By Hal Green
Pondering Prayer
You likely do not laugh when you pray, or pray while you laugh, yet prayer and humor have some crucial elements in common. Both help to lift you out of a situation, or the feeling of being trapped by the circumstances of your life. That is, they offer you an immediate way of stepping back from, if not transcending your current conditions. Prayer and laughter can free your inner being, even if it is only for a time.
Some of the best laughter I have been fortunate to share, has been with families at hospitals while awaiting the results of surgery, or worse, an expected approaching end of life for a loved one. It is not of course as if the circumstances were anything less than grave, or that they were laughing at its seriousness. Rather, the humor, just like prayer, gave them temporary relief, a brief lifting of burdens, a short forgetfulness, helping to re-balance their listing souls.
In philosopher Frederick Nietzsche’s view, the religiously stiff and hypocritical persons were those who claimed that there were things about which one must never laugh. A humorless piety is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. Jesus came to set us free — yet how can we find true freedom without the spontaneous freedom to laugh? I have known such humorless persons, and I felt sorry for them, even if my own sense of humor was upsetting to them and their sad misunderstanding of the Christian faith.
I had a very real dream, if not a visitation, during seminary in which an angel was sitting above me on our bed post, legs crossed and looking down at me. The angel said one thing, which woke me up immediately. Even though it was many years ago, that statement from heaven remains vivid. Though I could not see the angel’s face, the words were spoken with apparent understanding and warmth. The angel said, “Yes, Hal, God does have a sense of humor.”
Upon waking up, I felt an affirmation to be who I am, since I seek a bit of humor most every day. Indeed, a day without a laugh is a day with something important missing.
One of the greatest laughs in Biblical history came out of Abraham’s wife Sarah, when, at age 90, God said she would finally, after 25 years of waiting, give birth to a son. Though she denied laughing to God, God told her to name the child, “Isaac,” which means “he laughs,” or simply “laughter.” Rather than criticizing Sarah for her laughter, God wanted her laugh remembered and celebrated. Nothing is impossible for God.
The one who laughs last, laughs best. In our destined tomorrow, the best laughter will yet be ours. The Psalmist said: “When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion … our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy” (Psalm 126:1-2). And Jesus said: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21b).
(Hal Green, Ph.D., is author of Pray This Way to Connect with God. You can contact him at drhalgreen@gmail.com.)
