Laugh at Yourself

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally a song, hymn or selection of poetry to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Vujicic, Nick. Limitless Devotions for a Ridiculously Good Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2013. pp 59-61.

Opening Thought: Humor is extremely valuable to me. I’m not the funniest person, but I allow myself to dive into humor and wit. When I was a young teenager, I didn’t have the best health, so I didn’t always have the best confidence, so me and a friend (who also lacked confidence) developed a weird babbling story humor that got us through our adolescence. Humor can take you far, particularly when you can use it to not take yourself too seriously, and when you can do that confidence, born from humility, can begin to grow.

The devotional begins with: 
Psalm 90:13-17

Have compassion on Your servants.
Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we rejoice and be glad all out days!
Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.
Let Your work appear to Your servants,
And Your glory to their children.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands..

Second Thought: I believe good humor is great for the family as well, one could say, the family that laughs together is a family that stays together. Some of my favorite memories with my family are from the times where we were telling funny stories, cracking very bad jokes, and of course some mild teasing. The teasing seems like it wouldn’t be a Christian thing, but if you don’t take it too far than it can help to teach humility and modesty. (Just make sure you apologize if someone’s feelings get hurt.)

If you can learn to hold life in good humor, it makes the challenges of life a lot easier to get through. Humor has a way of breaking down barriers, giving a pause to stressful moments, and if you learn to not shame yourself (as many people do during hard or difficult times because they feel humor somehow dishonors serious things) humor can give great healing in times of conflict, difficulty and stress.        

Continual Work: There are many types of humor, and being funny can even be an art. I encourage everyone to take time to laugh, find something that speaks to your humor and see if you can find that euphoric tickling in the ribs and echoing chuckle in the belly.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: Try to laugh at least once every day, this has never been a struggle for me, but hey – always good to be practiced. HAHAHA 

Scripture time: Psalm 90: 1-2

Lord, you have been our dwelling place

    throughout all generations.

Before the mountains were born

    or you brought forth the whole world,

    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn people back to dust,

    saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”

A thousand years in your sight

    are like a day that has just gone by,

    or like a watch in the night.

I would go as far to present humor as a divine attribute of God – which can be challenging to some because, when looking at the world, we see suffering. So, how can God have humor in a world of pain? Good question, however there is an old expression, “time heals all wounds” – we know the potential of this expression is true because we have people in history who have experiences intense hardship and pain and have moved to rising beyond their trials. So, put our existence on an infinite time scale, the things of earth, even the most horrific and challenging could and would go strangely dim, especially in the light of His glory and grace. I believe humor helps us see this positioning, that in the grand scheme of things all that we experience in our lifetimes are the guiding works building us up to a glorious punch line. That doesn't mean we abandon all seriousness either, I just means after legitimate times of reflection, mourning, and struggle - we can come back to center and humor will help guide us there.  

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Artistic Close:  Two quotes from C.S. Lewis

“Laugh and fear not, creatures. Now that you are no longer dumb and witless, you need not always be grave. For jokes as well as justice come in with speech.” So”
― C.S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

“Humour is...the all-consoling and...the all-excusing, grace of life.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters