“A Profound, Personal Perspective or I am Nothing!”

“A Profound, Personal Perspective or I am
Nothing!”
” … I am nothing.” I Corinthians 13:2b
If I have the language ever so perfect and speak like a
pundit, but have not the love that grips the heart, I am nothing.
If I have decorations and diplomas and am proficient in up-to-
date methods, but have not the touch of understanding love, I
am nothing. If I am able to best my opponents in arguments so
as to make fools of them, but have not the wooing note, I am
nothing. If I have all faith and great ideals and magnificent
plans and wonderful vision, but have not the love that sweats
and bleeds and weeps and prays and pleads, I am nothing. IfI
surrender all prospects, and leave home and friends and
comforts, and give myself to the showy sacrifice of a
missionary career, but turn sour and selfish amid the daily
annoyances and personal slights of a missionary (or your) life,
I am nothing. IfI give my body to be consumed in the heat and
sweat and mildew of the Sudan, and have not the love that
yields its rights, its coveted leisure, its pet plans, I am
nothing … nothing! Virtue has ceased to go out of me. If I can
heal all manner of sickness and disease, but wound hearts and
hurt feelings for want of love that is kind, I am nothing. If I
write books and publish articles that set the world ablaze but
fail to transcribe the word of the cross in the language of love, I
am nothing. Worse, I may be competent, busy, fussy,
punctilious, and well-equipped, but like the Laodicean
church … nauseating to Christ.
(Found in the billfold of a 30-year veteran missionary)
-D.O.

Prepared by Roger Fulk, from the “Baptist Bread” October 24, 2024. devotional by author DON OHM, (Retired), San Antonio, TX. With permission from Tim Green, editor Baptist Bread.  http://timgreenministries.org/the-baptist-bread/