Friday, January 28, 2011

Making God Laugh

There is an old saying, "If you want to make God laugh, just tell him YOUR plans." The context is, of course, that God's plans prevail. Does God laugh? Yesterday, as I sat praying out loud to God, something funny happened, which made me realize two things. God does have a sense of humor. And we DON'T want him to laugh at us.

As I prayed, I asked God to help me be humble. I am preparing to speak at a women's retreat later this year, and I want to make sure the women see God, not me. But ironically, as I said the word humble, I stumbled on it, making it sound like, "Hummmmummmmble." It reminded me of when a TV character is trying to say something they don't want to. Consider Fonzie on Happy Days trying to say, "I was wrong." So after I said, "Help me be hummmummmble," I laughed out loud at myself.

As I went on to pray, I apologized to God for laughing, then went on to thank him for our sense of humor. I said, "Lord, I don't know if you laugh, but I do know we are made in your image and we have a sense of humor, so I suspect that you do too." After my prayer time, I went on to read my Bible. The day before I had read Psalm 90 - Psalm 93. I thought I'd pick up at Psalm 94. But then, I was drawn to go back and start at the beginning of Psalms. I would read Chapters 1-3.

Imagine my surprise when I read Psalm 2:4, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs." What? Really God! I had literally just asked God if he laughed, as much hypothetically than literally, and there it was in the Bible. Surely God did laugh at my surprise!

But as I studied the verse I realized that here the Lord was laughing in derisive laughter, or mockery. As I did a word study of the word LAUGH throughout the Bible, I realized most times that God laughed it was in mockery of the wicked. I definitely don't want to make God laugh at me like this!

Still, the Bible is clear, there is "a time to weep, and a time to laugh" (Ecc 3:4), and that because of our joy over the great things God has done "our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing." (Ps 126:2) It's okay for us to laugh!

Still, I don't want to make God laugh at me. Rather, I will strive to make Him smile.


Chatty Kelly

7 comments:

Gwen S said...

Very cool on so many levels!

Jeanette Levellie said...

You crack me up! I love this story.

I am memorizing Psalm 37, which talks about God laughing at wicked people who try to ruin the rigteous. That encourages me.

Have a hilarious weekend,
Jen

Pat said...

I love that scripture Kelly. The thought of God SMILING...much less "laughing...makes my heart leap!!

Good Word!

Blessings,
Pat

Christy said...

You are a silly girl and I like it. I think its neat when those things happen. I'm glad God can laugh and I think he does it often. I hope I don't make him sad, is what I worry about. But from experience, be very careful when you ask God to make you humble. He'll do it and He'll do it according to His idea of humble not yours. Blessings,

Michael said...

It never fails in my life... I ask to see God's Power and I lose my keys or get a flat tire or something that I wish didn't have to happen occurs. Of course, I do find my keys or I come away with no lasting harm and God's says well you asked.. But I know he always has my best interest at heart and he is still working on me. I am so excited for that. II Timothy 2:4 says, in essance, that if we are God's Chosen Soldier, we are pleasing him. I think that makes God smile too.

My ADHD Me said...

You did it again. The first blog post that I read in months and you had me opening my Bible half way through the post.
After reading the verse, I thought to myself that you must have misunderstood. God was definitely not laughing in a humorous way. I should have known better. Going back and finishing your post, I saw that you had everything under control.
But yes, God has to have a sense of humor. Just look at your sister!

lioneagle said...

Hi Kelly -

Thank you for sharing.

I loved this piece. It is a joy to know that our Lord laughs. All of His laughter is not mockery. How glad we can be for that!