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The Heart of Laughter

By Cheri Walters

My dad used to tease his mother-in-law by telling this story on her. A Pentecostal preacher’s wife famous for her home cooking, Grandma wearied of folks who would just happen to show up in time to eat. One Sunday, claims my dad, just as dinner was going on the table, her son Billy shouted, “Mama, the Johnsons are coming up the road.”

Thinking fast, Grandma said, “All right, everybody, grab a toothpick and get out on the front porch!”

I suspect the story was made up, but the message rings true for the parsonage. We need to view the irritating moments in ministry life with a sense of humor.

Laughter relieves stress. Like exercise, hearty laughter increases heart rate and blood pressure, accelerates breathing and gives face muscles, diaphragm and abdomen a vigorous workout. Afterward, heart rate, blood pressure and respiration all drop, often below normal levels, and the muscles relax. Laughter also manufactures endorphins, the body’s chemical cousins of painkillers. A friend of mine, Judy—a pastor’s wife and minister herself—suffered ongoing back pain. Her family watched a comedy video. Later she reported, “We laughed till we cried. It was the turning point in my recovery.”

Writer William Ellis claims, “Humor can be used to patch up differences, apologize, dissolve a hostile confrontation and keep a small misunderstanding from escalating into a big deal.” Who in ministry couldn’t use a tool like that? Self-deprecating humor also disarms critics. Abraham Lincoln, accused of being two-faced, replied, “If I had two faces, do you honestly think I’d wear this one?”

As a minister of music, I’ve survived stressful rehearsals when laughter came to the rescue. At a living Last Supper dress rehearsal, we spent the first hour finding and fixing a major sound problem. Seeing absolutely no humor in the situation, I finally began rehearsal late, frustration level near the boiling point. Then actors portraying Jesus and all 12 disciples danced in, holding Pepsis and looking for all the world like a biblical soft drink commercial, costumes, beards and all! We had a good laugh, a soda, and then got back to work. My brothers in Christ used humor to lighten the mood and give us all, especially me, a renewed sense of perspective.

“The Christian knows the source of laughter: Rock of Gibraltar faith.” So says Donald Demaray, author of Laughter, Joy, and Healing. It’s not the world’s cynical laughter that masks pain or inflicts it on others, nor is it naïvete or denial of life’s hardships. The apostle Paul underlined this Christian life principle, saying it twice: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4, NIV). He did not write that from a corner office in a megachurch, but from a prison cell. He knew a Christian’s joy and laughter are not dependent on circumstances, but are close allies with our hope and faith. Paul writes in Romans 5:2, “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (NIV).

Virginia, a pastor’s wife a generation older than I, embodies for me Proverbs 15;15, “The cheerful heart has a continual feast” (NIV). Virginia is not a big joke teller, but her smile draws you in and she laughs easily, especially at herself. I watched this godly woman serve God joyfully while caring for her husband during his prolonged losing battle with cancer, cleaning houses to supplement their meager retirement, and praying for two of her four children who’d turned away from God in bitterness. I have an awe and respect for Virginia’s unshakable faith and the cheerful heart that is not pasted on, but real. Sometimes, aware that I’m having a whiny toddler day spiritually, I wryly tell my husband, “When I grow up, I want to be like Virginia!”

In ministry, a real sense of humor grounded in our bedrock faith keeps us balanced and sane.

CHÉRI WALTERS is the minister of worship and arts at West Valley Christian Center in Chatsworth, California, where her husband serves as senior pastor. A licensed minister, Cheri has published over 100 articles and one book, Advice to the Minister of Music: Get A Giant Hat Rack. She and her husband have four grown children.

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