Just Laugh For The Joy Of It

“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven…A time to cry and a time to LAUGH. A time to grieve and a time to dance.” Ecclesiastes 3: 1,4 (NLT) There was a time in my life that some very simple challenges in life that came my way would cause me to freak out. I was so serious and you guessed right, I took everything very serious. I just did not know what it meant to be funny – to have joy and laughter in my life. To a large extent, the environment in which I grew up in shaped my behavior. Then experiences with some bad relationships compounded the matter and that caused me to often beat up on myself.

Prior to me accepting Christ as my Lord and Savior up to the time of my deliverance, anxiety and fear were my companions. Without Christ in my life, I was really in darkness and so I thought they were my friends. Everywhere I went, they were there, until that is, the light of Jesus penetrated my spirit and awakened my soul with joy and laughter and for me to come out from among that darkness.

So now, it is different! And while life may still throw some harsh things at times, I just laugh for the joy of it. I look for the opportunities where there is humor and laughter – the kind that makes me giggle like a little kid, the ones that makes me laugh out loud until tears come to my eyes and stitches in my side. I’m talking about just laughing for the joy of it.

“Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them. Joke over your troubles but get strength from them, make a jist of your difficulties but overcome them.” – (Author unknown). I find this to be so true in the application of it to my life experiences now. Mistakes, I can laugh about them, for guess what, I can try again. Failures, they help me to become strong and cause my spiritual roots to anchor deeper in the Lord.

You can turn painful situations around through laughter. William James says, “We don’t laugh because we are happy, we’re happy because we laugh.” Again this is so true. Why is it so necessary for us to laugh? First, it relaxes our facial muscles. It removes the tenseness from our muscles. Laughter nourishes the soul and it triggers and awakens our spirit of joy. It gives us strength. Yes, because God’s word says, the joy of the Lord is your/my strength.

Laughter is a stimulus – the immune system is healthier while your oxygen flow through our bodies increases. It disperses negative emotions such as worry, anxiety, fear, irritability, grief, and even greed. Laughter sharpens our intellect, strengthens our memory, expand our consciousness and our understanding. It makes us open and ready to receive positiveness, life transforming energies. and creates a balance in our mind.

What Does The Bible Say?

There is so much that the bible teaches about humor and laughter. God has a sense of humor. He is the Creator of all things, including laughter. There are approximately forty seven bible verses on humor and laughter. Here are just a few:

“He who sits in the heaven laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” ~ Psalm 2:4 ESV

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

“He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.” ~ Job 8:21 ESV

“A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.” ~ Proverbs 15:13 ESV

Most important of all, learn to forgive others for whatever wrong they may have done. Forgiveness gives you back laughter and it removes heaviness and burdens from your spirit. Time to laugh again, laugh for the joy of it!

Continue to be blessed and be a blessing to someone else. Don’t wait for that person to make you laugh, you make them laugh, and you both laugh together!

Have a great weekend everyone!