“Laughter doeth good like a medicine” Proverbs 17:22. God created laughter. One favorite quote says, “You were created out of the LAUGHTER of the Trinity.” God laughs. And He gave us the gift of laughter—and its healing properties have now been verified by science. Turns out, laughter actually CAN do good like a medicine.
But our culture has transformed comedy into a gold mine. We’ve done to laughter what we did to sugar and corn, scientifically refining each into the two most powerful sweeteners in history—and we wonder why we have an obesity crisis. The quick laugh has become our cultural JUNK FOOD. While we feed our minds with jokes, gags, and physical comedy, what more nutritious options are we missing? Television sit-coms, stand-up comedy, and prank videos have transformed the serious, hard-working, somewhat devout nation of the past into a silly, “jokey” culture. Like a good TV audience, we are always primed for a joke, ready for the quick punch line. It’s hard to take anything seriously.
I LOVE COMEDY. I DO. But even those with college degrees rarely choose the healthier diet of a book over the endorphin rush of junk food laughs streaming from a TV or phone. We are missing the deeper, richer, inner life that God intended and many of our ancestors surely experienced.
And sometimes you simply must take things seriously.
“Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. ‘Get up,’ he said. ‘Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!’ But his sons-in-law THOUGHT HE WAS JOKING” Genesis 19:14.
Lot told them to run for their lives, but they laughed at him and died. What kind of a non-serious, jokey culture did they have in Sodom that two young men would laugh at such a warning? Perhaps a mocking sense of humor is characteristic of all cultures about to collapse. It was true of ancient Rome, true of Europe’s most hated royals, and it is sadly too common today.
God, never let us joke our way through life, missing the things that matter most.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 