Laughter and Lament: The Radical Freedom of Joy and SorrowÖrnek

Life is Hard and Then You Laugh

God is a lot different from what we have often been taught, and there is no place where that difference is more apparent than in his joy and laughter. God exults over his people with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17). Bildad, one of Job’s friends, spoke truth when he said that God fills our mouths with laughter (Job 8:21). The psalmist often speaks of God looking at arrogance and pride, and giving a “great big old belly laugh” of derision (e.g. Psalm 37:12– 13 and Psalm 59:7–8). Nehemiah says that the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). And the psalmist says that in God’s presence there is “fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). Even creation reflects the laughter and joy of God. Isaiah 55:12 says “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” The psalmist lends an echo to that by saying, “the rivers clap their hands” and “the hills sing for joy together” before the Lord (Psalm 98:8). When Jesus gives instructions to his disciples just before the crucifixion, he says that his joy would be in them and that their joy would be full (John 15:11).

For all of human history, people have looked at the darkness and asked questions: Is there a God? If there is, what is he like? Is he a monster who demands “the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul”? Does he care? Does he love? And then hesitantly, does he love me? The incarnation of God in Christ is no less than the laughter of God spilling over onto a dark, sad, and scary world.

Behind our tears is laughter. I fear that the sound of laughter is often missing from the lives of a lot of Christians. As a matter of fact, I’ve discovered that those who haven’t cried often don’t know how to laugh with freedom. Laughter is often an “obscene gesture” a Christian makes at suffering and pain, and it’s the good news about lament.

Laughter is the gift Christians have been given in the darkness. It’s our “knowing” the rest of the story, the outcome, and the backstory of reality. Someone has said that we should never doubt in the dark what God has taught us in the light. That’s true. No matter the reason for the lament, there is the realization that certain things are true and they are anchors in the dark.