It's Monday. Let's laugh about it.

God has a sense of humour. We did not invent laughter. When we laugh, we are experiencing part of what it means to be created in God’s image. Enjoying a good chuckle is not only a pleasant experience; it is a healthy one! The Reader’s Digest magazine has a well-known section called “Laughter - the best medicine.” Any time I see a copy of Reader’s Digest lying around, it is usually the first section I read. (Do you need a good laugh? Reader’s Digest has a good “Humor” section on their website, rd.com.)

There are those who seemed to have been baptized in pickle juice. Life is a serious, somber affair in which the best we can do is fight against daily drudgery and wait for Jesus to take us home. Each day they shoulder the cross they need to bear and head off for another burdensome day.

Yes, there is more than enough sorrow to go around. We all struggle with wearisome burdens. There is no criticism for those who fall into despondency and despair: life is hard. It is often unjust and unfair. It can overwhelm us. After all, God’s created order is broken. Dysfunction is the norm. The true purpose, meaning, value, and goodness of life has been displaced by unsatisfactory counterfeits. Sometimes it is just hard to laugh.

That’s OK. But there is hope. There is always hope.

Laughing in life isn’t about being frivolous and silly. It is about engaging in life with confidence that there is purpose, value, and meaning as a reflection of the goodness of God. As we mature in our understanding of God, as we grow in what Peter calls, “the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18), we begin to experience the joy that can permeate sorrow. This is not an emotional coping/denial technique that gives us a temporary high or deny the reality of the burden. This is a change in perspective.

As people of faith, our faith in God offers the means by which we can re-visualize the challenges of life as part of the larger picture of His plan and work. This plan, God’s work, has been defined from the very beginning. What is happening today, as crazy as it may seem, and what has happened up to this point, and what will happen in the future, is known by God. It is known not because God can see down the tunnel of time. It is known because even before God created the heavens and the earth, He determined how His purposes would be accomplished. I find great encouragement in this simple truth as expressed in Galatians 4:4-5:

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. (Gal 4:4-5 NASB)

The fullness of time. In other words, in God’s purposeful moment. And that isn’t the only purposeful moment of God. Every moment - including each moment in our lives - is under that same purposefulness guidance of the Creator God.

It is a good thing to look for the lighter, celebratory, and funny moments in life. Sometimes they are harder to find than the heavy moments of despondency. Yet both are “fullness of time” moments. Faith is not about being somber. We need to laugh. We need to smile. We need the joy. All these moments remind us, in a very experiential way, that God’s goodness is not just providence and sovereignty. It also includes celebration and happiness.

After a traumatic life episode (we don’t know exactly what happened), the psalmist wrote:

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
You have relieved me in my distress;
Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

Followed by:

You have put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety. (Psa. 4:1, 7-8 NASB)

“Gladness in the heart.” Maybe that isn’t laughter, but neither is it despair. Confidence in God not only transforms our inner being - our hearts and our minds, it also transforms our perspective. It allows us to laugh because laughter is a gift from God.

May your heart be filled with gladness because today is a “fullness of time” moment and God is at work.