It’s OK to Laugh – God Invented Humor!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(2) Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” (3) The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.’ (Psalm 126:2-3); ‘A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.’ (Proverbs 17:22); ‘Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.’ (Ephesians 5:4)
God created humor; he created laughter. As quoted from the movie Rambo III, ‘God must love fools, because he made so many of us.’ We are supposed to laugh, and find the humor in the joy of situations. I look back at a particular sad moment in life; my mother is in the hospital; she was unconscious and was slowly dying, off the ventilator, my daughter came in and we were both crying – I mean, my mother is unconscious and about to die – when, out of nowhere, Mom wakes up and says in a crisp, clear voice: “I want some bacon and eggs!” We went from crying our eyes out to bellicose laughter! That was funny! It was a sad time after that in hospice, as Mom was slowly passing, but it was interspersed by many of her quips that were rather funny, especially coming from someone on their deathbed – and we laughed with her. She had joy in a bad situation and found the humor in it, and shared it with us, an incredible gift to temper and sooth us in our sadness.
We need to laugh at absurdities; we need to find that which gives joy. There is the need to see humor, in good and not-so-good times. We have to be careful, as stated in Ephesians 5:4, not to be crude or obscene in our humor, but to laugh in situations that are not optimal is good. Being on a chair lift going down from the Natural Bridge in Kentucky as it starts to downpour heavily, laughing about the need to ‘embrace the suck’ of the situation, it was finding joy in a not-so-good moment. Being told by a nurse I was a great Lamaze coach to my wife (though I never took a single lesson, except to copy a skit from Bill Cosby about the subject) made my wife and I laugh, despite her increasing birthing pains, in was finding joy in a good moment (for me at least, maybe not as much for my ‘baby mama’).
If you are entertained by an event, as long as it is not obscene or vulgar, is good. Whether it be the rodeo, or NASCAR, or watching a cat try not to touch a cushy bed; it’s OK. These are things that can help take us away from situations we are in, if only briefly. We could assuredly dwell on negative things and their effects, but what good will that do? Things will change over time, as it does after a hurricane; roofs will be repaired, the trash will get picked up, and street signs will all be straightened up and fixed, but it will take many months, perhaps years. What a waste if we were to always focus on natural disasters, or the elections, or COVID, or the economy or the infinite things we could dwell upon incessantly.
The best ‘entertainment’ is to focus on the Lord! He is the one thing, even in our differences, that we can agree on, that we can find joy in, and yes, even find humor in His Word. It’s OK to have something in Scriptures that tickle our funny bone. God wants us to be cheerful and with joy, even in the midst of our problems. God is not to be laughed at, but we can laugh with Him; in Psalms 2 and 37 God laughs at the foolish. Why shouldn’t we, as well? If someone gets upset, perhaps it is like those who hear the Truth for the first time, and are being told that they are wrong in what they are doing or what they believe. Sometimes the absurdity needs to be pointed out to someone who doesn’t know they’re being absurd.
Laugh out loud, go do that which wholesomely entertains you, and always place the love of God and His Joy in every situation you encounter! If it’s funny, it is!
