The Power of Laughter!
After hanging out with friends tonight and enjoying hilarious moments with them, I am thinking about the power of laughter. It is
- vibrant - full of life and energy and warmth
- communal - expressive of shared enjoyment
- cross-cultural - it can happen with anyone, anywhere
- joyful
- honest - there isn’t much room for duplicity or selfish motives
- appreciative - if it is laughing with someone, then it is affirming their sense of humor or storytelling or something else that made you laugh, and
- healing - “a cheerful heart brings life to the bones,” and there is no better prescription for cheerfulness than laughter.
I love it when you laugh so hard that your abs hurt and your eyes tear up and your face turns red and you’ve almost forgotten what was so funny, but everyone around you keeps laughing and then you laugh at each other and then you start to think you’re all crazy…
It’s something that has to occur with people. There’s no substitute for it. And I love it.
Filed under: Miscellaneous on November 17th, 2007
It doesn’t have to occur with people.
I laughed out loud at Gilmore Girls a couple of times last night… 
You’re right. I guess I meant that laughing with people has to occur with people… haha.
You are right, that there is something unique about laughter. For me (Mr. Chuckles) a good long laugh feels kind of “cleansing” sometimes.
However, if you really pay attention, there is usually a vague sense of emptyness at the end of the laughter. I think this reflects the Bibles admonition that laughter really is fleeting. I have found that this vague sense is accompanied by the realization that, no matter how good I feel after an enjoyable laugh, all my issues and challenges in life are completely unchanged.
Now not to make things complicated, I think this is where the essence of joy is so important in our lives. Laughter is usually a reflection of a state of happiness (except in the case of the “Toronto Blessing” where it reflects a state of ungodliness)(sorry, digression) that is really much richer when undergird by a true inner joy that comes from our Father. Without the basis of joy in Him, the “fun” of laughter flees away rather than enriches our lives.
What he said