“and a time to laugh…” (Ecclesiastes 3: 4) – Did you notice that the preacher of Ecclesiastes did not write: “there is a time to smile?” Surely, there must be such a time. However, this writer purposely indicates that there is a time to laugh.

There is a time to throw back your head, bend over your body, crack your sides and just laugh until you cry. Who was it that made us believe laughter was anti-Christian? Why is it that we have been led to believe that saints should always look like the sad sack couple with a pitch fork on the box of Country Corn Flakes?

Just like Jesus wept. Jesus laughed. You can hear Him laugh in the humor of some of His parables. For example, He spoke of the hypocrites who were quite happy to identify a splinter of sin in someone else’s eye, when all the time they had a great big two by four of faults in their own eye. That’s funny!

Laughter is therapeutic: “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” (Proverbs 17: 22) No wonder so many of our churches feel like a valley of dry bones and our brothers and sisters in Christ act like zombies. Their spirit has been broken and their bones have dried up.

You have heard it said: “Don’t let the devil steal your joy!” This is true. Yet, we must quickly add: “Don’t let the devil steal your laugh!” Your joy can be invisibly resident within, but your laughter is the public and defiant expression of that joy out loud and all up in the devil’s face!

The irony of life, the silliness of people, the comedy of comedians and the odd way that God gets the glory are all reasons to laugh. Here’s a tip: “You may already get a scripture verse for the day, but did you know you could also subscribe to a joke for the day?” In other words, you may discover that your day will go much smoother when you begin it with the Lord and a laugh.