Day 11 - Issue 23
Genesis 21:6 NLT
And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me.”
Laughter, we’re told, is the best medicine. Psychologists say laughter reduces pain, increases job performance, connects people emotionally, and improves the flow of oxygen to the heart and brain. So it’s comedy films for me! As a child I laughed a lot. My parents used to come into my bedroom because I laughed in my sleep, something Jayne tells me I still do. Certainly laughter lightens the mood and relaxes body and mind.
Of course, laughter is not always an expression of mirth and joy. It is also a means for expressing disbelief, as in, “Don’t make me laugh.” Indeed, Sarah laughed in disbelief when she overheard God’s promise to Abraham that she would fall pregnant at an impossibly old age. A laugh she stifled, then denied, when challenged by God.
I remember arriving at university to discover a card beneath my door from the Christian Union with an invitation to a coffee evening. I laughed, being a convinced agnostic, only reaching for prayer when I’d run out of other ideas. Little did I realise that two weeks later I’d be responding to an appeal to discover more about Jesus. Previously I’d laughed in God’s face and now I knelt in acknowledgement of his reality.
It’s easy to hide behind a laugh. Many words of encouragement I received from well-meaning friends as Katey began her journey with MS were laughed off in my inner pain and growing lack of conviction that God would bring a physical healing. However, laughing these words off proved unhealthy, for it only deepened my cynicism and nourished a root of bitterness within my soul.
Joyful laughter restores a connection between people, and so laughter can only prove positive in building friendship with God. The medics tell us laughter will reduce the likelihood of cardiovascular disease and so is to be highly prized. Just a few verses later, Sarah is laughing with delight. Her desire had been realised even when she had completely given up on the idea. Laughing in anticipation is an approach that we might want to explore and practise whenever we find we laugh out of disbelief.
QUESTION: How often do you laugh?
PRAYER: Lord, grow in me that fruit of the Spirit called joy that brings laughter to my soul.
