"A Tinkling Cymbal"

Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary to India, was blessed with a strong moral backbone. She was loathe to indulge self pity, and believed that other missionaries should be on guard against it. Amy believed that this deadly weakness manifested itself in many ways. One of these was the tendency of a new missionary to sigh and whine because they didn’t know enough of the language to communicate with the natives. Words were not needed, she said, to show the character of the One you came to teach them about. Amy went on to say that the Hindus of India will listen to one’s words, but they watch the actions more closely. That is what they put store by. She used this story to illustrate the point:

A patient at the hospital at Dohnavur, the compound where Amy and her family lived, was surprised by the loving care she saw being shown to others there. She asked one of the nurses, Kohila, why she could care for the baby she was tending as tirelessly as she did.

“It is not me,” Kohila said. “It is the love of Jesus that makes me care for this baby.”

The woman replied, “I have heard people talk about this Jesus of yours. I used to think it was just mere talk. Now I know it is not mere talk.”

It isn’t only the Hindus that prize example more than words; it is everyone. This is why the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity [meaning love], I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” If we can speak in all the languages of heaven and earth, but don’t have the love of GOD in us, the love that shows itself through selfless action, the love that points others to Him, it doesn’t matter.

No wonder John writes in 1 John 3:18: “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” GOD bless us with this love, that we may be more than simply a  "tinkling cymbal".

Blessings,
Jean