Laughter is a Gift from God

Tommy Dillon

A Devotional

One of the things I love about working at St Aidan's is that our staff loves to laugh. If you were to spend the day in our office, you would definitely hear laughter coming from every corner of the building. It’s wonderful, refreshing and most definitely contagious. Sally, Diana, and I laugh much of the time!
I believe that laughter is a gift from God. In Rick Coram book, It Feels Better When I Laugh, he says this about laughter, “The Great Physician has prescribed laughter as a medicine that is good for us. The happiest place in the community ought to be the place where the body of Christ assembles and celebrates. Of course, there is a time for reverence and quiet. But it is wonderful when the joy of the Lord overflows from the cup and runs into the saucer!

A couple of years ago In my former parish in Baton Rouge. One Sunday morning a bitter old man that looked like he hadn’t smiled in years came up to me and told me that he believed that laughter in the church was offensive to God. With a smile on my face, I replied, “I don’t think laughter offends God, I believe scowling, sneering Christian do.”

So, did Jesus laugh? Of course, because he shared in our humanity. More than this, I believe Jesus engineered laughter from the situations he created and spoke into. And look at the people He hung out with. In particular one of Jesus’ closest friends, the gruff fisherman from Galilee called Peter must surely have kept Jesus in stitches. He got himself into all kinds of trouble: he had a stab at walking on water but soon found out he couldn’t do it as well as Jesus could. On another occasion, having caught no fish all night Peter agreed to the ludicrous suggestion from Jesus to put his net out in deep water, only to catch so many fish that his boat began to sink. Most memorably, at the Transfiguration where Jesus stood in shining light with the prophets Moses and Elijah a dumbstruck Peter made the off-the-wall suggestion to set up three tents for them to stay the night in. I’m sure he teased about this for a long time afterwards.

Always remember to laugh!!!