LET MY PEOPLE LAUGH

 

APRIL 1, 2024



Job 8:21

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter

LET MY PEOPLE LAUGH

I love to laugh. Maybe you know that about me. I love a good joke, ask my kids, I have a repertoire of Dad jokes, you know the good ones, that make my wife roll her eyes each time.

Why don’t eggs tell April Fools jokes?

Because they would crack each other up!


What did the farmer get when he crossed a skunk and an owl?

A creature that smells but doesn’t give a hoot.


I love a funny story from real life experience, like this one

A little boy, was in church on Easter Sunday with his mother, when he started feeling sick.
“Mom,” he inquired, “can we leave now?”
“No,” his mother replied, “the service isn’t over yet.”
“Well, I think I’m about to throw up.” the boy announced.
“Then go out of the front door and around to the back of the church and throw up behind a bush,” said his mother.
After about 60 seconds, the boy returned to his pew, alongside his mother.
“Did you throw up?” she asked quietly.
“Yes,” the boy answered, embarrassed.
“How could you have gone all the way to the back of the church and returned so quickly?” Mom demanded.
“I didn’t have to go out of the church. They have a box next to the front door that says, For the Sick.”


To be honest since I was a child, I have enjoyed April Fool’s Day. A day when a good ole harmless joke or story can be told that people for a moment believe to be true. It’s good for a laugh as long as no one gets hurt. 

Laughter is good for us. A hearty chuckle releases endorphins, those feel-good neurotransmitters in our brains, that have an effect like narcotics, and endorphins are part of the reason laughing is so contagious. Laughing also has many health benefits such as increasing blood flow and improving mental and physical resilience. In fact, some researchers suggest that it’s not unlike the benefits of a vigorous workout session.


Now that’s the kind of workout I could get into ..... a good laugh!!


Laughter is important in the scriptures too.


Job 8:21
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.


Psalm 126:2
Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”


Ecclesiastes 3:4
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;


Luke 6:21
“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.


Psalm 37:13
But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.


I really believe that God loves a good laugh; humor comes from God.

I often think about who Jesus hung around with. He hung out with fishermen, and common ordinary people who needed to laugh just to make it through the drudgery of their days. And the religious people hated him for it. They said: “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34).

I have this picture of Jesus sitting with these ordinary working people, eating their food, drinking with them, listening to their stories and jokes. Can you imagine that while the party and laughter was going on all around him, Jesus was unsmiling? That he was the serious one in the crowd? You know like artist have depicted him. It is not possible that Jesus was so popular with these people because Jesus enjoyed a good laugh, maybe that's why these outcasts loved him. I wonder if such actions of Jesus are what was so scandalous to the religious leaders of his time.” After all aren't religious folk to be serious all the time, and make sure they have an expressionless face? Some seem to think so.

It’s God who says to us, “a joyful heart is good medicine” Proverbs 17:22. We would all be healthier and happier and, very likely, holier if we had more good laughs. For laughter is more characteristic of God than weeping.

God is not the sad God, God’s happiness is eternal and rooted in his unchangeable, unshakable, glorious nature. That means our source of lively happiness is never-ending! Sometimes I think that in the age to come we are going to be surprised at how much and how hard God makes us laugh!

The cheerful God became the “man of sorrows” (Isaiah 53:3) for us. But this was only for a short time. And like him, our sad tears are only for a short time — a short lifespan. We may weep for the brief night, but Joy is coming in the eternal morning (Psalm 30:5).

And the “man of sorrows” himself said, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” Luke 6:21. Hear that: You shall laugh! That is a promise of a happy God 1 Timothy 1:11. Crying is going to go the way of death and someday will be no more Revelation 21:4

Maybe I am missing something, but I feel April Fools Day is about good-natured, lighthearted, innocent “shenanigans” and some heart-healthy laughter. Enjoy it! Pull some harmless pranks! God loves a good laugh. Could it be that we are like God when we laugh good and hard?

Acts 2 “Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope . . . you will make me full of gladness with your presence.”

1 Peter 1 “In this you rejoice . . . you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”