Where's the humor in that?

 

For those of us that have trouble memorizing scripture, we can take comfort in finding the shortest verse in the Bible, "Jesus Wept".  Even I can remember that one.   There is certainly much of the Bible that deals with the solemn, serious nature of Jesus, punctuated by his death on the cross.  But it raises the question, did Jesus laugh?  I don't believe there are any direct references to Jesus laughing in the Bible, but there were definitely times when Jesus experienced joy. He found joy in performing miracles, including bringing people from death to life.  And he also found great joy in bringing people to know God through himself.  While it is hard to know how cultural norms might influence humor over the centuries, some might say that "having a plank in your eye" or "a camel walking through the eye of a needle" are humorous in some contexts.  If the rest of us experience joy, then Jesus, being fully God and fully human, surely experienced joy, and also probably laughed.   I believe most of the people who know me well would put me more on the serious side of the serious-fun scale, and that is something I would like to change.   Knowing God should bring me immense joy and that great joy should frequently bring great laughter.  To get us started, how about having some fun poking fun at ourselves?  I love this one.

The Good Doctor

At a young age, John watched his dad carefully as he practiced medicine in a small town in Texas.  John frequently heard stories of how his dad had taken special care with a patient causing the patient to reach out to him personally after the treatment to thank him for his care.   John went to school to study sports medicine and joined a practice in California.  He was married and raised two children.  He modeled his parenting and his work after his father.  On Sunday he was attending a reception at church for one of the pastors that had just returned from a mission trip.   In the midst of the celebration, a lone gunman entered the reception hall with the intent of killing as many people as he could.  John rushed the gunman and tackled him, allowing other parishioners to restrain the shooter until authorities arrived.  John was shot multiple times and died shortly thereafter.  Praise God for a man that was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of others.  Click here to see a short professional video introducing John Cheng.

The Same God

 

It's uncanny how fast our world is changing.  When I see memories pop up on social media, I am constantly amazed.  12 years ago, I had no grandchildren, and now I have 7.  If we go back 20 years, we didn't even have social media to send us memories. And go back 40 years, and we didn't have a cell phone to check memories or even to make a call.  Outside my lifetime, we could spend years analyzing all of the changes to our world over the previous centuries.  But in the midst of pervasive change, it is almost inconceivable that our God has not changed.  Our God is the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, the God of David.  He is Creator.  He is Judge.  He is Healer.  He is Savior.  I found this song by Elevation Worship that does a great job of putting these ideas to music.  Take a few minutes to praise the unchanging God of the ages.

Mom's The Word

This weekend we get to celebrate moms.  Sometimes, it's a little difficult finding a way to honor all the mom's in our family that need to be honored.  First of all, the moms are the ones that make everything happen the other 364 days of the year, so trying to get a guy, or a group of guys, to plan and execute a meal is nearly impossible.  Secondly, we have three generations of moms in our family, and we also have the moms in our inlaw's families, so just finding a time that works for everyone is hard, too.   I am thrilled that this year all are invited to my daughter's home in Smyrna to celebrate.  The guys will do our best to keep it simple and try not to burn the house down as we are cooking.  Most importantly, we want the mom's to know how much they mean to us.   For a little extra mom-inspiration, I found this short video.  It was put together by the Mormons.  I don't agree with everything they believe, but I can't find fault with this one.  I hope you have a chance to honor one or more mom's in your life this weekend.