Relearning the 7-year-old Belly Laugh Prayer: It's a Matter of Life and Death!

I don’t know what I’d do without my Tuesdays! On Tuesday I meet with my staff and tell life stories of last week’s ministries, strategize about next week, vision and re-vision as we move forward, and roll up our sleeves and “get things done!”  I love, love, love working with my staff...and Tuesdays are when we all get together under one roof. What a joy! On Tuesdays, we laugh, we cry, and because of that we are able to keep doing ministry. Isn’t that cool?

But, if I were to be honest with you, as awesome as this is (and it truly is), I also love to go to work on Tuesdays because it’s a time that Pastor Brook gets a chance to eavesdrop! I know. Scandalous, right? Maybe that’s why I like it! I love to stand outside the door to our Community Room Number One and just listen.

Why?

Well, I’m not listening to the words. I’m listening for an eruption of sound.

Because out of that room on Tuesday morning, when the Women at the Well gathers at 10 a.m. at Bear Creek UMC there is a contagious eruption of sound that absolutely heals my soul. What is that sound?

Uncontained, unbridled laughter! And to hear it unleashed into the world is something I truly can’t live without right now.

There is something about laughter in challenging times that heals us, am I right?

A month ago, one of my good friends, Rick Pittenger, sent me a text at 2:10 a.m. I was up, trying to get back to sleep after a bathroom break when I heard my Apple watch ding. My first thought was, “I’ve got to figure how to turn that dinger off on my watch. Rick is driving me nuts!”  But then, after 10 minutes of rolling around trying to get back to sleep, I acquiesced to the inevitable. I found my phone, opened up his text and tried to figure out what silly meme Rick was sending me now.

And, sure enough, it was another one of his videos. The guy is always sending me these things. I probably should have just sent it to trash, but I didn’t. Rick, after all, was a good friend. And to be honest with you, I have probably sent just as many videos and mimes to him! And so, I turned down my phone volume and opened up the video. And by the end of this video, I was laughing my heart out! I mean I was full out belly laughing. In fact, I belly laughed so loud that Cyndy woke up. To be honest, she was a teeny-weeny bit upset with me, at first. She gave me that sideways look that meant something like: “Can’t you see I’m sleeping here. Jeesh! Somebody has to work tomorrow!” And then turned away.  But then she turned back towards me and said, “Ok, show me the #$@&%*! video, already!” And 30 seconds later, she was laughing louder than I was! God, I love that laugh!

What was so funny? Well, it was a video of Rick and Becky’s wedding anniversary celebration. First of all, they looked great. It was great to see them dancing and smiling after 45+years! But what really made the video wasn’t Rick and Becky (sorry you two, I love you dearly, but you’ve got a bonafide star in your midst). The star of that video is their grandson and his reaction after they kissed. His “Oh, my God!” and the sheer unbridled joy of his laugh...just can’t be missed...it literally fills the entire room! It's like a virus in reverse!

I now have a new morning ritual. It’s a prayer really.  I get out my phone and I watch and listen to that video, and I allow myself to have one pure, unbridled, untethered moment of pure unbounded joy. I mean, I laugh like a seven-year-old kid who is unaware enough not to care about who is listening. I laugh as hard as that kid is loved! Like I'm surrounded completely by unconditional love!

And you know what, it works! It feeds me! It heals me! It reminds me that life, however tragic and difficult and unfair and (go ahead you add the words) it is, also has precious moments where God’s presence is so near and so all-encompassing that you just can’t contain it.

And so, by God’s design we don’t...we shouldn’t...we let go and let it out! A prayer of gratitude to a God who gave us laughter. An act of obedience...yes the good kind of obedience... to our grace-filling God.

Do me a favor folks WATCH THIS VIDEO.. and teach yourself how to really laugh again.

God would want you to! God would love to join you.

Shalom, your 64-year-old pastor trying to relearn how to do “the 7-year-old belly laugh prayer" God gave me at my birth and baptism, Brook

PS: Rick and Becky, can you fly Graham out to teach me? By the way, who are this kid's parents? I mean they are doing an awesome job! Please tell them thanks for me! There son has helped heal me.