Am I a Babbling Man?

Sometimes my ability to converse works, sometimes it doesn’t. Last week I was trying to talk to my daughter-in-law about the swimming lessons my grandkids were doing and nothing came out except random words. I realized I was babbling. Granted, watching the grandkids have fun in the pool was a good place to babble, but still, that day talking was so hard.

There is an interesting story in the Bible, interesting to me anyways as I think about my language issues.  It happened way back in the day when people were starting to populate the earth. I’m not sure what I think about this story, I’m not sure if it is a good analogy for my problems, but for some reason it popped up in my mind. Here it is. 

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.  And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.  Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.  And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.  “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. Gen 11:1-9 NKJV

This story never made sense to me. Whatever they proposed would happen, just because they had a common language?  I’m not sure what I think about that, but it is apparent to me that our language, our words, matter. 

When I look at the big picture I can see it. The divisions that happened when our language was confused were significant. When they couldn’t communicate, they scattered, nations were formed, and to this day, they are at war with each other. It makes sense, we band together with people who speak the same language. I never thought about the ramifications of the day when our language was confused, and how much strife happened when different languages suddenly appeared. 

What about the small picture, because my language was confused by my stroke. That day I became a babbling man and what I was planning to do sort of disintegrated.  Along with that, It damaged my relationships. Maybe “damaged” is the wrong word. I guess what was damaged wasn’t my relationships but my ability to communicate. Hmm, maybe it’s the same thing, because relationships need communication. Big picture or small picture, how detrimental it is when our ability to communicate is damaged. 

But I don’t think this story is about babbling, I think the story is about their pride, “let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves.”  I think what happened in this story happened because of their pride, the pride of life.  

I’ve been thinking about what happened to them. To stop them from building, to stop them from making a name for themselves, to deal with the “pride of life” he confused their language. And I’ve been thinking about what happened to me. Maybe God intervened in my life, or my stroke just happened, either or, what happened confused my language and it humbled me.

The Bible says, ”Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Pro 16:18.

I started to think about the “pride of life” as we were studying the book of Isaiah at the men’s bible study at church. We were studying a prophecy that Isaiah spoke about the king of Babylon.

You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.    Isa 14:13-14

Hmm, sounds a lot like what happened in Babel. 

These verses aptly describe the pride of life and they also described what happened to that king.

…Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the man who made the world a wilderness, who overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home?”  All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. But you are cast out of your tomb like a rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled underfoot…. Isa 14:15-19

Starting with, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and ending with a corpse trampled underfoot.   Yeah, pride leads to a fall.

So we were talking about how the “pride of life” has affected us. Starting with a pretty innocuous question, are you an above average driver?  And we laughed about it, why, because everyone considers themselves an above average driver (which is obviously mathematically impossible). I wanted to share in the discussion instead I sat there with my thoughts. Here is what I wanted to say.  Having a stroke and having aphasia are humbling experiences. I realize now, my driving is mediocre and more than that, lots of things that I used to consider myself good at, well they are not to par as well. Like talking. Yeah, having aphasia is a humbling experience. 

In the bible, the pride of life resides with some heavy duty friends, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. 

For everything in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–comes not from the Father but from the world.        1 John 2.16

There is a battle in all of us against the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, we can recognize it. But the pride of life is harder to see.  And it is harder to battle as well. I realize that God takes the sin of pride more seriously than I do. There is a gulf between what I think about pride and what God thinks about pride.  

So maybe a better question is, am I a proud man? 

Am I a proud man? When I think about it, obviously I am a proud man. If I weren’t, a stroke wouldn’t be a humbling experience. Maybe one of the good effects of having a stroke is humility. So, I’m a babbling man with a gentler spirit. Well, gentler than I used to be, anyways. 

I thought of another interesting story in the Bible: A miraculous event dealing with language. Maybe my next post?