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Listen while you read: "O Happy Day"1 (Lyrics) |
Isaiah 55:12 – So you will go out with joy and be led out in peace. The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees in the fields will clap their hands. (NCV)
Psalm 126:2 – Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with shouts of joy. Then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." (EHV – Evangelical Heritage Version)
A policeman came to my door, asking, "Are you the wife of Richard DeShaw?" I said, "Dick! Never Richard!" Right then, an old Irish joke suddenly popped into my mind: An insensitive cop asks a woman, "Are you the Widow Brown?" Indignantly, she says, "I am not a widow!" and the cop replies, "Well, you are now." Because of this simple joke, by the time the officer had finished telling me that my husband had died suddenly of a heart attack on the golf course, I was prepared to take in what he had to say. Where had that brief mental interruption come from? Only from God, who knew how hard this sudden news would be for me.
The spiritual life blooms when I find the ability to get my mind off myself. Self-pity is the exact opposite, moaning, Poor me, me, me… . One of the deep benefits of living a God-conscious life is sharing in the laughter. "Don't take yourself so seriously; nobody gets out alive," someone said. Weird things that happen to our bodies as we age have their funny side. Adult diapers can often be hilarious. One time, I had emergency surgery for a bowel blockage. The ostomy bag appliance that I was given to wear afterwards seemed extremely comical. Not much later, I conducted an interview for the cable television show for which I worked. During the show, my bag filled with air and began to quack. The student I was interviewing looked alarmed. "Do you hear a duck?" she asked me. I explained and she laughed along with me. Afterward, our camerawoman told me that she'd been wearing one for 30 years, but I was the first person she'd ever felt comfortable telling about it. When I wrote about it online, a nurse responded who had been trying to find help for persons who couldn't afford this appliance. "I'd been feeling desperate," she wrote, "but when I read why you thought wearing the thing was funny, I laughed till the tears ran down my face." Laughter is the sound of self-acceptance. A Sunday school song begins: Jesus and Others and You – what a wonderful way to spell JOY!
Colossians 1:12 – You will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light. (NCV)
Prayer: Loving heavenly Father, we are grateful to have daily opportunity to enjoy absurdities all around us as we share the light of Your wonderful world with others. Lead us away from self-centredness, especially pity, that we may spread the healing balm of humour where there is pain and need, forgetting ourselves in the joy of Your service. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
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Thanks, Rose, for the encouragement.
Thanks for sharing. Laugher is good soul food. Blessings.
Laughter and helping others is so important. Thanks, and God bless, Rose!
Thank you, Rose, for sharing about your humorous story with us. Blessings.
Oh, my, Rose. Once again you make me want to know more of your story and the wonderful way you give it to God.
Thanks for your encouragement. I am grateful to be able to use what I’ve always done since I was little – writing down what happened to me.
What an uplifting message! Thanks for sharing. You do have a quirky sense of humour – I love it. I will go to bed tonight giggling to myself about the duck.
Thanks for this, I’ve sent it on to a friend whose daughter has an ostomy bag but manages to travel around the world. Bless you for taking me out of my ‘me, me’ space!
(BC Canada)
Amen Rose! My sister and l can get going about some of these types of happenings in our lives and laugh until we wet our pants… which isn’t funny, but then again it is!
Blessings.
Dear Rose, I will laugh again and again as I think of this wonderful story of yours. It made my morning and I really needed a good laugh.
Thanks for sharing your lovely gifts with us.
Hello Rose,
Thanks for sharing today’s devotion, this one is indeed a funny one and full of laughter. May the good Lord continue to shower his blessings on you and give you strength to continue his work and share more funny devotions that brings laughter to people like me and many others.
Dear Rose,
Thank you for sharing your laughter and joy and not taking ourselves so seriously. I started my day with a giggle. I just lost my brother who died suddenly, and they don’t know why. But of course, Jesus does. It is a struggle. Your devotional helps to give me perspective. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Rose.
What a lovely way to start my day by reading your devotion.
I feel uplifted and happy. There are many sad things in life, and we must make the best of each situation.
Laughter really helps and is so healthy.
Thanks again.
Hi Rose. There were things after my husband’s sudden heart attack too that were humorous. Like the medium. Supposedly he was really good. He could make cats talk to their previous owner and get contact w my husband. No thanks. Other incidents were humorous also. But never did I think it was humorous to do CPR on my husband. I miss him terribly more than I could ever express. Nothing is fun. There is a sadness from losing my best friend.
Thank God for our sense of humour, Rose. My uncle needed help trying to maneuver off the toilet with his walker. His son and then his daughter all squeezed into the tiny room trying to be of assistance. Much hilarity at the situation ensued, until they realized he had died, laughing. An embarrassing story, I suppose, but in our family, it never fails to bring a smile and he is always remembered with love and laughter.
Dear Rose,
How wonderful that you are able to gather in all sorts of diverse anecdotes that remind us of God’s presence in our lives. And we know that God has a sense of humour, just look at the platypus. He/She must have had tears of laughter running His/Her face when the platypus was designed!
Thank you for your contribution.
Laughter can hit at embarrassing times; a friend heard something said seriously but struck her funny and she was beside me and put her head on my shoulder to pretend she was crying but she was shaking with laughter.
Awesome devotional yes, we are usually too serious.
Keep writing.
(ON)
Hi Rose,
Your devotional was absolutely refreshing and eloquently read by Robin Ross this morning.
I appreciated you reminding us of how the word JOY- can be used to represent the meaning of Jesus-Others-You.
Keith Green a Christian singer/ songwriter, now with our Lord, wrote a song called ‘Make my life a prayer to You’ a portion of the chorus says, ‘Lord it’s so hard to see, when my eyes are on me’ so very true. Thank you for sharing so beautifully.
My favourite representation of Jesus is from a series the United church put out in the early 80’s, I think. The one where he has his head back laughing! I imagine him taking delight in all the creatures around him, enjoying the sights and smells of the fields and villages, the children playing, the diversity of people. The zingers he landed on the Pharisees, who thought they knew everything and what did a ragtag itinerant preacher know! I see humour everywhere in our world. Joy and laughter. Oh, certainly, pain and disease and misery, which he ministered to, and challenged and equipped others to do the same, and to bring good news of a future and a hope. Thanks for the reminder!
Hi Rose,
The spreading of the Good News is needed so much, in whatever way we can.
Thank you for writing.
Dear Rose, Thank you for encouraging us to see the lighter side of life! Blessings
Dear Rose,
You have chosen good scripture portions for the circumstances.
May God be with you in your bereavement to comfort and guide.
I am glad about your retention of humor.
Hello Rose,
I’ve just had the pleasure of reading your devotional. What a gift of faith the Lord has given you, and what a testimony to His faithfulness, both at the time of your husband’s death, and in your outlook on life. We need indeed to remind ourselves of our need to look to Christ, rather than inwards at our problems and feelings. That is a wonderful prayer.
Blessings,
(BC)