Yesterday I drove from Honey Lake to Orlando. I knew I needed gas before I left, but got on the phone and began having call after call as I sped down I75. Just as I finished another call I turned onto the toll road and happened to look at the dash.
Egad! I’d forgotten to get gas; the light was on and the fuel pointer was below empty and not wavering. Just then I saw a sign that said service centers were located every 45 miles.
Ugh!
Then I saw a sign that said a service center was four miles away. I slowed down and started praying I would make it. When I reached a sign that said 1 ½ miles to go my car started sputtering.
Gulp!
This time I really slowed down and started driving down the shoulder. More sputtering. Just then I saw the entrance to the service center; however, the car engine sputtered its last time and stopped and I put it in neutral and coasted another 1/10 of a mile and then it rolled to a stop.
So I had to get out in the sweltering 84 degree sun and walk approximately one mile to the gas station. I found the manager and after laughing he gave me a number to call for a free service that helps stranded motorists. Then I had to walk back to the car and await his arrival. By now I was sweating like a politician in the fourth of July parade in Phoenix Arizona.
I sat in the unairconditioned car for about an hour and finally the guy with roadside service showed up. After having a very good laugh at my expense, he poured some gas in the tank and the car started right up. He refused any payment, even for the gas and I drove into the service center and put $60 worth of gas in my car and once again was on my way. Just then my youngest son called and when I related my odyssey to him he laughed hysterically at my travails.
Hmmm . . .
I observed that everyone seemed to be getting a good laugh out of this but me. I got to Orlando without incident and checked in to my hotel. I went across the street and had a meal and then returned to my room only to find I’d left my key in the room. They were working on the elevator and I had to take the stairs from the fifth floor to the lobby. When I saw the clerk at the front desk and told him I’d locked my key in the room he laughed.
I thought, what is up with all of these people laughing at my misfortune?
Upon reflection about this I have deducted that it is healthy to laugh at each other. I didn’t desire for anyone to begin wailing and howling in grief and as a matter of fact I laughed at myself.
Sometimes we take ourselves too darn seriously. Everything doesn’t have to be law and order – blood and guts. We need to chill out and take some time to laugh each day. Laugh with your friends and laugh at yourself. Here are some good quotes to help get you in a laughing mood:
“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” – Charlie Chaplin
“Life’s better when you’re laughing.”
“Laughter is poison to fear.” – George R.R. Martin
“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
Laughing is an amazing gift from God and is good medicine. You know that our Creator laughs and so should we. Check out this verse:
Proverbs 31:25-26 She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, wrote the following passage on the various seasons that we all face in life. He reminds us that there is a time for everything, including a time to laugh and rejoice. The author knew all of the attributes of God, and how rejoicing and laughter and smiling were a gift from God to us.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”
December 15 2016 – Click here to listen