In His Name Devotionals
A SENSE OF HUMOR
In His Name Devotionals
A SENSE OF HUMOR
After playing with a water hose, little Joe tracked mud across mom’s freshly cleaned floor. She was heard to say: “The longer I live, the more I need a sense of humor.” How true! A healthy sense of humor keeps life in balance. The person who cannot laugh at her own foibles faces the possibility of mental illness from depression. Sometimes it’s best to handle others with a chuckle instead of rancor—making allowances for our own fallibility.
Have you ever wondered, “Does God have a sense of humor?” We can certainly hope our Heavenly Father smiles the wry grin of a knowing father as He looks down at the immaturities of His children. Don’t you hope that some of our “church” traditions provoke in our Father that sort of smile? When we:
Offer a wordbook of clichés and call it prayer,
Pass out revival handbills and think we are evangelizing,
Lay guilt trips on the elect in the name of preaching the Gospel,
Drop less in the offering plate than we spent on a night out and call it giving,
Hide behind closed doors and call it shepherding the flock,
Engage in fratricide and call it defending the faith,
Sing to the backs of others’ heads and call it fellowship, or
Send money to feed the hungry in Ethiopia while people within sight of our church buildings go hungry and call it love.
Did Jesus poke fun at the inconsistencies of His time and place? What about His comment about the fellow with a plank in his eye trying to get a sawdust speck out of his friend’s? What about sewing a patch of new cloth on an old piece of clothing? Or His playful nickname, “Sons of Thunder,” for the hot-tempered brothers in His inner circle?
Who knows? Heaven may frequently ring with laughter that is neither condescending nor mocking—just like some of the laughs we have had over the kids Art Linkletter and Bill Crosby have interviewed. We can only hope and pray that the divine sense of humor makes countless allowances for our blind spots, spiritual immaturities, and weaknesses.
It is only when we become defensive in our sinfulness, proud in our ignorance, or willful in our failures that a fatherly grin becomes a withering, condemning glare. If you are a parent or remember your own, you know the difference in the facial lines and the degree of tolerance indexed by the two looks.
