{"id":3723,"date":"2016-11-06T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2016-11-05T23:04:03","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T04:04:03","slug":"choose-to-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"Choose to Laugh"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another Year of Choices <\/em><\/p>\n

By Barbara Dahlgren<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ADoes God laugh? I think so. Creating the duck-billed platypus, penguin, and giraffe should merit some points on the chuckle meter. Long before animated cartoons desensitized us to talking animals, He made Balaam\u2019s donkey speak. The medical profession has come to see what the Bible told us all along: a merry heart is good medicine. (Proverbs 17:22) Studies show that those who laugh live longer, healthier lives. God created laughter and it is good.<\/p>\n

Of course God has standards. Regrettably, people can pollute humor to something crass and crude. So when I speak of Christian humor in this article, I am not referring to vulgarity. God doesn\u2019t stoop to such levels and neither should we. However, we as Christians could probably lighten up a bit.<\/p>\n

Christians are a rare breed when it comes to laughter. Just the knowledge of Jesus Christ as our Savior should fill us with joy, but actually Christians can be some of the biggest fuddy-duddies around. Sometimes we want to determine what should or should not be funny for everyone else. That\u2019s what happened when I was attending a Christian college.<\/p>\n

Each year the music department presented a program. One time they did a parody about opera. A girl sang a comic aria while she answered the phone and talked to her boyfriend. It was pretty funny, but the administration wasn\u2019t laughing. Most of their experience with arias came from Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> and Mendelssohn\u2019s Elijah <\/em>\u2013 religious compositions. They equated this genre of music as spiritual. Their narrow view limited their ability to see the humor. Unfortunately, the music director got in BIG time trouble over this comic aria.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I had an opposite experience at a Women of Faith Conference. Here we had 5,000 women of all sizes, ages, styles, nationalities, and denominations gathered under one roof listening, singing, and praising God together. Christian humorist Chonda Pierce had us all doubled over in laughter at ourselves and our denominational quirks. How refreshing! If we don\u2019t believe God has a sense of humor, just think about all the different denominations and their ideas or foibles.<\/p>\n

Thank God our salvation does not depend on whether we sprinkle or immerse, bring casseroles or hot dishes to potlucks, use old hymnals or sing new songs, fund raise with bake sales or bingo, clap our hands or keep them in our pockets, drink alcohol or teetotal, sit in pews or chairs, change too much or not at all, use bread or crackers for Communion, and\/or raise our hands to praise God or stay seated when we sing Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus.<\/em> If it did, we\u2019d all be doomed.<\/p>\n

Consider this\u2026 Jesus had a bit of a merry outlook on life. He enjoyed himself. He had wit and a keen sense of humor. How else would He come up with examples like a camel going through the eye of a needle and getting a wooden plank out of the eye? (Matthew 19:24; Matthew 7:3) He even jokingly nicknamed James and John the \u201csons of thunder.\u201d (Mark 3:17) Jesus used humor to get points across, but sometimes we don\u2019t recognize it because it\u2019s not funny today. Just like today we think certain expressions are funny, but the ancients would not. The Bible is full of metaphors, irony, hyperbole, paradoxes, and exaggerations for effect. In many ways, that\u2019s what cartoons are all about \u2013 illustrations for effect.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfortunate when our limited view affects our ability to laugh, especially at ourselves as individuals or even as a denomination. Of course we are not to be deliberately offensive with an \u201cin your face\u201d type attitude. However, true Christians aren\u2019t supposed to get offended over every little thing either.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s better to accept our differences and laugh about them. In other words, sometimes we just need to \u201cget thou over it\u201d and get on with serving God.<\/p>\n

\"If<\/p>\n

Suggestions for practicing this choice\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n