Laughing To Flourish
Do we laugh enough? It can be easy to focus on our problems, on what we don’t have, on the seriousness of life. Yet, “a merry heart does good like medicine.” We should laugh more. It can make us stronger to laugh in the face of adversity, confident that we need not fear because God is with us. As Ignatius of Loyola said, “Laugh and grow strong.”
We believers in Christ can laugh with God because we know how things will turn out on Judgment Day: Satan will get his due and God will wipe every tear from our eyes. Isn’t there a certain sacredness to laughing in faith, to laughing with God about the irony of life, or to laugh in sheer enjoyment of the life He has provided?
A friend of mine served as an example to me of the value of laughing with the Lord. He had seen the Lord and talked with Him, had repeatedly experienced angelic manifestations, and moved in a prophetic anointing. Not surprisingly, he enjoyed the Lord. He talked to Him as one would a friend and, as one would have fun with a friend, he laughed with the Lord. There was reverence but candidness. It deeply impressed me. I thought it was so healthy. He loved the Lord enough to relax and be himself with Christ. It was okay for him to chance looking silly because he was so secure in the Lord’s love for him.
I think we would do well to express our faith and our confidence in Christ by laughing more. Not every moment is a time for laughter: “There is a time for crying and laughing, weeping and dancing” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Yet, why do we so often seem to focus on crying and weeping rather than on laughing and dancing? We will be laughing and dancing in heaven – and there won’t be any crying or weeping there. Maybe we should now act more like we will be acting when we are with Him face to face.
Comforting others is costly but worth it.