[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":94},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Farticles\u002Fseriously-we-need-to-laugh":3,"\u002Farticles\u002Fseriously-we-need-to-laugh-surround":83},{"id":4,"title":5,"author":6,"bibleBooks":8,"body":13,"columnName":66,"date":67,"description":19,"extension":68,"image":69,"meta":70,"minRead":71,"navigation":72,"path":73,"postType":74,"publication":75,"publicationUrl":69,"seo":76,"stem":77,"topics":78,"__hash__":82},"blog\u002Farticles\u002Fseriously-we-need-to-laugh.md","Seriously, We Need to Laugh",{"name":7},"Dave Faust",[9,10,11,12],"Proverbs","Ephesians","1 Peter","Ecclesiastes",{"type":14,"value":15,"toc":62},"minimark",[16,20,23,31,38,41,44,47,50,53,56,59],[17,18,19],"p",{},"When God made Adam, I'm glad he gave him a funny bone.",[17,21,22],{},"My granddaughters make me laugh. When they were babies, a smile was one of their first ways to interact with me. Now at ages five and three, they tease me, tickle me, and tell me corny jokes like, \"Why does a seagull fly over the sea instead of the bay? Because if it flew over the bay, it would be a 'bagel.'\"",[17,24,25,26,30],{},"My coworkers make me laugh. They use one-liners to lighten me up when work weighs me down. A friend recently asked, \"What do you call it when a bomb drops on the kitchen floor? Linoleum Blown-Apart.\" Another asked, \"Do you know the difference between a recession and a depression? A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose ",[27,28,29],"em",{},"your"," job.\"",[17,32,33,34,37],{},"I've even enjoyed quite a few laughs in unlikely places like emergency rooms and funeral homes. I've visited hospital patients who smiled and related something funny that happened during their hospitalization. \"Minor surgery,\" one patient said, \"is somebody ",[27,35,36],{},"else's"," surgery. If it happens to you, it's major!\" The Bible is right: \"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones\" (Proverbs 17:22).",[17,39,40],{},"If the Lord didn't want us to laugh, he wouldn't have designed our bodies to include endorphins and he wouldn't have wired our minds to see the humor in pratfalls and puns. If he didn't want us to laugh, he wouldn't have created the amusing creatures at the zoo whose very names sound humorous: hyenas and baboons, skunks and skinks, cuckoos and dodo birds. If the Lord didn't want us to laugh, he wouldn't have peppered the Bible with true-to-life characters who did funny, awkward things. A grown man climbs a sycamore tree to get a closer look at Jesus. Four men tear a hole in the roof of a crowded house where Jesus is teaching, and use ropes to lower their friend down into the crowd—despite the fact that the homeowner probably didn't want a new skylight installed in his living room!",[17,42,43],{},"Joy is serious business. A home without laughter is gloomy and depressing. A no-fun workplace is dull and uninspiring. A laughless church is a lifeless church. The Bible says to \"rejoice in the Lord always\" because there's never a time when we don't need joy. And in Christ there's never a time when joy is beyond our reach.",[17,45,46],{},"We should take the Lord very seriously. We should take God's will and his Word very seriously. We should take others and their problems very seriously. But we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously. A hearty laugh—even at our own expense—is a gift of God, and we need to be careful not to let Satan pervert this good gift.",[17,48,49],{},"Humor must be sincere—not a shallow way to cover up our inner emptiness. \"Even in laughter the heart may ache\" (Proverbs 14:13).",[17,51,52],{},"Humor must be pure. Much of today's comedy is vulgar and trivializes sexual immorality and drunkenness, but the Bible says to avoid \"obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking\" (Ephesians 5:4).",[17,54,55],{},"Humor must be respectful. It's not funny to tear people down, use racial slurs, or drag our leaders through the mud. \"Show proper respect to everyone\" (1 Peter 2:17).",[17,57,58],{},"Humor must be appropriate. Laughter is a gift of God, but there is \"a time to weep\" as well as \"a time to laugh\" (Ecclesiastes 3:4).",[17,60,61],{},"If anyone can enjoy a good laugh, it's someone whose past has been forgiven, whose present has a purpose, and whose future is filled with hope. So when something tickles your funny bone, thank God for it and cheerfully obey one of his most cheerful commands: \"Rejoice!\"",{"title":63,"searchDepth":64,"depth":64,"links":65},"",2,[],"First Look","2008-08-10","md",null,{},4,true,"\u002Farticles\u002Fseriously-we-need-to-laugh","column","The Lookout",{"title":5,"description":19},"articles\u002Fseriously-we-need-to-laugh",[79,80,81],"Biblical Theology","Church Leadership","Spiritual Formation","syWO20AZx1qPyqLZ0Hy3QyMCSXbtApb70APPtURrZOY",[84,89],{"title":85,"path":86,"stem":87,"description":88,"children":-1},"Seriously?","\u002Farticles\u002Fseriously","articles\u002Fseriously","We don’t take God seriously enough.",{"title":90,"path":91,"stem":92,"description":93,"children":-1},"Serving God by Preserving the Scriptures","\u002Farticles\u002Fserving-god-by-preserving-the-scriptures","articles\u002Fserving-god-by-preserving-the-scriptures","They didn’t write a single word of Scripture, but Stephen Langton and Robert Estienne had a long-lasting effect on the Book we hold in highest esteem. You may never have heard their names, but these men permanently shaped the way we use the Bible.",1790466175926]