From the Pulpit…

Laughter and Tears

I believe that humor is common with the faithful, because they know that whatever happens is not the last word. In the trusting man, woman, youth, or child is the belief that this event, painful as it might be, is not the end. At the end is God, and even now, within this experience, God is with us. As a result of this kind of faith, I have seen people express gentle humor in their grief and still have the capacity for laughter when their burden seemed overwhelming.
With this in mind, I came upon something this week that struck me as one of those rare statements that is full of understanding and in a few words brings a message of hope: “Lord, teach me to laugh again, but please God, don’t let me forget that I cried.”
Laughing and crying are as much a part of life for us as eating and sleeping. They are the ways we express the joy and sorrow we all experience in our walk of life. Because joy brings pleasure and sorrow brings pain, we tend to seek the one and try to avoid the other. Avoidance many times is not what is best for us in the long run.
Something happens within us when we are able to accept suffering, whether our own or someone else’s. To do so with faith and courage brings us through and allows us to laugh again, not in a frivolous way, but with a deep down joy that comes from the discovery that nothing will separate us from the love of God and that we are never without God’s help and presence to restore us to strength and stability in our lives.
To laugh all the time is to be illusional; to cry continually leads to self-pity and depression. To stay in touch with laughter and tears is to be informed by each and imprisoned by neither. In our faith we can find freedom and balance when joy and sorrow inform each other and neither is forgotten.
In our journey, let us remember the words of Jesus, in John 16:33 (NIV): “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”