We finished the book of Revelation at the end of April and afterward I felt led to do a mini-series on subjects that demand the persistence of the believers so as to advance our spiritual well-being. Firsts “Never Tire of Doing Good’ Persistence in doing the good second, The Faith of a Persistence Mother teaching Persistence in Faith, third, “Character Can Make a Difference” Persistence in character, fourth, “What is your Hearts Condition” teaching Persistence in one’s self-examination. Today I finished this series from Proverbs 15:13-15 Laughter; Persistence in wellness”. Prayer…

Introduction:

Laughter makes light of life and give us a better perspective of things when we have calmed down from the cares of the world. Happiness is a choice. Sometime the funniest things are true to life. This story illustrates this subject we have in mind.

Larry Walters was a truck driver but his lifelong dream was to become a pilot and fly. When he graduated from high-school he joined the air-force with hopes of flying. However, his poor eye-sight disqualifies him from doing so. When he finally left the service he had to be satisfied watching others flying the fighters jets as they crisscrossed the sky over his back yard. One day Larry sat back in his lawn chair and he dreamed about the magic of flying. Then Larry got an idea… He would experience flying.
He went down to the local Army/Navy surplus store and bought a tank of helium and 45 weather balloons. These were heavy-duty spheres 4 foot in diameter when fully inflated.

So, back in his yard Larry used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair. He balanced the load with waters jugs. You know the kind you have on your lawn or you take to the beach. He then anchored the chair to his jeep while inflating all the balloons with helium.

Larry then went inside his house – packed some sandwiches and beverages. He loaded his bee-bee gun because he figured when it was time to come down he just shoot out a few of the balloons, he then come down lazily back to earth.
Well, his preparations were complete. He sat in his lawn chair strapped himself in and on July 2, 1982 Larry Walters cut the cord and took off from San Pedro, California. The idea was to slowly float upward, but instead: when Larry cut the anchoring cord he shot up – out of control.
He didn’t just go up a couple hundred feet he climbed and climbed and climbed until he leveled off at 16,000 feet. So he stayed up there for 14 hours enjoying the view and communicating with Carol… Evidently Larry Walters drifted into the approach corridor for the Los Angeles International Airport. After two pilots call in seeing something strange a Pan-American pilot making ready to land radio the tower about passing a guy in a lawn chair at about 16,000 feet- and this guy got a gun.

Well, eventually, he did shoot out just enough balloons before his gun fell out and he gradually drifted back to earth. Larry was arrested and hang-cuffed once on Terra firma. When reporters asked him to explain what was he doing up there? Larry set everybody at ease with a little humor saying, well every- body has got to be someplace. Well, that’s a funny story. Sometimes laughter is all we have left to ease the pains and tension of life. God is the giver of this gift and medicine because…

I. God has a Sense of Humor.
1. Does God smile and laugh? Job 8:21 “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.” Psalm 126:2 “Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with shouts of joy…
This is a great verse because it declares that it is the Lord that fills our mouths with laughter. Our God is a God filled with joy, smiling and laughter, He provides us with every opportunity to rejoice in our circumstances. Ecclesiastes 3:4 “a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, wrote this passage on the various seasons that we all face in life. He reminds us that there is a time for everything, including a time to laugh and rejoice. The author knew all of the attributes of God, and how rejoicing and laughter are a gift from God to us. The Lord wants us to be filled with joy and happiness that can only be found in our relationship with Him.

2. God gave us the gift of humor and the capacity to laugh. So he has a sense of humor and He laughs too! As we can see when the Lord God told Abraham that he and Sarah would have a child in their old age; Sarah though it to be ridiculous. So much so that she laughed. Sarah’s reaction upon being told this from Genesis 21:6: “And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.” …Time won’t allow for the stories of Balaam’s donkey who talked and the Witch of Endor!
I believe Jesus had a twinkle in His eye when He said that a person should take the plank out of his own eye before trying to remove a speck of sawdust from the eye of someone else (Mt. 7:4). I can just see His listeners smile and hear them laugh softly. But I’m sure they also understood His point, and some may have been convicted about their own judgmental attitude.

3. Laughter brings us joy and makes the heart merry. This should be part and parcel of the message we carry to others. Sometimes we can laugh so hard at ourselves we realize the problem that we were facing really isn’t so bad. If we can laugh at our own folly we can deal with anything.

4. When we have our faith and trust in the Lord, we can overcome anything. We can laugh at life a little more and chase away fear. When we do that it helps us to avoid the pitfalls of being depressed and here again we have the ability to take whatever comes along with a better perspective and even some with a “grain of salt”. Sometimes just out of the sheer delight of what God has done; you laugh. We call that a God wink. There is another truth about …

II. Laughter has healing Potential – Proverbs 17:22

1. The word for merry in the Hebrew is “sä·mā’·akh” {sa-may’-ats} meaning to rejoice and to be happy hearted. Humor is God’s antidote for depression, stress, fear and hostility. It can help us heal. There seems to be a direct connection between humor and health. Laughter brings light in what can be “difficult moments” in our lives and teaches us to laugh at the unexpected things that come into our lives so we can deal with them or take them with a “grain of salt”.

From time to time life gets tough, we all get stress and we need to laugh. Humor makes for humility, acceptance and good feeling about us and others. If we pray together…we ought to be able to laugh together. Sometimes a situation gets so bad that all we can do is laugh. Humor develops a Holy Hope.

To laugh at ourselves is a therapy against pride. William Shakespeare once said, “A light heart lives long. “Carl Sandberg, “the right laughter is a medicine. Henry Ward Beetcher said, it is God’s medicine. Alan Klein, author of Courage to laugh” said,” humor can help us cope with anything”. “What humor does is give us perspective. The Bible said, a merry heart it is like a medicine let take God’s prescription.

2.) “There is now evidence that cancer patients – liberated from depression – can actually activate the anti-cancer capability of the immune system. The
human body is far more robust than people have been led to believe. A strong will to live, along with the other positive emotions – faith, love, purpose, determination, humor, all boosts disease-fighting immune cells.'” Sometimes we can laugh and the tears come with it because we laugh so hard. This releases healing endorphins. Today laughter is regularly promoted as a source of health and well-being. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. They say six year old’s laugh 300 times a day while adults only laugh 15 times a day.

Illustration:
The most famous case of laughter’s therapeutic effects on the body was described by Norman Cousins, editor of the Saturday Review, in his 1979 book, “Anatomy of an Illness.” He claimed that a combination of laughter and vitamins cured him. Norman Cousins was diagnosed with an incurable disease. He was bedridden & the doctors gave him no hope at all. So he decided on his own treatment. His family got a movie projector & rented all the Charlie Chaplin and Abbott & Costello movies that they could find – movies where you just sit back & laugh because they are genuinely funny. He ran one movie after another, & the more he watched the more he laughed. The more he laughed, the better he felt. First thing you know the doctors could find no evidence of his disease.

The Mayo Clinic has released reports and even some booklets that laughter improves your immune system. These positive thoughts actually release neuropeptides that help fight stress and potentially more-serious illnesses. Laughter may also break the pain-spasm cycle common to some muscle disorders. Laughter may ease pain by causing the body to produce its own natural painkillers. The American Cancer Institute also uses this therapy.

3. Laughter can prevent conflict and act as a tool to defuse aggressive behavior. However, be careful not to make the other person the butt of the joke. So the proverb is true. If you’re joyful in your heart, then that is good medicine. But if you’re not joyful, if your spirit is broken, then it dries up your bones. Gloomy and somber Christians discourage other people from becoming believers.
Garrison Keillor said in a presentation at Goshen College, “Some people think it’s difficult to be a Christian and to laugh, but I think it’s the other way around. God writes a lot of comedy, it’s just that he has so many bad actors”.
Without laughter; faith becomes dogmatism and without faith; laughter becomes cynicism. Faith and laughter … we can have both in Christ.

III. Laughter also can tell something about you.

1. Laughter is a distinctive of human beings. But the Scriptures distinguish between good and bad laughter. The author of Ecclesiastes declared that the laughter of people who have no place for God in their lives has no more value than the noise of crackling thorns in a fire (Eccl. 7:6). God disapproves of any humor that belittles people or makes light of immorality. Sin is never a laughing matter. Ask yourself, “What makes me laugh?”

2. Show me what amuses you, and I can make a good guess about the sort of person you are. If you scoff at virtue, you have embraced vice. If you laugh at another’s failure or misfortune, you have a cruel streak inside of you. If you can laugh at your own stupidities and mistakes, you handle life with some skill. If you laugh at lewd stories, you give yourself away.

3. I believe Christians have a greater capacity to enjoy healthy laughter than others. After all, we live with the promise of eternal life and with the knowledge that God can use even our setbacks to move us forward.

Illustration:
My wife and I saw Carol Burnett in a rare performance in Lancaster, PA. a few years ago. She did her Q&A with the audience. A lady asked what she thought of the comedy shows produce today. She said the writers appear to all be adolescences that always reach for an off-color sexual comment to get their laughs. A comedian like me lives for applause and laughter but if telling a dirty story is the price I must pay for your laughter, then I’m not interested. The writers they hired worked hard and long hours to produce a quality funny show for the whole family.

Conclusion:

Pray the Lord, give us all merry heart. And help us be discerning so that we will laugh for the right reasons and about the right things.