Mockery has been with man from the beginning of time. Clearly, mockery shall remain to the very end. Mockery is such a good treatment to receive. Mockery, though, is such a bad habit to have.
Don’t be a mocker. God hates it. Man too, of course. Mockery is a criminal sin.
To mock is like to murmur. God hates both mannerisms. When you murmur against your parent or spouse or leader or friend or blood, God records that you have murmured against Him. Likewise, when you mock the poor or the weak or the loser, you mock God -their Father.
Mockery is a very small something that you may be tempted to wave off as nothing. Alas, mockery is not nothing. Mockery is a big do. With mockery, both the giver and the receiver take their turns, one after the other, in the sun.
Remember Jesus, remember Abraham, remember Sarah. Remember David, remember Moses, remember Joseph. Remember Esther, remember Mordecai, remember Job. Remember Goodluck, remember Muhammadu, remember Umo.
There is no God in mockery. There is no gain in mockery. There is no life in mockery. Mockery throws up only losses, death, dishonour, hate and sundry ways, shapes or forms of inhuman ungodliness.
Mockery is not necessarily only spoken. Mockery can be wordless: an action, an inaction; a gesticulation. And, most of such can be decoded universally. For example, when someone being spoken to immediately presses or holds or hand-fans their nose: you don’t have to be of that culture to get the dental hygiene clarion call embedded in that unspoken mockery.
There are many gesticulations of mockery, from culture to culture. For example, in the United States which I consider the number one global cultural melting pot, a white guy patting white children on the head and saying “you, cheeky monkeys” would have no trouble at all from either the children or their parents. Not so if it’s black children, whether in the west let alone in Africa. We smell racism anywhere, anytime!
Sometimes, mockery is like nothing. For instance one: absenteeism. For instance two: promised and fail. For instance three: silence.
Many times, when people don’t do what they said they would, it’s to mock the other party. Mockery in abeyance also happens when people keep away from or ignore others. This is the context where silence as a response is meant to tell you that you are nobody and you can do nothing. Unfortunately, many people are too helpless, too ignorant and too poor to be able to react appropriately.
Big can mock big let alone small, and vice versa. The priest can mock colleague let alone their flock, and vice versa. Mockery is not one-way traffic: black can shame white, short can mock tall; everybody plays the game . And, mockery can come in various forms: gift, play, smile.
The rich giver who is fond of gifting miserly and publicly yet smiling cheerfully is a wheeler dealer of mockery: beware of them. The “Oga at the top” or anyone else for that matter who strings you along with little droppings here and there is a hawker of mockery: never trade with them. The friend who thinks you are only good for play and outings is a hedonisticic manufacturer of mockery: flee from such a one. The mentor who smiles you off every time you need help that is not beyond them is a criminal retailer of mockery: torment them by walking away.
Never stay back to fight mockery: always run away in order to live to fight another day. Never joke with mockery nor mockers. They can kill you before your harvest. They can destroy your life, your mind, your persona.
The victim of mockery should never allow ambition or envy or fear or indignation or pride or whatever else to turn them to mocker. Otherwise, no other reward. Similarly, they should never envy mockers because sometimes mockers are best promoters. Almost always, mockers indirectly send good people to the mocked.
Furthermore, beyond speech and action and silence and gesticulations, etc., mockery can also be sung. Music, originally intended to accentuate your mood, can be misapplied or misappropriated to hurt that same mood. Many music albums which central theme is mockery have sold in millions around the world. Human beings sing and buy and sell and promote and enjoy playing music that mock human beings (not animals).
From the foregoing, we see that mockery is a human pastime worldwide. It is one sin that every gender, every religion, every tongue is guilty of. It can be said that man mocks man for a living. Man cannot not mock man, every second.
And, it is a good thing. Mockery is an excellent thing when you are the victim so, please, by all means, enjoy the impossible ride. Mockery is an evil performance, so if you are the performer: stop it right now -even if you can’t. However, the mocked should pray for their mockers to increase.
Matthew 5:11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven”. NLT
And verifiable evidence abounds in all human history how mockery is a first-class catalyst of honour. Hannah was greatly mocked, but did not her mockers see with their own eyes how her so-called barrenness gave birth to Isaac? What about Joseph whose family mockingly sold into slavery all because they felt he was too small for them to bow to, locally. Eventually, did they not more than bow to him -and internationally?
Now, let me bring it up close and personal. There is at least one of my compatriots. So many of us mocked him that he would cry again when against all odds he reran for president. When he won and re-won (he was there for all of eight years) his mockers graduated (as all mockers always do) to insisting -when his health went south- that he was as good as dead.
Many years after, the mischievously funny old soldier is taunting them with his healthy long life. And, just so you know: a great number of his mockers had since died. Be careful what you wish for or how you treat others. Be careful of mockery.
In the deep south, a serial entrepreneur kept being coaxed into politics. He kept running away until one day they cornered him into agreeing to be host of a meeting of his political ward. They elected him Ward Leader, a quasi-ceremonial high office. Alas, for three years or so, he endured the mockery he never bargained for as a far younger extraneous person of power kept usurping that office.
Trust mockery: it always or most often than not has happy ending. The man who was not honoured as Ward Leader is now governor of a state. You see the point now. God cannot be mocked, my dear.
Have they choked you with mockery? Are you on the verge of quitting? Stop crying, and listen good. Wipe your tears, help has arrived.
The happy hour of your mockery is here. Whatever was the cause of your mockery is hereby killed, destroyed, buried. Never shall you be mocked again. And, never shall you mock another no matter what.
I am waiting to hear or to read your testimonies. I hear the sounds of abundance coming to you. It is the kind of result or change that makes mockery look stupid. You are going to be so lifted that those who used to mock you before offering you crumbs will mock themselves thinking that will entertain you enough to bless their lives with a little something. The God of the mocked neither sleeps nor slumbers: He always shows up at the nick of time.
God bless Nigeria!