Unbuckle Your Chuckle
Laughter is the human lungs spontaneously expelling rapid bursts of genuine joy in response to the sudden perception of humor. It’s when an aha moment turns into an aha ha ha moment.
Heartfelt laughter is therapeutic. It heals hurts. It connects people heart-to-heart. It transcends language, culture, ethnicity, and race because it is a universal language of the heart.
Humor is the amusing quality of certain words, behaviors, and situations. It causes people to laugh by suddenly surprising them with mismatched ideas, misperceptions, and/or silly situations.
Laughter is a chuckle that erupts into great joy. It can easily spread from person to person. Because it is so enjoyable, people throughout history have sought after “lafter”. Kings would even employ clowns and court jesters to say and “doo” foolish things (like intentionally “mispelling” words) to make them laugh and help relieve their pompous stress.
People still go after laughter. They look for comedians, comedy movies, and funny series to make them laugh. They tell jokes and one-liners as attempts (that frequently flop) to help each other laugh. People often think that having a few drinks will loosen them up and make them a laughter drafter. But laughing isn’t that complicated.
Watch little children when they innocently play. They run and chase one another. They drop like a rock and roll on the ground, laughing all the while. No series. No comedian. They simply spontaneously stream healthy laughter.
Watching children laugh and play can even make adults laugh. Unbuckle your chuckle. Go to a preschool playground and watch for a while. Even better, begin to allow yourself to experience laughter hereafter.
I believe God created laughter. Don’t just look to jokes and comedians. Lighten up and let God Himself create and release joy and laughter within and through you. Allow Jesus to make your joy full (John 15:11) of His joyful presence!
Christianity is supposed to be more! I want more. It’s supposed to be joy. I want great joy. It’s supposed to be community. I want community. It’s supposed to be support-group-style mutual encouragement. I want to encourage and be encouraged by brothers and sisters in Christ.
Christianity is supposed to be humble openheartedness that produces so much compassion, tenderness, joy, and love that people recognize and are in awe of the presence of the risen Jesus in one another. From time to time, I’ve seen that, but it is rare. I want to see it more. I long for it. I pray for it. I search for it. I encourage other people to long for it, pray for it, and search for it, and I can’t quit. I can’t be silent.
There is more, so much more, to following Jesus than attending a weekly religious service. Please don’t be comfortable with and settle for less than your heart overflowing with the joy of the Lord and your life full of what you read about in the book of Acts!
If Christ-followers would boycott lukewarm Christianity in churches, in the media, in politics, and wherever it shows up, there would be a lot less of it. “Because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of My mouth.” (Revelation 3:16
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