Fake laughter & real laughter

The New Yorker magazine recently featured a substantial article about a doctor in India who has created “a series of physical exercises intended to generate fits of laughter.”

The doctor authored a book titled Laugh for No Reason, in which he maintains that laughter – even fake laughter – can cure physical, psychological, or spiritual ailments.

The doctor is now the leader of an international movement of “Laughter Clubs” mostly built around faking laughter. His Laughter Club leaders are charged a $795 trainee fee for a short course.

When he began his first Laughter Club, the group quickly ran out of a stock of good, clean jokes.

In the entire article, there was not a single mention of joy.

The word “laugh” appears for the first time in the Bible in Genesis 17:17. God informs the 100-year-old Abraham that his 90-year-old wife Sarah will give birth to a son. God commanded Abraham to name his son “Isaac,” which in Hebrew means “God’s laugh.”

After she gave birth to Isaac, Sarah said, “God has given me cause to laugh; all those who hear of it will laugh with me.” (Genesis 21:6)

In the New Testament, Jesus tells his disciples, “Blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh.” (Luke 6:21) A hint of the resurrection, which the early Christian theologians saw as God’s last laugh on the devil.

God gives us plenty of reasons to laugh.

Humor & Health Hangouts start with prevention focus

By Cal Samra
Editor, The Joyful  Noiseletter

This special issue of JN is devoted to introducing to churches a rather unique concept – Humor & Health Hangouts that will meet monthly in a church or homes and give people lots of good reasons to laugh and be of good cheer.

The Humor & Health Hangouts (aka 3-H clubs) will have a holistic approach to health with a focus on prevention and helping people to strive to be both spiritually and physically fit. The groups will give people lots of good reasons to laugh: clean humor, inspirational humor, rib-tickling cartoons, the joy of salvation, the joy of the resurrection…

Healthy lifestyles

But the groups will stress that healing humor is just one part – an important part – of a healthy lifestyle, which includes good nutrition, regular exercise, the stewardship of the body, prayer, and worship.

The editors of The Joyful  Noiseletter are proposing that churches host these groups’ monthly meetings in fellowship halls or in members’ homes. Anyone would be welcome to come to these ecumenical meetings.

JN consulting editor Rev. Dr. Karl R. Kraft, who has designed and led 13 consecutive Holy Humor Sunday services on the Sunday after Easter, plans to start a Humor & Health Hangout at First Methodist Church in Glassboro, NJ.

Rev. Dr. Bert Coffman is starting another group at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Grafton, WV, and Rev. Barbara Bartholomew of First Presbyterian Church in Minerva, OH, is starting a group. The groups will meet monthly, and the pastors expect many other churches to follow their lead.

Dr. Richard Bimler of Bloomingdale, IL, who is Ambassador of Health, Hope, and Aging for Lutheran Life Communities, wrote, "I really like the idea of Humor & Health Hangouts. A Lutheran church in northern Illinois is considering hosting a group. We might consider establishing these groups in the Lutheran senior living facilities that are scattered all over the country."

Baptist Chaplain Jack Hinson of Waynesville, NC, wrote: "I think the Humor & Health Hangouts will be a big hit. I am serving as the interim pastor at a local church and expect to start a group there in 2011." Chaplain Jack served as a hospital chaplain for 14 years.

Another excellent resource for a group is Chaplain Jack's new book, Laughter Was God's Idea: Stories about Healing Humor (available from JN's online bookstore.)

Group guidelines

The guidelines and resources for formation of a Humor & Health Hangout were prepared with the assistance of Dr. Kraft, Evelyn Kraft, Dr. Coffman, Rev. Dr. Lee van Rensburg of Stroudsburg, PA, JN corporate attorney Gordon C. Miller of Kalamazoo, and JN editor Rose Samra.

Churches can use Holy Humor Sunday celebrations as models for the monthly Humor & Health Hangouts. For 15 years, JN has piled up evidence that Holy Humor Sunday celebrations are healing, and they work! They bring together divided parishioners and help people cope with their ailments and hard times.

After experiencing a Holy Humor Sunday service, many people have asked, “Why can’t we do this more often?”

Why not? If that is what churchgoers want, and if that is what attracts young people, the unchurched, and people of all ages to church, why not give it to them?

Americans are now confronted by a massive and staggering health care crisis as people desperately seek affordable health care. Churches have a moral responsibility to do their part in health education and prevention.

‘A terrible loneliness’

Studies have shown that loneliness is the Number One fear of many people. When Mother Teresa came to America, she observed a “terrible loneliness” among many people, mainly because of the widespread breakdown of both the nuclear and extended family. Extensive computerized social networking hasn’t mitigated this loneliness.

Patch Adams, M.D., another JN contributor, has observed that this terrible loneliness can cause illness and depression and make it more difficult for people to recover from illnesses.

Churches need to address this problem, and to help people build extended families of friends, as Patch Adams has suggested. Humor & Health Hangouts will help do that.

Why not give people a place where they can regularly meet, relax, have fun, and make new friends? Even exercise is most beneficial when you’re having fun.

These groups will be autonomous, under the kindly auspices of the church pastor. Why not consider starting a monthly group in your church? JN subscribers could take the lead in organizing a group in their church or home. Why not discuss it with your pastor?

Many enlightened medical doctors and hospital chaplains who subscribe to JN as well as health insurance companies are sure to support these groups.

Free-of-charge

We recommend that there be no charge to persons who attend the group’s meetings. A “Love & Laughter Offering” might be requested to cover the cost of refreshments or a modest speaker’s fee.

The groups would be well-advised to avoid contentious subjects like theology, politics, and psychobabble – nothing serious. (Save the theology for Sunday services and Sunday school.) The groups’ only aim is to share healing laughter, have fun, and encourage healthy lifestyles. The groups should simply promote an affirmation and celebration of life.

Good humor is a bridge-building and peacemaking tool. People just can’t laugh and fight at the same time. People are hurting big-time in many ways these days. Let’s give people lots of reasons to laugh. Give them faith. Give them laughter.

Didn’t Jesus tell us to “be of good cheer?” Let’s show people that the Christian faith has a lot of good humor, good cheer, and joy to offer – even in hard times – and we’re not just a crowd of whiners and grouches.

You want people to come to your church? Try it. You’ll like it.

Guidelines/resources for Humor & Health Hangouts

• Begin each meeting with “The Clown’s Prayer,” which JN consulting editors Don (“Ski”) Berkoski and his wife, Ruby (“Tah-Dah”) Berkoski, founders of Smiles Unlimited, a clown ministry to hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons, contributed to JN:
  “Lord, as I stumble through this life, help me to create more laughter than tears, dispense more happiness than gloom, spread more cheer than despair. Never let me become so indifferent that I will fail to see the wonder in the eyes of a child or the twinkle in the eyes of the aged.
  “Never let me forget that my total effort is to cheer people, make them happy and forget at least for a moment all the unpleasant things in their lives. And, Lord, in my final moment, may I hear You whisper: ‘When you made My people smile, you made Me smile.’”
• Encourage people to bring their favorite joke or funny story. BYOJ – “Bring your own joke” – but keep it clean and avoid put-down jokes.
• You can use JN’s treasury of holy humor – 25 years of clean jokes, upbeat humor, and cartoons in our newsletter and in many humor books featured in JN’s catalog through the years or recommended by JN. If you’ve kept back issues of JN, either paper or electronic, you’ve already got plenty of resources.
  The four Holy Humor/Holy Hilarity series of best-selling books copublished by JN covered the best jokes and cartoons from the first 10 years of JN. Another publisher will be publishing over the next three years some of the best jokes and cartoons from the last 15 years of JN.
• You can also use the extensive materials in the free guidebook to Holy Humor Sunday celebrations on JN’s web site.. Just click on “Holy Humor Sunday” for a bonanza of good humor.
• We’ve discovered that every church, whatever its faith tradition, has gifted humorists, comedians, clowns, magicians, ventriloquists, writers, poets, singers, musicians, pastors, and chaplains. Many of them have authored books. Why not use their many talents? Why not invite them to perform or talk to your group?
• There are numerous DVD’s and CD’s by Christian comedians that can be shown or played at club meetings. They are available at many Christian bookstores, or online. Just be sure you have permission to use them in church.
• Choir directors and ministers of music can recommend many joyful Christian songs – and even humorous songs – that can be sung at club meetings.
• Laughter may be the best medicine, but the clubs also should encourage healthy lifestyles, including good nutrition, regular exercise, and participation in sports within a person’s limitations. (Methodism’s John Wesley focused on prevention in his preaching, and relentlessly urged pastors and parishioners to strive to be both spiritually and physically fit.)
• Many prevention-minded medical doctors, nurses, and health professionals support JN’s ministry. Spiritually-enlightened doctors, nurses, nutritionists, and physical trainers could be invited to speak to the club.
• Some churches have hung a large print of “The Risen Christ by the Sea” in their fellowship halls. A painting of a smiling, joyful, triumphant Risen Christ in the fellowship hall would set a joyful tone for club meetings.
• Be hospitable. Welcome everyone and anyone – believers and unbelievers – to the group’s meetings.

It’s time to celebrate our own resurrections

When the Fellowship of Merry Christians was organized 25 years ago, we received this message from Rev. Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, an eminent Presbyterian pastor who was then the U.S. Senate Chaplain:

“God bless you in your ministry to bring joy and good cheer into the lives of Christians.”

Shortly afterwards, The Joyful Noiseletter carried this quote about “resurrection living” from Dr. Ogilvie’s book, Enjoying God under the headline “Easter Every Hour”:

“The Lord’s intervening, resurrection power is given not only for life’s impossible problems, but also for our immense opportunities. There’s always a time when we get to the end of our strength and courage and have to surrender the future of a plan, project, or program.

“Out of the grave of our depleted efforts, the Lord gives fresh vision, insight, and answers we had not conceived of before. Easter happens again. For resurrection living there is resurrection power.

“This is Easter every hour, not a temporary fix, but an intravenous feeding of love and hope from Christ’s heart to ours. This is living! This is enjoying God!”

According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, the word resurrection, when capitalized, as in The Resurrection, refers to the “rising of Jesus from the dead, or the rising of all the dead as of the Last Judgment.”

But resurrection (lower case) can also simply mean “a rising from the dead, or coming back to life” or “a coming back into notice, practice, use, etc.”

Dyings and risings

In our lifetimes, we all experience from time to time small “deaths” (from illness, injuries, accidents, the loss of loved ones, depression, et al.)

Example: you get the flu and you feel like you’re dying. You recover in a few days, sometimes with and sometimes without a doctor’s help. You come alive again. That is one kind of resurrection.

But we all experience small Easters when the Lord raises us back to life in this lifetime. We are resurrected – long before The Resurrection – with the help of a variety of human instruments – medical help, pastoral counseling, prayer, nutritional help, the humor of clowns and comedians, et al.

There are numerous forms of resurrection in this life before The Resurrection. We all have our little Good Fridays and our little Easters.

There is an old tradition in early Eastern Christianity that Lazarus laughed heartily for years after Jesus raised him from the dead, and Lazarus’ home in Bethany was called “the House of Laughter.”

The Humor & Health Hangouts will enable us to celebrate our little resurrections in this lifetime and thank and praise God, the author of all resurrections.

Christians have been called “Easter people” for centuries. Are we?

Many insurance companies are offering a free pedometer as a help towards developing preventative healthy lifestyles and are encouraging friendly competitions among churches and conferences, reports Rev. Dr. Lee van Rensburg of Stoudsburg, PA. The pedometer helps a person check their steps each day and set a reasonable personal goal.

Please let JN know if you plan to start a Humor & Health Hangout in your church or private home. Contact us at JoyfulNZ@aol.com or at The Joyful  Noiseletter, P.O. Box 895, Portage, MI 49081-0895.