In a previous life I spent a lot of time doing things that are well to put it mildly, frowned upon by the church. I know that these things are not thing to be counted on in my new life, but I do miss laughing. Laughing just for the fun of it, laughing just because it makes me feel good and I feel like doing it. I am not what you will call a blabber mouth, nor am I blessed with the divine spark, so it is not in my nature to say things that make people split their ribs so to say.

But I have, on more than one occasion, seen a man laugh during a service whilst the pastor or teacher as they like to be called nowadays had no intension of making him do so in the first place. I have contemplated what it might be that made these men crack a smile while the rest of the church where struggling to figure out where it to say a good Amen, one that will make their wives proud and give them church hugs. You know the hugs that come in from the side, not the normal frontal position, which invariably end with your wife putting her head on your shoulder.

It might be that he is thinking what a mess it will make if one of the ceiling fans did come loose and hit the unfortunate, unsuspecting tall sturdy gentleman below it in the face.  The poor man would probably feel quite unhappy about being attacked so suddenly by a completely unprovoked ceiling fan and might say something which is normally also frowned upon but will become very suddenly very appropriate given the situation he finds himself in.

It might be that the people two rows behind him sound more like Elvis impersonators than the average church singer struggling to find the right note, seeing that everybody in church is not the best of singers. Take me for example. I am one of the unfortunate humans with a voice which is not angelical. I struggle to talk let alone sing out loud in a group. So maybe he was laughing at me.

If, like me you are in, what has been termed a “happy clappy” church, and one where the lead guitarist, or the lead worship leader, to use the right terminology is a person who can jump around a lot, and not break into a sweat that might put the Niagara falls to shame, and encourage the attendees to do the same. The person might be cracking a smile because he is thinking that if I who is not quite as lean as the doctors say I should be might, given the fact that my waist line which is close to the circumference of the moon, chip or crack the hardwood floors whilst jumping around singing like a crow with my pits as wet as a pool, might just be the funniest thing he has seen all week.

He might have a sudden, uncontrollable urge to film the whole spectacle and release it on the very unflattering you tube, where all similar, very unflattering videos resides. Where I for one would have probably downloaded it sometime later and laughed at it, if it were not an unflattering video of me.   

I know that this is not the kind of thing the average Christian wants to hear and I also find church to be a place to become serious and worship God. But should Christians always be serious, is one of the fruits of the spirit not joy. Yes I know that joy is not only laughter, but laughter seems to be a better starting point than forced seriousness.

Seeing as though most things written for the church has a bible verse somewhere in it might be appropriate to end this way.

Luke 6:21 - "Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled!"Happy are you who weep now; you will laugh!