“Laughter is America’s most important export.” Walt Disney
I was sitting in church, several years ago and our now retired pastor, Jack Hayford spoke to the audience, “shout out to me anyone… what do you love about God?” Someone shouted, “He never fails,” another yelled, “He answers prayer,” and yet another bellowed “He brings peace.” I sat intimidated but wanted to scream out, He cracks me up! Because… God does. He makes me laugh… all the time. He laughs at us too. Psalms 2:4 NLT says, “But the one who rules in Heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.” We take being a Christian so seriously and we forget He brings joy and laughter. Every Christmas we sing the carol, “Joy to the World.” When are we going to let it sink into our heads and hearts? Two year’s ago I co-founded a women’s conference called the ASCEND Conference (ascendconference.org). We focused that first year on “Fearless Joy.” Myself and the other co-producers wanted women to learn how to laugh – be joyous when life brought devastation. To take the power of God’s promises in His Word and shatter any fear that held them back from fulfilling God’s divine purpose and destiny in their lives. We wanted to teach women how to be unique – different from our world that tells us we have to react negatively -sorrowfully when a crisis strikes. Where is the joy at funerals? If we know Jesus… Yeah! We’re out of this damaged fallen world and with our Father in Heaven. Rejoice! Jesus was joyous and he continually urged his followers to be happy. In fact, scholars many times substitute the word “blessed” at the beginning of the Beatitudes – Matthew 5: 3-12 with the world “happy.”
So come on – Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS and again I say Rejoice! Phillippians 4:4 – Get laughing!
