DISCOMBOBULATED: OUT OF ORDER

DISCOMBOBULATED.

I woke up one morning this week thinking about the word, “discombobulated.”

DISCOMBOBULATED.

I could not shake the thought. What in the world happened?

Now this is how I imagine my mind works.

There are two marbles rolling around in my head. One left brain marble and one right brain marble. Every once in a while they collide and produce a thought.

It might be seconds or minutes or hours or even days before these marbles run into one another again to cause another thought. Sometimes the thought is connected to the previous thought, and sometimes their collision begins a totally unrelated thread of thoughts.

DISCOMBOBULATED. The marbles had collided in my sleep. I woke to my discombobulated thought. Had I finally joined the “woke” group in our culture wars? Maybe the “woke” people are discombobulated.

I lay in bed waiting for another thought as the two marbles avoided one another in some mind game of “Tag. You’re it.”

Finally, one marble tagged the other. A thought developed. Why am I thinking about the word, “discombobulated?” The silence was deafening. It did leave me perplexed.

In a few moments, the mind game continued. I asked myself, “Why are you thinking about discombobulated?” My mind answered myself, “It is because your body is feeling discombobulated this morning.”

Why? Why? Why? The record was broken as the rhetorical thought circled the empty cavern.

Then it happened. It seems to happen a lot lately. It sounds like a fire alarm going off in my mind. The red-light flashes and the big horn blares its warning: “The marbles have left the building. This is not a test. The marbles have left the building. Stop what you are thinking. Please exit your thoughts as quickly and safely as possible. We repeat, Elvis and the two marbles have left the building.”

No wonder that I was feeling and thinking DISCOMBOBULATED.

After I picked up my slightly damaged marbles, I asked myself why I was thinking about a word that I do not even know what it means.

My English teacher mom used that word. It was always in some negative context. I never remember “discombobulated” associated with a compliment.

Mom always exhorted her three sons to think for themselves. I imagine she hoped we had inherited more than two marbles. Maybe, she knew.

She always asked me her favorite rhetorical question, “What were you thinking?” I usually imagined that any remark at that point would be classified as disrespectful, definitely not reasonable.

My mother gave my new bride two note cards as a wedding gift. One was her recipe for chocolate pie. “Use once every decade” was written on the bottom of the card.

The other note card had this connotation added, “You will need this often.” What was on the card? “What were you thinking?”

Mom dreamed of her sons looking like the famous statue of The Thinker. Dad just hoped we would not lose all our marbles.

Well, I still had two marbles rolling around in this cavernous brain. They collided, and my mind was filled and focused on DISCOMBOBULATED.

I wondered what the word even meant. Maybe it was a dance craze term from the Saturday Night Fever days of long ago. DISCO-bobulated.

Or was the “m” out of place in the word and it was really pronounced disco-BOMB-ulated? It might be a term for some powerful explosive. Perhaps it is what happens when one blows his mind. Well, that thought just bombed!

I was taught in English class that the prefix “dis” means “the lack or absence of something.” Combo refers to a special order at McDonalds or Chik-fil-A. So maybe the word indicates the lack of availability for your favorite combo meal.

I think the marbles missed that connection, but I suspect your mind will secretly crave your favorite combo meal later today. That is just how the marbles roll!

And what is the significance of “ulated” in the word ending?  I have heard of “congrat-ulated” and “reg-ulated” and “stim-ulated” and “over-pop-ulated.” At this point, the two marbles stopped to rest.

I do not recall any English dictionary term for “ulated.” Late refers to slow, sluggish, or past the expected time. Maybe “ulated” is just cultural slang for “you-late-my brother” or “Bob, U-lated us.”

I determined the next time the two marbles did a fly-by that I would look up the word in the dictionary. “U-lated,” Bob and I did exactly that.

DISCOMBOBULATED—”a confused mess; a thought that something is not right; feeling upset, uncomfortable, disoriented, or out of order.”

“Eureka!” …and Niagara Falls!…and “Come here, Watson!”…and “One small step for this man, but one giant leap for all you out there feeling discombobulated!”

A confused mess. Well, I have not lost my last two marbles. They are just rolling around in some disorderly fashion which left me confused about discombobulated.

OK, bring out the card. “What were you thinking?”

I knew better than to try to explain.

Just hang the sign around my neck. “OUT OF ORDER.”

I wake up a lot of mornings feeling like that. OUT OF ORDER. Do not seek to engage me in conversation. Do not expect anything in exchange for your monetary deposit.

This mind is OUT OF ORDER. Do not shake it. Do not engage it in conversation. Do not try to pour in coffee or reasoning. It is DISCOMBOBULATED!

Have you ever felt spiritually OUT OF ORDER? Spiritually discombobulated? Just a confused spiritual mess?

Join the club. It even happens to people who still have all their marbles.

We live in a world where the cultural wars, political pundits, global impacts, and rapidly changing circumstances create a spiritual mess. Our world appears OUT OF ORDER.

Nothing works as it once did. The #1 Textbook describes this life as “bent and broken, humanly unfixable” (Ecclesiastes 1). There seem to be no norms and no certainties except death and taxes.

Social media attacks, negative thinking, fearful insecurities, and extreme chaos threaten not only our happiness, but also our survival. Cynicism, anxiety, and despair cause spiritual discombobulation.

SOMETIMES THE FEELING COMES FROM THE INNER CRITIC RUNNING RIOT IN YOUR HEAD. IT ALL LOOKS LIKE A MESS NO MATTER HOW THE MARBLES ROLL.

We desperately need an anchor for our souls. God’s Word gives trustworthy wisdom. Make sure it is your #1 Textbook.

Set your mind on the things above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2). Renew your mind (Romans 12:2). Give Jesus all your marbles.

In a changing world, the unchanging love and wisdom of God are at work in all things! Keep looking at Jesus, thinking about who He is and what He has done for you.  

God is forever faithful to give help and hope, even in the darkest moments of world and personal history. God’s abiding presence is always with you.

God’s thoughts of doing you good are as vast as the grains of sand in this beautiful world (Psalm 139:17-18). God is never discombobulated.

GOD SPECIALIZES IN TAKING YOUR MESS AND MAKING YOU INTO HIS MASTERPIECE.

Take heart. There is hope. A discombobulated mess becomes a divine masterpiece.

I made a WINSDAY WISDOM note to myself. The next time I wake up thinking about the word, DISCOMBOBULATED, I will display my OUT OF ORDER sign and go back to sleep. My last two marbles need the rest.

DISCOMBOBULATED!

There, I said it again. Please pray that I do not lose any more marbles.

I might end up confusticated or conflabberated or absquatulated.

Oh No! I see the flashing red lights. I hear the blaring horn. Evacuate all thoughts now. The marbles already rolled out of this place. My mind is blank!

Do not panic! Pause ten seconds and take a deep breath…. Nope, still blank!

OUT OF ORDER!