The Gift of Laughter

I think laughter is one of Gods great gifts to us. Laughter can help break the ice in dealing with other people. Laughter can diffuse anger and lighten our mood. Laughter can relieve stress. We tend to remember things better when we laugh while learning them. To be able to laugh at ourselves can lighten our load. It is no wonder it is called the best medicine, it has a healing effect to be sure.

Even the thought of an infant smiling and laughing brings a smile to my face. The laughter of children is especially contagious. The laughter of little children can fill us with joy. (Just watch their faces when the muppets are on!) It's not only contagious, it's without guile. It can remind us of our own innocence lost.

There are those who make a living out of making others laugh. That’s not a bad calling…if it’s used in a way to uplift us and not tear us down. I remember Red Skelton and his TV show when I was a child. He was decent man who never tried to make us laugh as the expense of others. He would make us laugh at him. He was the consummate clown. At the close of every one of his shows he asked for God to bless his audience. In a way, we were blessed just from watching. There aren’t many like him around these days.

Like all of Gods gifts to us, laughter can be misused. To laugh about some injustice or dark deed can make us take them a little less seriously too. Jokes about death can help us deal with the subject more easily…but jokes about killing can take away from the seriousness of the subject. Jokes about ourselves can help us not to take ourselves too seriously…but jokes about others can be hurtful.

Unfortunately too many comedians these days appeal to our basest nature. Comedians that make a reputation out of belittling others or using foul language may make us laugh but they don’t uplift us…they debase us. As a society we seem to have an unfocused anger that comes out in our humor. It doesn’t diffuse anger or relieve stress it just fuels our cynicism. Much of the humor that’s popular these days is cynical and hateful.

I think what we laugh at is a good gauge of who we are as a people. It can be like the water we bath in. It can leave us feeling clean and refreshed or, like bathing in muddy water, it can leave us feeling unclean. I’m afraid that today too much of our humor is inclined to pull us down instead of building us up.

To have become so jaded as to take one of Gods gifts to us and use to tear down and debase ourselves…shame on us! Consider what we've lost.

We could learn a lot from the laughter of children. It's not called 'the best medicine' for nothing!