Sunday, April 13, 2008

Laughter as Prayer

Laughter as Prayer
Dave McGhee November 4, 2005

At Wednesday night bible study we were discussing a vision of what it would be like to live in Jesus’ presence all the time. Our small group was attracted to the phrase “laughter comes as naturally as breathing.”(1) Two very exemplary women shared that they would like to laugh more and frequently felt anxious. I thought that odd because I could not imagine not having laughter in my life. I was moved to offer them a suggestion. “If you are feeling anxious and want to laugh more, you first need to learn to laugh at yourself. Sit down with God and have a good laugh.”

The next morning I was thinking more about that idea and the thought that laughter really is a prayer. If you can honestly laugh about yourself and whatever troubles you, you are telling God that you trust Him and recognize your silliness in worrying. But the laughter has to come from the right place.

There are many kinds of laughter. Many of today’s comedians use a very caustic kind of humor that is usually at someone else’s expense. There is also making fun of someone else in order to build your self up. Traditional ethnic jokes fall in these categories. There is also a way of laughing at yourself that is self deprecating and tearing yourself down. This is not prayerful laughter!

When you truly learn to laugh at yourself you are learning to laugh very humbly. You are not learning to laugh at your core being, which God made, but learning to laugh at your behavior. For those of you that are parents, I’m sure you remember times while watching your children, seeing them do something that embarrasses them terribly. But you just can’t help from laughing. You know you shouldn’t but you just can’t help it! Your laughter doesn’t spring from thinking them foolish or worse. It comes from an honest feeling of compassion for their pain but knowing that they will soon forget all about it. That’s what laughing with Jesus is like! You run to Jesus crying your eyes out feeling miserable. He snatches you up in strong loving arms. Safe in His arms you continue crying. You then feel his chest heaving beneath you with constrained laughter, you get angry a bit, and before long you can’t help but laugh yourself. Soon your tears of sorrow have turned to tears of laughter and neither of you can stop!

Laughter is also one of the ways the Holy Spirit works within us and allows us to hear what God is saying. Laughter can break down the hardest heart. It knocks us out of our attempts to solve our own problems and opens the path of communication with God that will lead us to the true solution. Laughter is the spark of creativity!

So, when things get tense go sit down with Jesus and have a good laugh! You just may end up peeing your pants!


1 “Soul Shaping,” D.J. Rumford, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1996

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