I Haveta Laugh

I like sunshine and coffee. I like a good conversation and I really like to laugh...

Oops, can I say things like this during Lent?

We worry about this stuff sometimes, don't we? Even those of us who are not so mindful of the Christian calendar. We want to make sure that we strike that critical balance between elation and sorrow... That the projection of our inner spirit fits the environment into which it is spilling.

Of course, this makes sense to a degree. It's really not helpful to be giggling at funerals or singing dirges at weddings. But at the same time, it can be hard sometimes--keeping pace with all those limits and expectations.

For example, not long ago I had a conversation with a woman who has had a fairly difficult stretch. Pretty much every area of her life has been tweaked or twisted in the last year or so. She has suffered some level of dislocation or pain in just about every meaningful aspect of her life including the triumvirate of health, work and relationships.

As we were talking, I was struck by how well she seemed to be handling all this. On the one hand, she didn't want to burden anyone with her hardships but she also sensed that she needed someone to talk to. It turned out to be one of those unique moments when I actually got to feel like I was doing my job--not because I had some great answer to her problems but because I had the time to listen to her story and share a cup of coffee on a sunny day. We also had the opportunity to laugh. Of course, part of what we were laughing at were the circumstances--the challenges that this woman was facing and some of the ways that she has been coping with them.

As we continued to talk, I became more and more aware of how nice a day it was outside. At one point, I literally had to move my chair because the sun was shining so brightly through the window next to our table. This seemed like a perfect metaphor--not only for our conversation but for so much of our lives. A lot of the time, it's both, isn't it? We have elements of pain and elements of joy around us. The blessings do not necessarily deliver us from our circumstances but they remind us that life is wonderful though not necessarily perfect. Of course, another way to put this is to say that God is near us even when it feels like we are alone.

As a pastor, who believes firmly in the Christian calendar, I work hard to invite people to embrace, experience and feel the seasons of the faith. But sometimes there are things going on in our lives that may or may not perfectly fit the season. And even when they do, it's still a challenge to maintain a perfectly somber Lent and then magically wake up joyful come Easter morning.

This doesn't mean that the seasons are unhelpful or that we should not try to embrace them. It rather means that we need to be mindful--both of what is going on inside of us as well as beyond us. Moreover, if we've had a particularly difficult stretch, we might want to take those moments of joy where we can find them... After all, we lift up The Great Thanksgiving every Sunday, even in Lent. So it really is a good and joyful thing to give our thanks and praise...

BTW, the picture above is from The Tokyo Laughter Club. How cool is that?