The Laughter Plan Sample

Laughter: The Real Fountain of Youth

One look at our 24-hour news programs and it’s easy to see that the world needs to laugh a whole lot more (John 14:27). Too many people today are living on the edge, wound too tightly, and ready to snap over the slightest disagreement. They’re intense, short-fused, depressed, and fearful. Even though medical science has proven there are clear benefits to a healthy sense of humor, they seem to think they’re too busy, too sophisticated, too serious, or too “holy” to let loose and have a good belly laugh. 

When God created Adam and Eve, he gave them the equipment to laugh. Laughter wasn’t an add-on after the fall. The muscles we need to laugh, and the brain cells we need to understand a laugh, were part of the original design. God knew laughter would be a healthy thing for us to do, both when life is going well for us and when it’s not. And that original equipment was built to last a lifetime. So why have so many of us allowed our laugh muscles to rust in place?

When you think about it, having a flexible, go-with-the-flow, it’s-not-the-end-of-the-world, we’re-going-to-laugh-about-this-someday approach to life makes the whole journey more bearable, doesn’t it?

It’s like a road trip where everything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong. Now, we can be miserable, which usually compounds all the problems, or we can laugh about the whole situation. There really is something very funny about days like these when you get to a point where you simply have to surrender to the craziness and just sit down and have a good laugh. It’s what good comedy films are all about. One mishap is funny, two are funnier, and a whole string of them will have you rolling in the aisle. 

I love hearing a baby laugh. It’s hearty, real, uninhibited, and contagious. So is the laughter of someone who has just been given a new chance at life. Those who have just received word their cancer is in remission, or they just got released from jail, or the diagnosis they feared didn’t come, or an unexpected check arrived in the mail—people who have gone through tough times—often have a loud laugh. They’re happy, and they don’t care who knows it.

Laughter releases us from the unhealthy thinking that life has to be or is supposed to be perfect. Laughter is realizing so much about life is out of our control. It validates the fact that no matter what our circumstances happen to be, this too shall pass. And it is camaraderie in the knowledge that others have faced similar days—when everything went wrong and life got tough—that reminds us we will somehow get through them (Proverbs 31:25). 

For more laughs and wisdom from Martha Bolton, pick up a copy of Forgettable Jokes for Older Folks, forgettablejokesbook.com