Does God Have a Sense of Humor? - Matthew Kelly
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Video Transcript:
“THERE ARE SO MANY opportunities each day to catch a glimpse of the genius of God. One of my favorites is laughter. God is the genius behind humor and laughter. Laughter is essential to the human experience, and humor has been observed in every culture, in every place and time. Can you imagine life without laughter?
The goodness and genius of God is evident in laughter. Laughter is medicine for the body, mind, and soul. Its benefits are endless.
Modern medicine has discovered that laughter strengthens your immune system, improves mood, and diminishes pain. Laughter is a powerful form of stress relief. It burns calories, eases anxiety, reduces stress, and is a natural antidepressant. A good laugh relaxes the body, eases tension, and leaves your muscles relaxed for up to forty-five minutes. Laughter stimulates your heart and increases the number of endorphins released by your brain, which creates an overall sense of well-being. When you laugh, the amount of oxygen-rich air that rushes to your lungs increases. Laughter reduces blood pressure, increases blood flow, and can help protect you from a heart attack. It increases happiness, reduces anger and other negative emotions, and increases resilience in the face of obstacles and unpleasant events. Laughter increases our energy and enthusiasm for life. People who laugh regularly are more joyful and have healthier hearts. Humor improves personal satisfaction, strengthens relationships, helps defuse conflict, shifts our perspective, and attracts other people to us. Laughter connects us with others, makes our burdens seem lighter, and can reduce anger and conflict. It creates a sense of belonging and bonds people together. It enhances teamwork and improves productivity. Laughter and humor build trust, encourage collaboration, increase likability, draw people in to listen, improve memory and retention, make arguments more persuasive, and increase learning by reducing classroom anxiety. Laughter releases serotonin, which improves focus, decision making, problem solving, objectivity, open- ness to new ideas, and overall brainpower.
It took some really smart scientists to discover all this, but God is the genius who is alive and well in laughter.
All this may leave us wondering: Does God have a sense of humor?
Humor is essential to the human experience. Many of the most memorable and meaningful moments in life are humorous. But where is humor in our experience of God, religion, and spirituality?
If you read the life and teachings of Jesus as portrayed in the four Gospels, there is little evidence to suggest that he had a sense of humor. Do you believe that Jesus didn’t have a sense of humor? I believe he had a wonderful sense of humor. I imagine him walking down the dusty roads of Galilee with his disciples. Thirteen guys spending all that time together. There must have been some epic moments of humor. Wouldn’t you love to hear Jesus laugh? Wouldn’t you love to know what made him laugh and how he made others laugh?
For some reason, nobody thought it was important enough to record, and we have been making the same mistake by excluding humor and laughter from our relationship with God ever since. Just as humor is essential to the human experience, maybe it is also essential to our spiritual experience.
There is an old joke about making God laugh. It is often repeated and rarely questioned, but we will question it together now. “If you want to hear God laugh,” the joke goes, “tell him your plans.” If you think about it, this theory is tragically flawed. What kind of father would laugh at his children when they tell him their plans? In the joke God is laughing at us-or is he laughing at our plans, or our innocence, or our ignorance, or our arrogance? What kind of God would laugh at his children in any of these ways? Not the God I believe in.
I am a father, a broken and imperfect father, but I cannot imagine laughing at my children’s plans. The Scriptures tell us that God delights in his children. And God has taught me to de- light in listening to what is going on inside my children’s hearts and minds. When they honor me by sharing their hopes and thoughts, I am fascinated. How much more does God, in his infinite goodness, delight when we open our hearts and minds to him?
So, it is impossible for me to conjure an image of a God who laughs at his children or their plans, however misguided they may be at times. But it is equally impossible for me to subscribe to an image of a God with no sense of humor. Does the God who gave us laughter not laugh himself? Does the God who gave us laughter have no sense of humor?
Absolutely not, and I yearn to know the God who gave us laughter.”
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