August 28, 2019 – Click here to listen
I get really frustrated with my wife because she doesn’t “get” my jokes. I work my way through a hilariously funny joke and when I get to the punch line and start guffawing, she looks at me as though she’s expecting more. I begin to go back and “patiently” explain the joke line by line and when she finally, (mercifully), understands the meaning, she just looks at me without even smiling and says, “I don’t think that’s very funny You’re weird”.
My lack of communicative skills doesn’t limit itself to telling jokes. One day I was berating one of my employees for doing something really stupid and in total exasperation I told him, “You’re inept!” He looked at me like a deer in the headlights and I asked, “Do you know what inept means?” He answered, “No sir, but I kinda think it might not be all that great”. I said, “It means that your conduct is incongruous with corporate standards”, and then I laughed and put my arm around him and told him not to worry about it. (No, he didn’t laugh, nor understand what incongruous meant either.)
One time my young grandson whose latest thing at the time was learning to count to ten was heading for trouble. This little boy was the perfect picture of mischievous and his mother was constantly battling with him to be good. This particular day she was getting more and more exasperated with his antics and finally she told him that if he didn’t behave she was going to exile him to a dreaded timeout. He paid her no attention whatsoever, until she angrily began the countdown to the timeout. She looked at him with an angry look and sternly said, “ONE!” All of a sudden he looked up and said, “Two-o-o-o”, and held up two of his little fingers. We all broke into raucous laughter. So much for the angry countdown to three and then timeout.
I think too many people are too serious, especially when it comes to poking fun at themselves or heaven forbid for someone to poke fun at them. I suppose there are those that think it is “insensitive and boorish” but gosh I don’t think God wants me, or any of His children to go around like big sourpusses all of the time. For crying out loud don’t take yourself so seriously all of the time – Lighten up!
One of my hard and fast rules of employment used to be never hire anyone who does not smile during the interview. If you worked for me being overly sensitive would not work, because someone was going to poke some fun at you now and then. Yes, we took our work seriously and I take God’s work seriously, but I like to have a good time and laugh some along the way.
When was the last time you had a really good laugh? The absence of laughter in our faith is a very serious thing because when you think about it laughter is God’s idea, his gift to us. In light of the sin, pain, death, and chaos of this world, I believe that laughter is one of the big advantages that Christians have in order to cope. In order to really laugh and have a good time one must have joy in their life and that comes from our relationship with Christ. The joy Jesus imparts to us is a joy bigger than what’s going on in your life right now. A joy that can laugh in the face of death. It is joy that flowed from God’s heart into the life of Jesus, and through His death was also made available to us.
Ok I won’t bore you with anymore of this today. Laugh at something today will you.
John 15:11
Jesus told them: “I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”