Laughter.

Pastor Maria Braga

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” –Proverbs 17:22.

Remember to keep your heart happy so that you will experience good health (strong bones). How encouraging! God’s Word tells us if we allow our Spirit to stay broken, we will experience sickness. We are Spirit, soul, and body; when the soul is wounded, the body manifests the soul’s condition, and we will tend to reflect those feelings. “That’s just how life is.” But the Truth goes deeper than that. It’s a Spirit thing. By the time the soul and the body begin to experience symptoms, the cause of those symptoms has been happening in the Spirit for a while, but we couldn’t see it.

Laughter is medicine. Nowadays, people are often sad, hurt, wounded, and walking around hopeless, ready, and waiting for the next sad episode, and the symptoms that appear as a result are not part of God’s design for them.

Yes, we all will have moments of sorrow and sadness when we get hurt, lose a loved one, or experience some similar situation; however, we are designed to overcome these things by giving them to the Lord in prayer, trusting that God will strengthen us to overcome these overwhelming times. Of course, the believer knows this, yet even the believer sometimes forgets. On the other hand, the unbeliever might not understand the language of the Spirit because that person has not yet been born again. “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” –1 Cor.2:14.

I remember how laughter was such a steady part of my childhood.

We laughed till we had belly aches. Sometimes, all it took was my cousin taking off her shoe to show us her toe coming through a hole in her sock in the middle of mass. While everyone else was quiet, listening to the priest, we would all burst out in laughter, and of course, we all got in trouble. But even that, as silly as it might be, was a moment I would never forget; for days afterward, every time we saw each other, we would somehow talk about the hole in her sock and laugh again.

Society has become so weighty and political that we have allowed life’s simple joys to be robbed of us.

Let’s return to our first love. “Remember the old days. Consider the years of all generations. Ask your father, and he will inform you and your elders, and they will tell you.” –Deut. 32:7.

Fear has crept into us, and offence has taken up residence amid the believer and unbeliever alike. We have become distracted naturally and spiritually. “I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” –Rev 2:2-7.

I am journeying through the Bible again, and this time, I am much more aware of the humor in this Holy Book. There are so many stories filled with pieces of humor!

To me, Hamon and the Gallows are humorous. Hamon built the gallows to hang Mordecai and he asked the King for everything he thought he deserved, which, in turn, Mordecai ended up getting because God’s favor was on him. Hamon led Mordecai on foot while Mordecai rode the King’s horse. Mordecai was honored, while Hamon ended up hanging on the gallows he had constructed to kill his enemy! I find humor in just picturing Hamon in my mind receiving the retribution he intended for another, and it teaches me so much.

Then there’s the talking donkey with Balaam and Balak. “Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.” The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” –Numbers 22:28-30.

Jesus went to weddings and had dinners with His friends; Jesus had so much fun and was often found around celebrative moments that even the religious leaders called Him a gluten and a drunkard. There are many other moments throughout Scripture where we witness the Lord’s joy and the happy moments Jesus experienced.

 When we live wounded and sad, we tend to fixate on the weighty issues of life; they become huge mountains we cannot remove, making us unhappy. But Jesus said, “… Truly, I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain: Move from here to there; and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

We forget we need God’s help to live happy lives; we need Him living in us. When we forget we have His help and try to fix things ourselves, we get tired and worn down. We may even deepen our problem as our natural mind makes an already big mountain seem even bigger.

We must trust Jesus to move our mountain, not just with our lips but entirely—with our hearts.

Today’s stress will not fix tomorrow’s troubles. We must have a Source, a well from which to draw, and that is Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God in us.

Matthew 6:34 says,” Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Remember to laugh! Why? It is medicine for the bones, brings joy into your heart, and laughter offers healing. Find reasons to laugh. To create fun and laughter. Memorize Scripture and recite them to yourself when sad memories appear, and watch what happens. We must learn to keep reaching forward instead of holding onto what is behind us, reminding ourselves that we are only sojourners in this land, just passing through. Heaven is our home.

Lord, teach us to number our days and live each day filled with your abundance. Since my days are numbered, I want to live each day as if it were my last, filled with laughter, joy, and goodness. ” Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.” –Psalm 39:4-5.

We all know that we didn’t come to stay here. One day, we will depart. And for those who have a relationship with Jesus, we long to hear the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

We cannot hear these Words unless we obey God’s Word in time, which means we must have a genuine relationship with Jesus. “Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” —John 14:6.

Living a relaxed, laughter-filled life is choosing to live God’s Peace. Like everything else in life, we must choose to live happily or live and die with a broken heart. Many saints will enter heaven, hoping they have a few more days to live happily. Let’s take God at His Word and enjoy this day.

Father, in the name of Jesus, fill us with this promised Joy. Remind us to laugh and enjoy each day; it is Your gift to us. Teach us, Lord, to be in your Word and learn from you. Amen. And if you do not know Jesus personally, you can now, today. You can experience the joy only He offers those who believe in Him. Here’s how: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” –Romans 10:9-10.