There is nothing quite so refreshing as having a good experience of laughter. You can really be tired, or experience anger, or sadness, and something happens that causes you to respond with laughter, and suddenly, even if for just a few moments, you feel refreshed. The cause of the laughter might be a good joke, but it can also be just seeing something silly or for a moment realizing how ridiculous some situation is. There is actually some evidence that laughter, even when it is simply going through the motions of laughter, has healing properties. There is an interesting article on the benefits of laughter by the Reverend Laura Gentry http://laughinglaura.com . She has been introducing what is called laughter yoga. She guides people through a series of exercises of physically laughing that helps refresh them.
The humor in the Scripture is of a more subtle variety. Yet as Ecclesiastes says, there is a time to laugh. Psalm 126 expresses laughter as the expression of grace when beyond expectations God has restored and healed. You will also recall that Abraham and Sarah’s child was laughter (Isaac). If you reflect on that story where the family of faith began, you can recognize that laughter is the birth of promise in the face of the impossible. Even when people hear the story of a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman having a child, many people want to laugh out loud. It’s impossible. Yet that is where our story of faith begins.
In the tragic story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, when out of obedience Abraham was willing to sacrifice laughter, God intervened to preserve laughter as critical to our faith journey. From our own experience, we know that the danger of fanaticism is that one’s belief system becomes so narrow that there is no freedom to question and grow. Laughter is what can give you perspective.
Our soul is healthiest when we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Of course there are healthy and unhealthy forms of laughter. Laughter can be a very destructive weapon used to ridicule another. Yet when one experiences, and especially when one can share laughter, it builds one up and can be the vehicle by which community is restored. There are few things more enjoyable than to be part of a group that is convulsed in laughter as they listen to a good comedy act.
In previous blogs, we have been exploring the value of releasing your anger. Now I want to explore for a couple of future blogs, how a pastor can learn to make use of laughter for personal relief and the maintenance of sanity in the ministry.
