How To Heal With Humor
Bible Study
A Psalm for Every Sigh
Finding Your Song in God's Word
Object:
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy....
-- Psalm 126:1-2
A man went to see a psychiatrist. He was lonely, depressed, and joyless. The doctor listened for half an hour, then prescribed, "What you need is a good laugh. And I know just the thing! Last night I went to the circus. And there is a clown there who is hilarious. I suggest you go to see him."
"But I cannot!" the patient protested.
"And, why not?" the psychiatrist asked.
"Because I am that clown."
In the beginning of the twenty-first century, behind our makeup, our superbly manicured lawns, and exciting social schedules, we are still a people who pretend. Though we've lost our laughter, we still put on a pretty good show. Yet, deep down, we wonder, "What's so funny?"
Modern man is desperate for a laugh! Editors place cartoons in the pages of our magazines. Each newspaper has its funny pages. Television has its situation comedies with their laugh tracks, and here in the city, you may even rent a clown to enliven your party.
Yet, it's all a losing effort! One quarter of the American population will suffer some form of serious depression during the next two years. Nuclear weapons will continue to proliferate, child abuse will increase, the economy will slump deeper into debt, and many will handle the gloom by committing suicide, making it the number two killer of young people ages fifteen to 35.
The fact is, humor is ill and doesn't get around much anymore. When's the last time you had a good belly laugh? Is joy a heaping portion of your day today?
It is as if our nation, desperate as she is for a good time, has been robbed of her sense of humor. It's as if we are under a judgment! Jeremiah 16:9 explains it all, "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will make to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness...." From where I sit, it looks as though this very thing has happened to us!
The good news is that God is more eager to give laughter than he is sorrow. The text even says God can fill our mouths with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy!
The Hebrew word most often used for laughter is tsachaq, which means "to have merriment, to make sport, or to play." The Greek word is gelao and it means "a sign of joy, satisfaction, or a mark of gratification." Modern Christians need desperately to get a balance on these things in our lives. For such a balance, let's turn to the Bible and see what it has to say about laughter.
Those Who Laugh At Nothing
First of all, there are those who laugh at nothing. Like Jeremiah 16:9 prophesies, God has removed from them the voice of mirth. Their answer to the question, "What's so funny?" is "Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"
You might remember when cars rode on hard rubber tires with no shocks. Every bump in the road produced a teeth-jarring thud until bald tires were replaced with air-cushioned tires that rode on shock absorbers. People without a sense of humor experience life without the cushion that humor provides. Henry Ward Beecher said it so well, "A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused a disagreeable jolt by every pebble over which he passes."
Such people talk about taking everything so seriously as if it all depended on them. Nuclear war, famine, teen suicide, child abuse, herpes, AIDS, the deficit, and death.
You might recall the man of Greek mythology named Atlas who was doomed by the gods to hold the weight of the world upon his shoulders. This is what many of us do today. We take it all upon ourselves! It is philosophical humanism that preaches God is dead, or at best, unavailable, so man will have to do it all himself. So many, buying into this worldview, step forward to take full responsibility for the entire world and immediately lose their sense of humor. We're like Shakespeare's character who stands up and says, "I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope' my lips, let no dog bark!"1
It's been interesting to debate with feminists the abortion issue on campus. The thing I've noticed most about these women is their intensity. They think their cause and their rights are the most important things in the world. Seriousness crowds out all banter. And though they'll never laugh with you, they'll resent you every time.
Beware of those who laugh at nothing!
Those Who Laugh At Everything
The other extreme of humor in out day is those who laugh at everything.
For some, life is simply one big joke. Thus, everything is reduced to the convivial atmosphere of a fraternity party. John Belushi popularized this lifestyle in the movie, Animal House. Education, sex, authority, the law, eating -- it was all treated with lurid, bawdy humor, and many follow his example.
On a more classic note, Ludwig Von Beethoven did the same thing in his famous Ninth Symphony. Beethoven took a really inferior poem by the German poet, Schiller, and set it to superior music. In the symphonic finale, called the "hymn of joy," Beethoven looses the voices of a choir and dozens of varied instruments to celebrated man-centered joy. For some few minutes, everybody sucks and blows, plucks, sings, and reaches for every rousing sound of joy they can find until the tune is done and they slump exhausted in their seats. Beethoven's life was like that. Rejecting God, he determined to go it alone, making personal gratification his one aim in life. And it all ended on his deathbed with his final words, "The comedy is ended!"
Christ even experienced this in his day as he went to heal a little girl who was sick unto death. Arriving at the house, the crowd told him not to bother because the child was already dead. When Jesus said he'd heal her anyway, "they laughed at him" (Luke 8:53). There you have it: We are people who don't believe God is relevant or capable. We are people who are willing to laugh at Jesus, at death, at life -- at everything. Ours is a world full of such humor, today! Sarcasm, cynicism, gallows humor, whistling in the dark, dirty jokes, endless banter -- for some it never ends. It would do us all good to read and take to life the following scriptures.
If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
-- Proverbs 26:18-19
Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death, is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I am only joking!"
-- Proverbs 29:9
James counsels such people ...
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
-- James 4:9
On one hand, it seems there are those who laugh at nothing, while on the other hand, there are those who laugh at everything. And where is the balance? Where is the proportion Solomon talked about in Ecclesiastes?
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... A time to weep and a time to laugh ... and he has made everything beautiful in its time.
-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, 11
Laughing With God
Perhaps you've never thought of God as the ultimate source of humor, but it's time you do. For the Bible, in numerous places, not only says that God laughs, but it also enjoins us to laugh with him in the things with which he takes delight.
God laughs at man's rebellion. Psalm 2 describes man's rebellion against God. "The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord, let us break his chains on us!" How does God respond? "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision."
Every year about this time, I have a good laugh as I encounter a sophomore student on campus who has had religion 101, sociology 103, biology 107, and history 110. He's doing a twelve-page term paper that is due next week and he tells me that if I will give him but thirty minutes, he and his term paper can explain away God, Jesus, the church, scripture, and guilt. "What do you think of that?" he asks assuredly. I usually shrug and say, "Oh, I think about the same thing of you as I would a flea sitting atop Mount Everest who shouts, 'Hey! Watch me! I'm going to kick down this entire mountain in twenty minutes with my left hind leg.' "
Our strength as humans is that we can laugh at ourselves for being so ridiculous. Our weakness is that we need to do it so often.
God laughs at our redemption. Luke 15 tells a story in which God identifies with the father of a runaway child who decides to come home. The dad immediately throws a party in which there is feasting and dancing and laughter. And Jesus said, "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents ..." (Luke 15:7).
God laughs at our rebellion. He also laughs when we are redeemed.
God laughs at the routine of life. Genesis 17:17--21:6 tells the story of Abraham and Sarah and the birth of their first son. Advanced in years, yet childless, they long for a baby. And just when it seems too late, God said, "About this time next year I will visit you and you shall have a child." Whereupon Abraham literally falls on his face laughing (17:17). When he tells Sarah, she giggles and says, "Shall an old lady have pleasure?" And when the child comes, she names him Isaac, which is a Hebrew word meaning "laughter."
It is interesting in all of this that Abraham's wife loses her name Sarai to gain the name Sarah. Sarai means "contentious." But Sarah means "princess." And thus did laughter turn a beautiful but barren and contentious woman into a princess who knew how to laugh with God over the impossibilities of life that became possibilities with God!
Is there humor like this in your life? In your home? Is contention fading fast as the laughter grows? Are you learning to laugh with God over his promises, over babies born, vows kept, old age, nicknames, and spiritual growth?
Yes, God laughs at our rebellion, at our redemption, and at the routine of life.
God laughs at the resurrection. Psalm 126 says it so well: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy!" (vv. 1-2a).
Just think of it! From the cross, God saw man at his worst -- snarling, thirsty for blood, trying to crucify God. But on the cross, man sees God at his best -- loving, forgiving, appealing, hurting so we won't have to. The joy of it all is that it didn't end in the graveyard, but began there in the early morning resurrection of the third day!
A few years ago, there was an explosion and cave-in at a West Virginia coal mine. Sixteen miners were trapped in the choking dust of the blackened tunnel. Helplessly, they huddled, trying to dig their own way out. The air ebbed away. All talk ceased. Three days without food or water passed. The hole stunk with the smell of human excrement. Death couldn't be far away. All hope was spent. When suddenly, the big rocks moved and light and air penetrated their tomb. Those above had dug them out! And what a sight it was when sixteen men walked out of that mine. The news cameras were there. So were the wives and children of the miners. Such joy and laughter I have seldom seen!
This is our response to Easter as we realize God has dug us out of sin and the grave. He's rolled away the stone of death and let us loose with new life in the Spirit!
During the Middle Ages, Christians used to gather in the cathedral on Easter morning to hear the story of the resurrection read from scripture. Their response was the risus paschalis or "holy laughter of joy." We sing a congregational hymn today. They also shared a congregational laugh! God made it all possible.
We can laugh with God at rebellion. We can laugh with him at redemption and the things of everyday life. We can even laugh at the resurrection of Christ the Lord.
God laughs at our security. Job 5:17-27 tells it so well. Bound up as we are in the grace and power of God, who or what is there to fear? How can we ever be insecure again? "At destruction and famine you shall laugh ..." (Job 5:22).
A few years ago, television aired its doomsday film, The Day After, all about a nuclear war and life in the aftermath. Psychiatrists warned viewers not to watch it alone. Schools urged parental discretion. After the film, a team of experts discussed our options, yet it became all too clear that none of them had the answers. Smack in the middle of the film was the answer. The theme song for the movie was for many nothing but a lilting, haunting strain of beauty amidst death and destruction. But Christians knew it to be the tune of one of our favorite hymns, "How Firm A Foundation." It gives us the answer to The Day After. You see, our security is not in man's efforts for nuclear disarmament, but in God's effort to disarm sin and conquer death for all those who receive him. Christ has already done this for me and for you. In the midst of life's madness, "How firm! How firm a foundation!" As Job 41:28-29 says, "The arrow cannot make him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins." For we are secure in the love and provisions of Jesus Christ.
What Godly Laughter Can Do For Us
What have we seen so far? Some people laugh at everything. Others laugh at nothing. But the wise Christian laughs with God at his security, at the rebellious, at redemption, the resurrection, and the routine of life.
A lubricant. Just as an automobile needs oil to keep its moving parts from burning up, so humor can keep human friction at a minimum. That is one of the benefits of laughter.
No one used humor in a more lubricating, mature manner than President Ronald Reagan did. Threatening to veto any senate tax hike, he challenged, "Go ahead! Make my day!" Laughing at his age and need for a regular nap, he explained, "Russian leaders take naps, too. They just don't wake up." It all created a more agreeable, relaxed atmosphere in which to make the tough decisions of state. And believe you me, a little banter, a little teasing would go a long way in helping us get along better with the children, the office help, the neighbors, and such.
A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.
-- Proverbs 15:13-15
A healer. Did you know that laughter also has the power to heal? Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart doeth good like a medicine."
Norman Cousins was told he had an incurable illness and was given a few months to live. Cousins refused to believe it, checked himself out of the hospital and into a motel room, where he began to sort out his life. It was there that he began to watch old television reruns of humorous movies. Noticing how much better he felt after such cheerful features, he began to order videos of every funny film he could find. As the stress began to loosen, a relaxed and healed Norman Cousins emerged to write a book about it titled, Let Me Tell You About My Non-operation.
Medical experts have begun to discover that laughter not only relieves tension, it aids digestion, lowers blood pressure, stimulates the heart and endocrine system, activates the brain's creative center, strengthens muscles, soothes arthritic pain, and makes one more alert.
For more than eighty years, doctors have been studying negative emotions -- worry, depression, guilt, self-hatred, anger, hostility, and the like. Now, some of them are beginning to study positive emotions, laughter being one of them. They are amazed at their findings. They are so amazed that many hospitals are beginning to maintain "humor rooms" where patients can go for regular doses of entertainment and cheer to speed the healing process.
Courage. Not only is humor a lubricant and healer, it is also a form of courage.
Some situations in life are so impossibly bad that the only adequate way we can deal with them is laughter. Michel Morreset ministers in Haiti amidst the poverty, the voodoo, and the ignorance. He says, "When things get really bad and we can't do anything about it, we laugh."
During World War II, an Allied general found himself surrounded during the Battle of the Bulge. The German commander sent and asked for his surrender, to which the general replied, "Nuts!"
When Alan Shepherd, the first American astronaut in space, was sitting atop an Atlas rocket ready to be blasted into outer space, the atmosphere was tense. Would the rocket explode? Others had. Shepherd dealt humorously by asking where the bathroom was. When told there was none, Shepherd went in his pants. Thus did a great American hero rocket into space laughing over a routine function of the human body.
"He laughs at the rattle of javelins," Job says in 41:29. He is courageous in the face of woe and he can laugh.
Conclusion
What about you and your sense of humor? Do you laugh at nothing? Or are you one of those who laughs at everything?
Certainly every twenty-first-century Christian's survival kit should include in it a sense of humor. To know the season when laughter with God is beautiful in its own time -- that's the secret! And what better time to learn to laugh than on Easter day! For "when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion ... then our mouth was filled with laughter!"
Suggested Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to take you more seriously, myself less seriously, and learn to laugh hard and often with you. Amen.
____________
1. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1.
-- Psalm 126:1-2
A man went to see a psychiatrist. He was lonely, depressed, and joyless. The doctor listened for half an hour, then prescribed, "What you need is a good laugh. And I know just the thing! Last night I went to the circus. And there is a clown there who is hilarious. I suggest you go to see him."
"But I cannot!" the patient protested.
"And, why not?" the psychiatrist asked.
"Because I am that clown."
In the beginning of the twenty-first century, behind our makeup, our superbly manicured lawns, and exciting social schedules, we are still a people who pretend. Though we've lost our laughter, we still put on a pretty good show. Yet, deep down, we wonder, "What's so funny?"
Modern man is desperate for a laugh! Editors place cartoons in the pages of our magazines. Each newspaper has its funny pages. Television has its situation comedies with their laugh tracks, and here in the city, you may even rent a clown to enliven your party.
Yet, it's all a losing effort! One quarter of the American population will suffer some form of serious depression during the next two years. Nuclear weapons will continue to proliferate, child abuse will increase, the economy will slump deeper into debt, and many will handle the gloom by committing suicide, making it the number two killer of young people ages fifteen to 35.
The fact is, humor is ill and doesn't get around much anymore. When's the last time you had a good belly laugh? Is joy a heaping portion of your day today?
It is as if our nation, desperate as she is for a good time, has been robbed of her sense of humor. It's as if we are under a judgment! Jeremiah 16:9 explains it all, "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will make to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness...." From where I sit, it looks as though this very thing has happened to us!
The good news is that God is more eager to give laughter than he is sorrow. The text even says God can fill our mouths with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy!
The Hebrew word most often used for laughter is tsachaq, which means "to have merriment, to make sport, or to play." The Greek word is gelao and it means "a sign of joy, satisfaction, or a mark of gratification." Modern Christians need desperately to get a balance on these things in our lives. For such a balance, let's turn to the Bible and see what it has to say about laughter.
Those Who Laugh At Nothing
First of all, there are those who laugh at nothing. Like Jeremiah 16:9 prophesies, God has removed from them the voice of mirth. Their answer to the question, "What's so funny?" is "Nothing! Absolutely nothing!"
You might remember when cars rode on hard rubber tires with no shocks. Every bump in the road produced a teeth-jarring thud until bald tires were replaced with air-cushioned tires that rode on shock absorbers. People without a sense of humor experience life without the cushion that humor provides. Henry Ward Beecher said it so well, "A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused a disagreeable jolt by every pebble over which he passes."
Such people talk about taking everything so seriously as if it all depended on them. Nuclear war, famine, teen suicide, child abuse, herpes, AIDS, the deficit, and death.
You might recall the man of Greek mythology named Atlas who was doomed by the gods to hold the weight of the world upon his shoulders. This is what many of us do today. We take it all upon ourselves! It is philosophical humanism that preaches God is dead, or at best, unavailable, so man will have to do it all himself. So many, buying into this worldview, step forward to take full responsibility for the entire world and immediately lose their sense of humor. We're like Shakespeare's character who stands up and says, "I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope' my lips, let no dog bark!"1
It's been interesting to debate with feminists the abortion issue on campus. The thing I've noticed most about these women is their intensity. They think their cause and their rights are the most important things in the world. Seriousness crowds out all banter. And though they'll never laugh with you, they'll resent you every time.
Beware of those who laugh at nothing!
Those Who Laugh At Everything
The other extreme of humor in out day is those who laugh at everything.
For some, life is simply one big joke. Thus, everything is reduced to the convivial atmosphere of a fraternity party. John Belushi popularized this lifestyle in the movie, Animal House. Education, sex, authority, the law, eating -- it was all treated with lurid, bawdy humor, and many follow his example.
On a more classic note, Ludwig Von Beethoven did the same thing in his famous Ninth Symphony. Beethoven took a really inferior poem by the German poet, Schiller, and set it to superior music. In the symphonic finale, called the "hymn of joy," Beethoven looses the voices of a choir and dozens of varied instruments to celebrated man-centered joy. For some few minutes, everybody sucks and blows, plucks, sings, and reaches for every rousing sound of joy they can find until the tune is done and they slump exhausted in their seats. Beethoven's life was like that. Rejecting God, he determined to go it alone, making personal gratification his one aim in life. And it all ended on his deathbed with his final words, "The comedy is ended!"
Christ even experienced this in his day as he went to heal a little girl who was sick unto death. Arriving at the house, the crowd told him not to bother because the child was already dead. When Jesus said he'd heal her anyway, "they laughed at him" (Luke 8:53). There you have it: We are people who don't believe God is relevant or capable. We are people who are willing to laugh at Jesus, at death, at life -- at everything. Ours is a world full of such humor, today! Sarcasm, cynicism, gallows humor, whistling in the dark, dirty jokes, endless banter -- for some it never ends. It would do us all good to read and take to life the following scriptures.
If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
-- Proverbs 26:18-19
Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death, is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "I am only joking!"
-- Proverbs 29:9
James counsels such people ...
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to dejection.
-- James 4:9
On one hand, it seems there are those who laugh at nothing, while on the other hand, there are those who laugh at everything. And where is the balance? Where is the proportion Solomon talked about in Ecclesiastes?
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven ... A time to weep and a time to laugh ... and he has made everything beautiful in its time.
-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-4, 11
Laughing With God
Perhaps you've never thought of God as the ultimate source of humor, but it's time you do. For the Bible, in numerous places, not only says that God laughs, but it also enjoins us to laugh with him in the things with which he takes delight.
God laughs at man's rebellion. Psalm 2 describes man's rebellion against God. "The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord, let us break his chains on us!" How does God respond? "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision."
Every year about this time, I have a good laugh as I encounter a sophomore student on campus who has had religion 101, sociology 103, biology 107, and history 110. He's doing a twelve-page term paper that is due next week and he tells me that if I will give him but thirty minutes, he and his term paper can explain away God, Jesus, the church, scripture, and guilt. "What do you think of that?" he asks assuredly. I usually shrug and say, "Oh, I think about the same thing of you as I would a flea sitting atop Mount Everest who shouts, 'Hey! Watch me! I'm going to kick down this entire mountain in twenty minutes with my left hind leg.' "
Our strength as humans is that we can laugh at ourselves for being so ridiculous. Our weakness is that we need to do it so often.
God laughs at our redemption. Luke 15 tells a story in which God identifies with the father of a runaway child who decides to come home. The dad immediately throws a party in which there is feasting and dancing and laughter. And Jesus said, "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents ..." (Luke 15:7).
God laughs at our rebellion. He also laughs when we are redeemed.
God laughs at the routine of life. Genesis 17:17--21:6 tells the story of Abraham and Sarah and the birth of their first son. Advanced in years, yet childless, they long for a baby. And just when it seems too late, God said, "About this time next year I will visit you and you shall have a child." Whereupon Abraham literally falls on his face laughing (17:17). When he tells Sarah, she giggles and says, "Shall an old lady have pleasure?" And when the child comes, she names him Isaac, which is a Hebrew word meaning "laughter."
It is interesting in all of this that Abraham's wife loses her name Sarai to gain the name Sarah. Sarai means "contentious." But Sarah means "princess." And thus did laughter turn a beautiful but barren and contentious woman into a princess who knew how to laugh with God over the impossibilities of life that became possibilities with God!
Is there humor like this in your life? In your home? Is contention fading fast as the laughter grows? Are you learning to laugh with God over his promises, over babies born, vows kept, old age, nicknames, and spiritual growth?
Yes, God laughs at our rebellion, at our redemption, and at the routine of life.
God laughs at the resurrection. Psalm 126 says it so well: "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy!" (vv. 1-2a).
Just think of it! From the cross, God saw man at his worst -- snarling, thirsty for blood, trying to crucify God. But on the cross, man sees God at his best -- loving, forgiving, appealing, hurting so we won't have to. The joy of it all is that it didn't end in the graveyard, but began there in the early morning resurrection of the third day!
A few years ago, there was an explosion and cave-in at a West Virginia coal mine. Sixteen miners were trapped in the choking dust of the blackened tunnel. Helplessly, they huddled, trying to dig their own way out. The air ebbed away. All talk ceased. Three days without food or water passed. The hole stunk with the smell of human excrement. Death couldn't be far away. All hope was spent. When suddenly, the big rocks moved and light and air penetrated their tomb. Those above had dug them out! And what a sight it was when sixteen men walked out of that mine. The news cameras were there. So were the wives and children of the miners. Such joy and laughter I have seldom seen!
This is our response to Easter as we realize God has dug us out of sin and the grave. He's rolled away the stone of death and let us loose with new life in the Spirit!
During the Middle Ages, Christians used to gather in the cathedral on Easter morning to hear the story of the resurrection read from scripture. Their response was the risus paschalis or "holy laughter of joy." We sing a congregational hymn today. They also shared a congregational laugh! God made it all possible.
We can laugh with God at rebellion. We can laugh with him at redemption and the things of everyday life. We can even laugh at the resurrection of Christ the Lord.
God laughs at our security. Job 5:17-27 tells it so well. Bound up as we are in the grace and power of God, who or what is there to fear? How can we ever be insecure again? "At destruction and famine you shall laugh ..." (Job 5:22).
A few years ago, television aired its doomsday film, The Day After, all about a nuclear war and life in the aftermath. Psychiatrists warned viewers not to watch it alone. Schools urged parental discretion. After the film, a team of experts discussed our options, yet it became all too clear that none of them had the answers. Smack in the middle of the film was the answer. The theme song for the movie was for many nothing but a lilting, haunting strain of beauty amidst death and destruction. But Christians knew it to be the tune of one of our favorite hymns, "How Firm A Foundation." It gives us the answer to The Day After. You see, our security is not in man's efforts for nuclear disarmament, but in God's effort to disarm sin and conquer death for all those who receive him. Christ has already done this for me and for you. In the midst of life's madness, "How firm! How firm a foundation!" As Job 41:28-29 says, "The arrow cannot make him flee; for him slingstones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins." For we are secure in the love and provisions of Jesus Christ.
What Godly Laughter Can Do For Us
What have we seen so far? Some people laugh at everything. Others laugh at nothing. But the wise Christian laughs with God at his security, at the rebellious, at redemption, the resurrection, and the routine of life.
A lubricant. Just as an automobile needs oil to keep its moving parts from burning up, so humor can keep human friction at a minimum. That is one of the benefits of laughter.
No one used humor in a more lubricating, mature manner than President Ronald Reagan did. Threatening to veto any senate tax hike, he challenged, "Go ahead! Make my day!" Laughing at his age and need for a regular nap, he explained, "Russian leaders take naps, too. They just don't wake up." It all created a more agreeable, relaxed atmosphere in which to make the tough decisions of state. And believe you me, a little banter, a little teasing would go a long way in helping us get along better with the children, the office help, the neighbors, and such.
A glad heart makes a cheerful countenance, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. All the days of the afflicted are evil, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.
-- Proverbs 15:13-15
A healer. Did you know that laughter also has the power to heal? Proverbs 17:22 says, "A cheerful heart doeth good like a medicine."
Norman Cousins was told he had an incurable illness and was given a few months to live. Cousins refused to believe it, checked himself out of the hospital and into a motel room, where he began to sort out his life. It was there that he began to watch old television reruns of humorous movies. Noticing how much better he felt after such cheerful features, he began to order videos of every funny film he could find. As the stress began to loosen, a relaxed and healed Norman Cousins emerged to write a book about it titled, Let Me Tell You About My Non-operation.
Medical experts have begun to discover that laughter not only relieves tension, it aids digestion, lowers blood pressure, stimulates the heart and endocrine system, activates the brain's creative center, strengthens muscles, soothes arthritic pain, and makes one more alert.
For more than eighty years, doctors have been studying negative emotions -- worry, depression, guilt, self-hatred, anger, hostility, and the like. Now, some of them are beginning to study positive emotions, laughter being one of them. They are amazed at their findings. They are so amazed that many hospitals are beginning to maintain "humor rooms" where patients can go for regular doses of entertainment and cheer to speed the healing process.
Courage. Not only is humor a lubricant and healer, it is also a form of courage.
Some situations in life are so impossibly bad that the only adequate way we can deal with them is laughter. Michel Morreset ministers in Haiti amidst the poverty, the voodoo, and the ignorance. He says, "When things get really bad and we can't do anything about it, we laugh."
During World War II, an Allied general found himself surrounded during the Battle of the Bulge. The German commander sent and asked for his surrender, to which the general replied, "Nuts!"
When Alan Shepherd, the first American astronaut in space, was sitting atop an Atlas rocket ready to be blasted into outer space, the atmosphere was tense. Would the rocket explode? Others had. Shepherd dealt humorously by asking where the bathroom was. When told there was none, Shepherd went in his pants. Thus did a great American hero rocket into space laughing over a routine function of the human body.
"He laughs at the rattle of javelins," Job says in 41:29. He is courageous in the face of woe and he can laugh.
Conclusion
What about you and your sense of humor? Do you laugh at nothing? Or are you one of those who laughs at everything?
Certainly every twenty-first-century Christian's survival kit should include in it a sense of humor. To know the season when laughter with God is beautiful in its own time -- that's the secret! And what better time to learn to laugh than on Easter day! For "when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion ... then our mouth was filled with laughter!"
Suggested Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me to take you more seriously, myself less seriously, and learn to laugh hard and often with you. Amen.
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1. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1.
