dynamo

Excellent Practice

I have an unfortunately hipster trend of going to Starbucks on a regular basis, and every once in a while they mistake my name for “Alice” on the cup. Then for a moment I feel slightly more whimsical, like a little white rabbit is going to come out of nowhere to tell me I’m running out of time. Also unfortunate, this never happens. However, for a while now the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland has got me thinking.

I’ve never actually completely finished the book, so I have no idea which version is more accurate, but I find this new version intriguing. Instead of Alice just landing in this random world for no reason but to experience a random world, she has a purpose in “Underland.” If you haven’t seen it, when she falls down the rabbit hole she finds out that everyone there is already expecting an Alice, but no one can decide if she’s “the right Alice.” The right Alice is prophesied by the oraculum(probably misspelling this) to slay the Jabberwocky, and by slaying the Jabberwocky she frees Underland from the rule of the Red Queen. Absolum the caterpiller (who is always absolute) declares that she “isn’t hardly” the right Alice, but by then the Bandersnatch(???) has attacked and Alice is lost in Underland, which she still thinks is a dream. Anyways, basically Alice has to go through this whole process of getting her “muchness” back, her muchness being her identity as Alice and what that entails. Everyone else seems to think she’s a warrior, but she thinks it’s impossible for her to slay the Jabberwocky. All the same, she comes face to face with it in her armor with her sword. The cool thing about the sword is that it’s some kind of special sword that basically fights for her as long as she holds it.

Okay, so now I can get to my point. Right before she goes in for battle, she turns to the Mad Hatter and says “I sometimes believe in as much as six impossible things before breakfast.” The Hatter replies “That is excellent practice, but you might want to focus on the Jabberwocky at the moment.” (Something like that). As she’s walking up to the beast, Alice begins naming impossible things she believes in, ending with “I can slay the Jabberwocky.” Then she slays the Jabberwocky basically.

Last night I was thinking about being a warrior for Christ, and I was starting to feel overwhelmed, like it was too much for me. I felt like it’s been so hard to come this far in what God has called me to, I didn’t know if I could handle much more. But then God brought the battle scene from Alice to my mind, and I remembered that when I wear my armor, and I take up the sword of the Spirit all I have to do is speak out the things I’m believing for through Christ, and the victory is mine no matter how impossible it looks. Our words are powerful, and they bring heaven down to earth. It was a relieving reminder that we serve a loving God who has provided everything we need to get through everything the devil throws at us.

He moves at the sound of your voice. 

“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”—Mark 11:23