Laughter

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” Genesis 21:1-7

Isaac means laughter, what a great name.  The one who before he was born awoken laughter from both his father, Abraham, and his mother, Sarah.  The one who you can imagine when he was born caused laughter to erupt as tears flowed down his mother's face.  Sarah is the saint of laughter.

Then, somewhere along the way, church became a very serious and somber business.  After all there are buildings to maintain and budgets to fund.  There are services to plan, sermons to preach.  Committee...O yes...the committees.  Always another meeting.  And rarely do we associate these moments with laughter.  But I think we should all go buy a portrait of Saint Sarah, place the photo in our board rooms, back rooms, and even bath rooms to remind us that laughter is the best prayer to God.

When did you laugh this week?  Honestly, this was not a week filled with laughter for me.  But, sometimes the lack of laughter has more to do with me than anyone else.  A pastor friend of mine was fond of quoting Lincoln, "Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be".  We often think that our happiness is dependent on forces outside our control.  While it is true that there is much brokenness in our world, there are forces that seem bent on spreading dis-ease in our world (cable news networks or radio hosts come to mind here).  It is easy to nit-pick your way through life, where nothing is quite good enough.  The sauce on your food, just a tad too spicy.  The day was too sunny or cloudy or too party cloudy.  Life is not about perfection, but finding peacefulness.  And no one can give us peacefulness.  You cannot purchase it along with a People Magazine and breath mints at your local store.  

My wife and I enjoy watching HGTV; and almost every show has the premise surrounding buying or renovating a home...perhaps the most stressful time in your life.  So, why NOT invite some cameras in for filming that moment in your life for national consumption?  So many shows also are bent on one person in the couple being overly grumpy about the house.  Then, in the end, we all want a happy ending, so both in the couples are suddenly so excited about the best decision ever.  On the one hand, that is just television.  On the other, people are trying to make up their minds to be happy.

We all know and admire people who seem to have an endless supply of happiness.  It seems to radiate from every pore of their being.  Of course, others help.  Watch a comedian; read funny stories or blogs; hang out with friends with a good sense of humor.  But at some point it needs to come from within too.  Touching the part of our soul connected to our funny bone that enjoys laughing so hard our bellies hurt.  

I pray you will continue to ponder prayerfully laughter and joy and happiness in your life.  Where is happiness coming from outside and inside?  And how are we thanking God for the saint of laughter, Sarah!  May the traces of God's grace tickle your life with laughter this week.

Blessings ~