OUT TO PASTOR: Laughter is not for sissies

Since birth, I have been infected with the Laughter-Virus. I’m not sure which side of the family it came from, or it could’ve come from both sides. But the least little thing will make me laugh. Sometimes I have a hard time stopping laughing.

If I am infectious with my laughter, so be it. It is one thing I can give to the people around me.

I have been a laughter connoisseur for a very long time. The least little thing will make me break out in laughter. Sometimes at the most inappropriate time and place. But, what can I do? Laughter is laughter.

Although I believe laughter to be very good and healthy, I must confess that sometimes my laughter has gotten me into trouble, especially with The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage.

Not long ago, she came into the living room with a worried look on her face and asked me, “Do you know where my glasses are?”

I immediately began to laugh – because her glasses were on the top of her head.

She looked at me, “Why are you laughing? Do you know where my glasses are? This is a serious question.”

I had to suppress my laughter because I did not know exactly what she was getting at. Wives always have a way of tricking their husbands into doing something.

She turned around quickly and walked away, muttering something to the effect of, “Why is he laughing at me?”

A few minutes later, she came back wearing her glasses and said rather firmly, “Why didn’t you tell me my glasses were on the top of my head?”

With a smothered smile, I looked at her and said, “I thought you were just trying to trick me.”

Looking back at me, she smiled one of those suspicious smiles, turned around, and walked out.

I couldn’t help but smile, which eventually turned into laughter.

But as everybody knows, what goes around comes around.

Last Thursday was a long day, and I finally got home, walked into the living room, my wife looked at me very strangely and said, “You did not have a jelly donut anytime today, did you?”

With a hearty laugh, I responded by saying, “Of course not. You know I don’t eat donuts during the day?” And I laughed most heartily.

“You sure about that?” She said on the edge of laughing.

I laughed and shook my head, and started to walk away.

“Well then,” she said rather slowly, “it looks like your shirt had a donut without you knowing it.”

I stopped in my tracks, looked down at my shirt, and there it was. A drop of jelly from a donut. According to the evidence, I must’ve had a donut that day.

I tried to laugh it off, but in a very stern voice, she said, “That is not funny. Stop your laughing.”

Laughing does have a way of getting you into trouble; at least, that has been my experience throughout the years. But on the other side, laughter has good aspects to it.

When I’m down in the dumps, so to speak, a good laugh helps to lift me above my discouragement. It’s hard to find a good laugh sometimes, but it’s well worth the investigation when I do.

Whenever I’m out at a store somewhere, and I see someone that looks sad and down, I always try to do something to make them laugh. It doesn’t always work, but when it does work, everyone is laughing.

Not many people have much to laugh about these days. If it weren’t for politicians, some people wouldn’t have anything to laugh at.

Many a time, my wife and I will be sitting in the living room watching a little TV and much of that time is filled with laughter. Not so much what’s on the TV, but our response to what’s on TV.

Most of the time we watch TV while eating supper. Almost nightly, the advertisements had to do with some cure for diarrhea during that time. So why do I want to hear about diarrhea while eating supper? It sort of quenches my appetite at the time.

That in itself has caused us to laugh many a time. We can either laugh at it or get upset. More often than not, both of us choose the laughter element. Nothing lifts us better than laughter, no matter what we laugh at.

Thinking about how important laughter was in my life, I was reminded of the Bible verse. David said, “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them” (Psalm 126:2).

That verse sums up the important aspect of my life. Because of the great things God has done for me that has become the platform for healthy laughter in my life. Looking at my life from God’s perspective, there are many things that would induce laughter.

Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Telephone 1-352-216-3025, e-mail jamessnyder51@gmail.com. Website is www.jamessnyderministries.com.