solemn and silent.

So I would drive in the dark quiet.

Once during one of these long, dark, quiet trips home, some of the equipment shifted and all the cymbals  clattered loudly to the floor.

I about jumped out of my skin, and from the reaction, it startled many of us.

The peaceful silence that we all knew was invaded and we did not have it again the remainder of that trip.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13:1 NASB)

When we  talk to others about God and about His word, we need to be doing it in love and gentleness, in a teaching way.

Otherwise we, like the clattering cymbals will bring about more chaos than music.