Jabberwocky!
I woke up in the middle of the night with sound bites spinning through my head.
Chosen leaders of our country spit out false words . . . often . . . repeating concepts that are blatantly untrue.
It’s all Jabberwocky!
Lewis Carroll introduced us to the word “jabberwocky” in the book, Through the Looking Glass, 1871. His genius is shared through his many books that puzzle the untrained mind.
He listened to his creative mind and translated Jabberwocky into delight-filled stories where, when you read between the lines, you find a trend that has been with us since creation.
Jabberwocky began in the Garden when Adam and Eve tried to deceive God.
Adam’s jabberwocky did not keep Adam and Eve in paradise.
But God’s grace from the beginning of creation has never ceased.
God desires covenant relationship with all of us.
Too often we try to find a solution according to our own desires instead of simply waiting and listening and trying to understand God’s best for each of us according to his will.
We choose to cling to our own ideas and not God’s best path for our lives.
We want quick fixes for everything.
If one person repeats a lie often enough, that specific person will believe it and live the lie as if it were truth.
In our society today when we encounter an untruth we often declare that the person is ‘in denial.’
We each may have a moment or two in our lives when reality is too difficult to embrace all at once. We create a scenario that may not be realistic but it may ease the pain of the current reality. Hopefully, the traumatic moment will pass and we begin to absorb a more realistic truth about the situation, about life itself.
A medical diagnosis may be too overwhelming to grasp.
An unexpected death of a beloved friend or family member may take the breath out of us.
A betrayal of trust from another may suck confidence from our soul.
Or a new insight to the reality of life in the future might stop us cold.
If we hide in our imaginary world we may feel safe and calm for a moment. Once we gasp a breath of reality, we eventually move from the imaginary to basic truths that we must accept.
Yet, some choose their own reality.
They may have lost trust in God’s Truth or do not choose to seek what truth is according to God. Even basic scientific principles may be tossed aside because hollow words, said often, lure the soul into a false reality.
There will always be groups of people who find ways to permeate every form of communication to spin a yarn that is blatantly false.
The reasons they do so are too numerous to expand upon but, for the most part, they believe a false statement as truth without asking questions or before further study.
When a false statement is repeated for a long period of time over every form of media the ‘world’ begins to believe this jabberwocky.’
Hollow words become truth.
If we break down the reasoning we find empty nonsense.
Jabberwocky!
I was studying the words of Habakkuk, chapter 2, and realized that the “woes” which God speaks to this prophet have become a current reality for every nation.
God declares his wrath upon those who have become like Babel.
God says that eventually all who rely upon their own authority and upon fortune and wealth rather than God’s truth will babel in jabberwocky.
Habakkuk 2:20 says, “But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”
Some of us who claim to know God seem to shout jabberwocky to silence God’s truth.
We design our own truth and then let God know that this is how we wish to live.
Life does not work that way.
Did God promise us a rose garden? No.
In fact God declared that humans, once outside the garden, would ‘toil in the earth’ and woman would ‘have great pain in childbirth.’
Why do we continue to outshout God’s intention for us?
Why do we carve out our own agendas for life instead of choosing to walk with God and wait in silence and listen for answers?
Why do we forget to converse with God before we turn to the left or to the right?
Why is it difficult to rely on God’s wisdom and trust God’s grace that stills the heart?
Why is someone else’s jabberwocky so enticing?
God created creation to creatively create.
God created us human beings to use the brain created in us.
Many creative solutions are not easy to achieve.
Yet, our creativity has drawn us through many devastating moments in the past millennia to where we are today.
Nations are more industrialized, people are more healthy, and in a democracy opportunities for an enhanced life are present to the average seeker at any given time.
Indeed, some opportunities for a better life must be earned through discipline, hard work and sometimes sacrifice.
Little is free and few transitions are easy.
Yet, with God’s help and the awareness of the present needs around us, we can speak truth.
We can hammer out challenging questions in every dilemma.
Verbose speeches, too numerous to count or meaningless mandates are not the solution.
For decades we have listened to Jabberwocky.
It’s now time to stop . . . use our brains . . . calculate each step and discuss the ramifications for a better future for generations who will come after us.
It’s not our generation nor the next who will suffer.
It’s the third and fourth generations who have to clean up the mess we make when we follow empty words that prove to have no foundation.
Our foundation is built by applying God’s Word to our lives.
In the beginning God created . . .
In the beginning God said, “Walk with me.”
Simply walk with God.
We are called to Linger a little longer each day with God, to wait in silence, to listen and act upon God’s solutions for living each day to the fullest.
The old hymn, ‘In the Garden’, was written by C. Austin Miles in 1912 when he lived in a basement without windows and without a garden outside.
This ‘garden’ is where God resides and waits for us to stop and wait and listen.
We can choose to Stop listening to jabberwocky.
We can Silence the heart that wants more than is best for us.
We can simply walk in God’s presence if we choose to trust the voice of Truth.
In the Garden by C. Austin Miles begins:
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses.
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
[refrain]
And He walks with me and He talks with me
and He tells me I am His own.
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
none other has ever known.
[If you to google this song you will enjoy the rest of the verses.]
When we get tired of the constant harangue of jabberwocky we can walk in the ‘Garden of God’ that is planted in our soul through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Listen.
Ask Questions.
Wonder out loud.
Ask the Lord to help make sense of the jabberwocky screaming in the distance.
For example we hear about the climate and how it is changing.
The minute God created the universe and all that is within it there was hot and there was cold.
The more God added to this universe, the more varied temperatures appeared in various areas according to what was created.
An open plain or grassy meadow may create a different climate than what we now call a large city with vehicles and buildings and emissions and people and whatever else goes into a tight space.
A rain forest creates its own climate as do acres of ranch land filled with livestock.
Climate changes occur all over the world and will never cease.
“It’s getting hotter,” we exclaim in the midst of this July heat wave.
"It’s getting colder,” we exclaim in mid-January in the northern hemisphere.
It’s getting dryer or wetter or stormier or . . .
Yes, since the industrial revolution there may be more changes to our climate than centuries before.
After centuries of misuse of our natural, or unnatural, resources do we rush to spread some jabberwocky of a solution?
Scientists are divided on how to approach changes that are necessary to mitigate what indeed might be a catastrophe in a thousand years.
Only one problem.
Some solutions are given timelines that are impractical to the point of causing world-wide distress.
In fact, the FDA takes longer to scrutinize a viable medicine than congress takes to make a law that is impossible to achieve in the pronounced amount of time.
There is much jabberwocky shared by local and national leaders who have no idea what they are talking about.
Has anyone asked how long electric vehicle batteries (created by using fossil fuel and hazardous materials) will last before they are dumped in a land fill?
Has anyone discerned that electricity does not come from a plug in the wall?
Is the war in Ukraine using fire arms that cause global warming?
Should we be more concerned with clean air than with the life of those who are currently facing death from a lethal, yet treatable, disease?
Of course, any answer you give will be jabberwocky to those who believe otherwise.
God gave us brains and natural resources that can be used with discretion.
Yet, we choose to rationalize why we “need” disposable items made for our convenience. Ask any parent if they wish to trade disposable diapers for the inconvenience of using cloth diapers. The uproar most likely would be deafening.
I live in the midst of Amish country where horse and buggy is the norm.
Amish use propane instead of electricity and the outhouse is still commonly used in these parts. Why don’t I follow in their footsteps?
Because there is no way I would use a horse and cart to drive 30 miles to the big box store where I purchase items at a discount once a month.
I do not choose to invest in an outdoor privy.
Is my source of electricity worse than propane?
Most of us seem ready to jump into quick solutions before we consider viable outcomes. The challenge is to list the ramifications, good and bad, of each “solution” we create. This takes time, the time it takes to linger in the garden, to let the brain process all possibilities.
Walk with God in the Garden . . .
Alone
Silent
Open your mind to God’s creativity
Linger awhile
Ask Questions
Listen long
Wait
List ramifications
Linger with God some more
Apply what you’ve learned
Trust the outcome.
Turn jabberwocky into truth and keep moving forward.
Walk in the garden, enjoy each day as it comes and be mindful of God’s creative solutions.
