We Laugh to Keep from Crying

The following meditation was written by Dr. Michael B. Brown.

WE LAUGH TO KEEP FROM CRYING

There’s a lovely Presbyterian church not far from where we live that, on Wednesday mornings, has a study group called Laughter and Lamentations. What a great name for a class in this day and age! Some suggest (not just comedians, but psychologists and theologians, too) that sometimes, the more we hurt, the more we need to laugh. And there are always things to laugh about. Humor is not a denial of reality. It is, instead, a gift by which we cope with reality. That theme is beautifully explored in Dr. Susan Sparks’ book Laugh Your Way to Grace. (Woodstock, Vermont: Skylight Paths Publishing, 2010)

My mom (who from time to time battled depression during her life and who possessed a wild, and sometimes bawdy, sense of humor) often laughed her way to grace. She used to say, “We laugh to keep from crying.” The Bible frequently says pretty much the same. Job lost about as much as one can lose: family members, property, land, farm animals, the support of friends, and physical health. But, in the midst of almost indescribable suffering, as the NIV puts it, he was promised that in time God would “fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.” (Job 8:21)In his Sermon on the Plain (Luke’s rendition of the Sermon on the Mount), Jesus talked about poverty, sorrow, and grief. But while dealing with those undeniable realities, He added, “Happy are you who weep now, because you will laugh.” (Luke 6:21) In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the word Easter literally means “God’s laughter.” Following the most dire and desperate of all the events in human history, the crucifixion of The Messiah on a Roman Cross, Easter came. The stone was rolled away. And according to that ancient liturgical tradition, the heavens were filled with the sound of God’s laughter, the boundless joy of knowing that sin and evil and death had no power anymore. We laugh to keep from crying. But even more, ultimately, we laugh because life wins. Love wins. God wins.

Norman Cousins’ best-selling book from years ago, Anatomy of an Illness as Perceived by the Patient (New York: Norton Press, 1979), told of how he went into remission from a serious illness for which there was no known cure. For hours at a time, Cousins would lock himself away and watch films by the Marx Brothers and old episodes of Candid Camera. He belly-laughed as he viewed them. Laughter produces endorphins which, in his case, began to effectively battle the autoimmune disorder that was crippling him. Eventually, doctors were unable to find any trace of the disease whatsoever. Apparently, the Old Testament Book of Proverbs was correct when it wrote that, “A joyful heart helps healing.” (Proverbs 17:22 CEB) “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” 

When things are stressful in my life, in addition to practices like prayer and journaling, I often watch videos by comedians like Leanne Morgan, Stephen Wright, and Martin Short as Giminy Glick, or I turn on the TV and watch old episodes of Andy Griffith or new episodes of Only Murders in the Building. “We laugh to keep from crying” because, in truth, humor really is good medicine. The Bible even prescribes it when stress or fear has us in its grips. We cannot (and should not) ignore the reality of human pain—our own or that of others. But in the midst of it, or perhaps at the end of it, the Book of Job promises that God will “fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy.” Or, as Jesus put it: “Happy are you who weep now, because you will laugh.” That may be the gift of grace we need sometimes just to survive. 

Joy,