Uncovering Joy – With Laughter
“God said to Abraham, “As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, „Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah who is ninety years old, bear a child.”
A good laugh is jarring. Most often it is not anticipated. It bursts out. It can become utterly uncontrollable. It can become so deep and thorough it hurts and feels as though we might die. Laughter is a reminder that we are not in control of the day. It is not only a good reminder - it is the truth. It is my opinion that laughter is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God has a way of reaching in and tickling us right when we are so sure of ourselves that our lives are being consumed by our certainty. The Spirit breaks our controlled spinning so that our lives become a bit unraveled and we are given the opportunity to re-view our grand plans and wonderful ideas.
I find it odd that some people try so hard to be in control of what they do and what people around them do. I am also willing to say that I write about myself here as much as I write about others. We all need to be tickled and burst open with life that is so full it expands our lungs as much as it expands our awareness of being alive. The roar of laughter that abruptly fills a room changes the character of the people who are touched by its sound and its chaos and its apparent foolishness. The change is not always for the best. A table full of people unable to contain their laughter while visiting a “nice” restaurant will often bring with it glances of intolerance from others. Then again, laughter ignited at one table can be a trigger event that can lighten up the whole room. Strangers begin to smile at one another and – I would suggest – other people may be set free to let loose. Joy is uncovered. Laughter once isolated to one table may become a common part of the ambiance created throughout the room.
I remember a regular trip to the confessional on a Saturday afternoon. This was a discipline that went with being Roman Catholic. As I grew older, several of us – all teens – would go to confession together. This was usually as we were on our way to what really mattered to us that day. As you might expect, a bunch of teenage boys streaming out of the confessional and doing our penance was like a hillside of dry brush during the hot, dry, days of summer in southern California. One spark...one brisk wind...one bit of fuel, and there was a fire ready to be whipped up for all to see and hear. The laugher would become unstoppable. It would be more powerful than the looks of distracted and devotional saints who were probably praying for us to get up and leave the sanctuary.
In that laughter that split our guts and made us blow streams of snot from our noses and grab our chests because we thought we were about to die - that gathering of obnoxious teens now reminds me of the Spirit of Life that is a gift to all the saints. Laughter that rolls or bursts from our guts is the kind of laughter that is uncontrollable. The more we tried to stop laughing we realized that more laughter would come – any moment. What is remarkable to me as I am writing this is that it would not take much at all for me to burst into laughter. Even now - even so far from the pews of St. Theresa Church - even with strangers around me - once we have been tickled and have erupted into uncontrollable laughter, it is always a present possibility.
The Spirit of our God delights us and reminds us that anything may drop into our lives and we may quite simply burst wide open with a touch of life – unexpected life. Laugher is downright embarrassing. We laugh and we quickly cover it up. Our mouths are thrown open. Our voices burst forth with sounds that are out of character. Our bodies thrash about. Our eyes appear like sauces brim full with tears. And yet, it comes to an end and the day feels like a day that rises out of a prolong thundershower full of wind and pounding rain. Laugher brings clarity. Sarah and Abraham both had their time to laugh in the presence of God. I think it must have been a roaring sound – embarrassing but uncontrollable. Within their laughter came an understanding of the possibilities within the day that previously would not be considered – at all.
When I am with groups of pastors and we are attempting to be under some control and in some way be presentable in our conversations, I like to remind myself that laughter is only a breath away. I don’t mean that I’m constantly trying to come up with a “turn of a phrase” or a twisted remark – though I do that at times. Rather, I try to remember the sheer humanity of who we are. It is the time when our shells are cracked open – from the inside. Something may be said or something is done or something is seen and the laughter of years spills forth. It is in this gushing that we become so vulnerable and available to one another that bonds are formed – even if we forget the reason for the laughter or the event that brought forth the laughter.
At one of our meetings of pastoral colleagues, we shared a bit of the lessons for the upcoming Sunday. We talked about how things were going in our congregations. There are ups and downs in those conversations. Most of us were pastors in smaller urban congregations and amid the joys there were also struggles. It was in that venue that I pulled out something that was given to me by another colleague the day before our meeting. It was called “The Poopie Sheet.” I asked if people wanted me to read the list. I thought some of it was pretty funny and sensed that a little levity would be good for us.
Well, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the room cracked. One colleague who was able to pull off a very professional and pastoral image was standing near a table with a cup of coffee in her hand. There was a burst of initial laughter. It was somewhat contained but very present and ready to be released. I read another piece from the sheet and the curtain that attempts to contain us ripped wide open. The professionally dress colleague in a business suit and Episcopal collar roar onto the table – almost rolling off of it. She could not contain herself. None of us were able to breathe because our laughter was so grand we were sucking the air from that room and the only thing left to take in was the air and spirit of more laughter.
Who knows why things spilled out that day and filled the room with such intensity? It may have been the words on that list we read. Then again, it may have been the need – the deep need – to be free and open and exposed and have that all happen in the middle of a community of trusting people. I would propose that we need to be able to fall off this cliff of laughter and not worry about the free-falling nature of such a time. To fall off that cliff with others expands the experience. It cannot be enforced. It cannot be planned. Then again, we can be prayerfully aware of how we each need to be a part of community that is not too afraid to drift off the edge and have our lungs be filled with a spirit of release that really does set captives free.
When the Spirit of life spills over into our lives, it may not be in the form of our own laughter. During a recent attempt to focus and write the devotion for our weekday blog, I was reading and writing and trying to make some connection to the offering from the book at hand. That is not always easy. It is a good exercise – a good devotional act for me. In the middle of that time by myself, I heard one of the baristas laugh. It was so full and bright and loud and crisp and over-the-top, I expected that it was a simple outburst that can take place when a joke is told or we see or do something totally inappropriate – a laughter that rushes in and then quickly subsides. I could hear the laughter above the music trickling in through my earplugs and took a deep breath because it was such a wonderful distraction.
The laughter didn’t stop. The intensity of laughter didn’t stop. I started to wonder what could possibly bring about such a fullness of laughter that the room was completely captivated by the sound. You could not hide in a corner away from it...you could not cover your ears to dampen its power...you could not focus so much on the work at hand that the laughter would go unnoticed. That’s when I took off my earplugs and told myself that this was a gift. She continued to roar. There would be a break and then again, laughter gushed...gushed...and gushed some more. I didn’t join in the laughter, I sat there and listened. I was whisked away to unnamed places and times when this kind of comic relief filled my life and sent me tumbling into moments of vulnerability that were quite uncontrollable. I looked around and others were sitting with faces interrupted by huge smiles.
In her laughter was a reminder that there can be more to the moment at hand than the work and agenda I place upon myself. The length of her laughter could have been distracting to some. If I needed to “get things done,” I may have moved outside or gone to another place. It is becoming more and more apparent to me that these laughter-filled interruptions remind us to breathe – to hear the explosion and know that there is this Spirit of life that can and will erupt and offer us a package of wonder and a taste of something more – even if we cannot put a name to what that “more” might be.
When we laugh, life is born anew - joy is uncovered. The deep breath that must be taken in to help the fullness of our laughter explode into the world is like that first breath at birth. The traditional picture of a doctor slapping the newborn on the butt to pull out that cry that signals that life is at hand is a powerful image for me. For when we laugh, it is that same breath. It can and is the beginning of life that is not ours to control but ours to enter as a gift. It is also a reminder of the breath of life that sustains us even when we are aging like Sarah and Abraham and think that we are at the end rather than another beginning. This Spirit of God never ceases to tickle us and make us look again at whose we are and who we are called to be with at this very moment.
TRRR
TRRR
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