"Spiritual Disciplines." Sounds a bit like going to the principal's office or being pulled over by the police doesn't it? Christian spiritual disciplines are really practices that God uses to grow us more into the likeness of Jesus Christ. I've been wandering through the wilderness of some tough issues lately and today had this thought go through my head, "What you really need to do is read some good jokes." Those of you who know me realize that, at times, I am "joy challenged." I lean pretty far toward the serious side of things and could use as many opportunities to laugh as possible. So today, I logged on to the Prairie Home Companion website where they have a joke section. I took some time scrolling through the jokes. Some were good, and some were downright bad! All in all, though, a chuckle here and there brought me to a place with a brighter perspective on my day.
Ecclesiastes chapter 3 reads, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven...a time to weep, and a time to laugh (NRSV)." When Sarah heard the angel tell her husband that she would have a son even though "it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women." she laughed, and her son was named Isaac which means "he laughs." Sarah said "God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me (Genesis 21: 5, NRSV)." Jesus says in Luke 6:21, "Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh." Apparently laughter is not just about being suprised or joyous, it is a sign of our hope and trust in the God who heals, restores, and saves. We might say that laughter in the face of impossible obstacles, even in the face of death, is a sign of our faith in our resurrected Lord for whom death was powerless to stop from giving his saving love!
The best funeral I've ever been to was filled with laughter. I knew the old man being eulogized, and I knew that he was tough and mean and, at times, narrow-minded, yet, the church sanctuary was packed with people. Maybe it's because he admitted his struggle to be kind, to express his caring side. Most likely, though, it was because he learned that humor could round even the hardest edges of his life. One Saturday evening he decided that he would gather all of the beer cans he could find and scatter them in the pastor's yard so that when the pastor came out to get the paper in the morning he would stumble all over them. Then the whole neighborhood would wonder just how much alcohol that pastor could handle! The pastor at the time, who also was doing the funeral, then recounted all of the pranks he used to "return fire" on his parishoner. The whole church was filled with laughter and tears, a great release of sadness, joy, wonder, and hope that God could take a tough person and file down his edges with laughter on his way toward loving like Jesus, on his way into the Kingdom beyond death.
Stressed? Worried? Weighted down? Read some jokes. it's a good spiritual discipline! By the way, what do you call a dog with no legs.........................................................................Don't bother because he won't come anyway!
Join us at our Sanford church or on facebook as we start our series on the "Abundance Of God" or check it out on video.
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