Carol Burnett just received her Lifetime Achievement Award. What a well deserved honor! She and Tim Conway, and Red Skelton before them, committed their lives to making people happy. That’s not a bad legacy to leave, don’t you agree?
Life is serious business. But wholesome laughter is good medicine for our soul. And the bible has quite a bit to say about having a joyful spirit. One of the “fruits” of a spirit-filled life is joy. Joy should naturally blossom from the love God gives us to share with others. Do you know that God rejoices over you? We’re often so hard on ourselves, thinking we’re not good enough. But God has adopted us into his family and made us heirs of his kingdom. Regardless of how you feel, you might as well face the truth: God loves his children and is filled with joy over them, including you. Psalm 16:11 reminds us that there is joy in God’s presence. So why are we so eager to let everything else get in the way our most prized joy? The closer you grow to God, the more joy and fulfillment you will experience!
I like the expression in Psalm 126:2. “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” Can you help but smile when you recall how very many ways God has intervened to save and bless his people? Expecting God will show up in your day should bring certain joy and cause for celebration. I wonder how many small things we let frustrate us when a better response would be to laugh it off. Solomon reminds us (Ecclesiastes 3:4), “there is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” If the wisest man in all the world recognized this, shouldn’t we also join in the celebration of life? Only in the power of God can we rejoice in our trials. Only by the faithful promise of Jesus can we accept, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” Our troubles will not always plague us. He who catches our tears in a bottle will cause us to laugh again one day.
““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! (Some versions say, Be of good cheer!) I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Learn to laugh more. Help others to laugh. If God is filled with joy and laughter, shouldn’t we be like him?
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” We can rejoice, because regardless of the burdens we face, because God Almighty sees us where we are, he stays with us always, and we will live in the house of the Lord forever! Be blessed in being filled with his joy and hope!
Watch Carol Burnett’s humble acceptance speech for her lifetime achievement award: http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/01/carol-burnetts-speech-at-the-sag-awards-is-gold.html