Holy humor helps us keep perspective
An increasing number of Christian churches are celebrating the Sunday after Easter as Holy Humor Sunday.
This refreshes an Easter custom begun by the Greeks in the early centuries of Christianity. Holy Humor Sunday can be great fun and extends the Resurrection celebration another week.
I’ve mentioned this celebration in previous years, but the impact of humor on our spirits is always in season. Even when we hear the same funny story or joke again and again, there is a redemptive redundancy at work in our lives.
G. K. Chesterton was right: “Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.”
Through its monthly newsletter, The Joyful Noiseletter, the Fellowship of Merry Christians is tenacious at spreading the Good News of holy humor. This month’s issue quotes an unknown author: “A smile is the lighting system of the face, the cooling system of the head, and the heating system of the heart.”
With that thought in mind, I want to focus your attention on a large group of people in our churches, synagogues, mosques and every kind of faith community: our elders.
As my ministry in recent years has been spent working with and on behalf of elders, it’s obvious I’ve sneaked into that age range myself. I now have both the right and the opportunity to laugh at myself and others blessed with decreasing gray hair and increasing wrinkles.
So I am developing a simple workshop to help both elders and youngers step up to the inevitability of aging with a healthy sense of holy humor. The workshop will be called “Grins, Giggles and Guffaws: Healthy Humor for Geezers.”
Quite frankly, healthy humor is one of the last things some elders can embrace as their own after they have lost control of so many other factors in their lives. Even deathbed humor has both a dignity and defiance all its own.
Here are a few test questions for future and current retirees:
“When is a retiree’s bedtime? (Three hours after he falls asleep on the couch.)
“Why don’t retirees mind being called “seniors”? (The term comes with a 10 percent discount.)
“What is considered formal attire among retirees? (Tied shoes.)
I consider humor to be a significant reminder that an elder’s spirit is still fresh and vital, even when their body may be in decline. To be able to laugh at one’s life circumstances is to keep those circumstances in balance with the rest of what life has blessed you with.
Grandchildren can help so much with this.
When one lady’s grandson asked her how old she was, she teasingly replied, “I’m not sure.”
“Look in your underwear, Grandma,” he advised. “Mine says I’m 4 to 6.”
A man’s grandson was visiting one day when he asked, “Grandpa, do you know how you and God are alike?”
As Grandpa mentally polished his halo, he asked, “No, how are we alike?”
“You’re both old,” the boy replied.
Self-deprecating humor often suggests a healthy person. While self-deprecation can be defined as “undervaluing oneself,” it also counters our tendency to overvalue ourselves and our place in the universe.
The Garden of Eden snake was right: Knowledge seduces us to believe we can “be like God.”
Healthy humor keeps us from becoming too big for our britches. It also helps us deal with our fears.
In what I call “go away closer” humor, we can keep fears at a reasonable distance even as we embrace those fears just enough to learn we can stand up to them in redeeming ways.
Aging is one of those fears. We fear our own aging process in sometimes the most bizarre ways. Take a moment to think about the ways you play dodge ball with your own time clock.
We also fear our parents’ getting older.
One day, we see Mom or Dad has gotten grayer or slower in gait. And it all happened overnight!
Laughing at our denial is a great way to both embrace our fears and keep them at the distance we need to deal with them.
Do you have some favorite geezer humor? I would enjoy seeing it.
And whether you are a geezer or not, I hope you will join with the angels in taking yourself lightly.
Laughter and joy are God-things, don’t you know.