Laughter as Prayer

An Excerpt from

Girl Talk . . . God Talk: What Your Friends Can Teach You About Prayer

There is a time for everything . . .
a time to weep and a time to laugh.
love love love love love love love Ecclesiastes 3:1& 4

GIRL TALK

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Hannah is one of the funniest women I know. She has an uncanny ability to find humor
in ordinary life. Whenever I need a good laugh, she’s the one I call. She brings lightness to my days with her witty comments and prankster personality. She truly understands that laughter is the best medicine (Proverbs 17:22).

Every year I host an ornament-making party during Advent. My closest friends gather by the fire, string cranberries and drink wassail. Heather inevitably brings a gag hostess gift for me. Last year she handed me a box. Inscribed on the card was a rhyme:
You’ve been naughty that’s the scoop.
All you get is snowman poop.

I lifted the lid to find five puffy, jumbo-sized marshmallows nestled inside.

Hannah has a way of making almost any moment lighthearted. I was with her when she gave birth to her first child. It had been a long labor. But after over forty hours, Hannah finally dilated to ten centimeters. It was time for her to push. Everyone in the room, including her husband and midwife, was exhausted and fearful. We were worried that, after the treacherous, back stabbing labor, she wouldn’t have the strength to get the baby through the birth canal.

After three pushes, and in the throes of another contraction, Heather cried out, “Can I get a stunt double in here . . . PLEEEEASE?” Everyone in the room doubled over in laughter. Heather bore down, and Max was born.

A comedian at heart, Hannah’s gift at humor helps her cope in life. It also brings lots of smiles my way. Time after time when I’m laboring with a problem in my life, Hannah helps me see the lighter side.

One day, I was talking to Hannah on the phone. I told her that I was concerned about not feeding my kids three ‘square meals’ a day, due to our frequent stops at McDonalds. She giggled, and said, “I guess I’m really in trouble with the ‘Nutrition Squad,’ then. Last night, as a practical joke, I gave my kids ‘mashed potatoes and gravy’ that was really ice cream doused in caramel sauce. Heather and I giggled and found refreshment in the shared burden of cooking for a full house.

Hannah always gives me the freedom to laugh at myself, and all of the absurdity found in life, too. She follows in Sara’s steps. In Genesis, Sara, a woman barren for years, learns to celebrate and laugh at life’s absurd twists. In her old age, she gives birth to a son. When he’s born, she names him Isaac, which actually means laughter. Holding Isaac, Sara declares, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6).

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Like Sara, Hannah laughs at the improbable punch lines of the Lord. And, she invites others to chuckle along with her. I’m happy to say that my laughter quotient has doubled since I met Hannah. And, my heart is glad to see the humorous side of God through her.

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GOD TALK

God is the one who made the music of laughter and gave us all our smiles. He’s not too holy to handle throw-your-head-back laughter. He’s the one who created it. Unfortunately, most pictures portray Jesus as solemn and sad. This really bugged Hannah. So, she jumped for joy when Ralph Kozak painted a portrait called ‘Jesus Laughing.’ She carries a wallet-sized copy in her purse.

Jesus must’ve done a lot of laughing. He spent most of His adult life with a troupe of gangly guy friends who walked together, slept together, and ate every meal together. I can picture Him punching his buddies’ arms with playful, inside jokes about Peter’s over zealous nature, and John’s soft side. I can hear Jesus whooping and hollering with the gang as they tell heroic fishing tall tales.

When I read the Bible with God’s sense of humor in mind, jokes appear at every turn. Just the other day, I was reading in the book of Numbers. There, I encountered a story about the Israelites in the middle of their forty-year jaunt through the desert. They were sick and tired of eating manna. So, they complained to Moses, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna” (Numbers 11:4 & 5)!
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The next day God sent down showers of quails. In fact, He gave them so much meat that it began to ‘come out of their nostrils and they began to loathe it’ (Numbers 11:20). I can just see God cracking up on His heavenly throne. Instead of warning the Israelites about their complaining, He gave them what they asked for, and it was funny.

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I think God loves to laugh. He endorses laughter and cheer over and over:

-filling Job’s mouth with laughter (Job 8:21);
-loving cheerful givers (2 Corinthians 9:7);
-recommending laughter as good medicine (Proverbs 17:22);
-encouraging us to take heart and be of good cheer (John 16:33).

Unfortunately, when I think of communing with God, laughter is not the first thing on my mind. Instead, I usually picture a more solemn kind of connection. Solemnity is part of my prayer life. But, Heather has helped me realize that conversations with God should not exclude a human, humorous, lighthearted kind of connection. Though I can cry to God, and sit with Him in silence; it is also O.K. to laugh, hoot, and smile during my talks with Him.

One evening Hannah and I were praying together. I had been struggling with some chronic back pain. She came to pray for help and healing. Our dinner must’ve been exceptionally rich that night, because I was extremely flatulent during her prayers. The first time I ‘fluffed’ Hannah kept right on praying. But, the third ‘toot’ sounded as resonant as a high ‘A’ on a French Horn.

Mid prayer, Hannah combusted into a fit of laughter. It came out of her mouth in hoots, and her nose in snorts! Her fit was contagious, and I began laughing, too. The room roared with our ruckus. I think God must’ve been having a chuckle right along with us. In fact, the laughter we shared became our prayer.

A good laugh is as good as a prayer sometimes. – Lucy Maud Montgomery