Category: laughter

Posted in laughter, Life

What Makes You Laugh? Discover the Humor in Life

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Jenna Anderson on Unsplash
Daily writing prompt
What makes you laugh?
View all responses

This is such a great prompt. There are so many things that make me laugh. Here’s a short list:

  • My dogs look at me.
  • Nothing but junk in my mail box.
  • I wake up just before my alarm goes off in the morning.
  • An obvious scam text in my inbox.
  • My three year old neighbor shouting, “Hi!”
  • A student in a middle school class asking me about life before iPhones.
  • My dog suddenly leaping a foot into the air.
  • The Amazon, Fedex, and Ups man all arrive within five minutes of each other.
  • Most of life is humorous. From the way people dress at Walmart to double lines of cars winding around Chick-fil-A, I find myself chuckling at life.

Most of what happens, most of who I meet, and most of what I deal with in any given day makes me laugh.

It’t all about the way you look at life. You either laugh. Or weep.

Posted in Devotions, laughter, Through the Bible Devotions

There is a time to laugh

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Jenna Anderson on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from Genesis 18 and 19.

I’m grateful for the gift of laughter. I love “peek-a-boo” toddler giggles. I can’t help but laugh at awful dad jokes. When my dog looks like she’s laughing at me, I can’t help but join in. Bathroom humor never fails to amuse. You’ll hear me laugh out loud as my Instagram feed brings me daily doses of Basil Fawlty, the Three Stooges, Tim Hawkins, and Jim Gaffigan, John Pinette, and a host of others.

The bible tells us that there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). As I read through the bible, it’s pretty serious until Abraham laughs at God’s promise that he and Sarah will have a son (Genesis 17:17). Who knew God had a sense of humor? Abraham chuckles, “You’ve got to be joking, God. We’re going to be parents? That’s a good one! I’m closing in on one hundred and Sarah is ninety!”

Sarah thinks it’s funny, too. When the Lord and two angels show up at Abraham’s tent on their way to Sodom, Sarah overhears the promise, “Next year, you and Sarah will have a son” and laughs (Genesis 18:12). She tries to deny it, but everyone knows she laughed.

What should you do when God makes you laugh? I say just go with it. Don’t be afraid to laugh at a ridiculous promise or an absurd command or an awkward moment in scripture. Communicators know that humor relaxes the crowd and lowers defenses, preparing an audience to listen, learn, and take their message to heart.

God knows that too. That’s why I don’t think he minds if you laugh at something he says, like “love your enemy” or “always forgive” or “don’t be anxious.” You’ll snicker and say, “Right, like I’m going to do that.” But then it will be in your mind. You’ll think about it. You might even try it.

Posted in laughter

Best (cough, cough) phone message (cough, hack) ever

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Just after I walked into church in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning, I set down my brief case and hit the speaker button on my desk phone. Then I punched “9” and heard the intermittent tone that signaled a message. I normally don’t listen to messages on Sunday morning, but I was curious, so I dialed the voice mail number. “You have one new message.”

“Message left Friday at 3:20 pm.” Typical. Someone waited till the end of the week to call with a question. And the question went something like this:

“Hello, my name is <some words I couldn’t understand> and I wanted to <cough><cough><cough><hack><cough><hack><gasp><wheeze><cough>…”

The coughing and hacking went on for about thirty seconds, until the raspy voice said, “Oh, never mind!” And they hung up.

“You have no more messages. To delete your message…”

After all that, they never called back. They didn’t try again. They just gave up. Now I was really curious. What happened? Were they OK? Would I ever hear the question? I was also greatly amused. I laughed out loud, which for me is a great way to start my Sunday morning!

Posted in laughter

“You better put a piece of tape over it.”

Posted on by William Douthwaite

alejandro-escamilla-8-unsplash.jpg
Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash

We got into a pretty interesting discussion at men’s bible class last Thursday morning. We are in the last few chapters of 1 Samuel and were impressed at how King Saul was often able to find out where David was. With no satellites, drones, electronic listening devices, GPS — just a few spies, probably on foot — Saul repeated tracked him down. In like manner, David knew where Saul was and stayed a step ahead of him.

In the course of this conversation, someone mentioned that we should put tape over the cameras on our computers. A new story reported that without us knowing it, someone can use it to watch us. I asked, “Why would someone want to watch us? What do they think they’ll see?”

Someone else said, “It’s not like we’re taking it into the shower with us or anything like that.”

I said, “If we did, they’d want to cover their screen with tape!”

Best laugh at the table in a long time. Thank God for humor, laughter and great conversation!