E46 TRANSCRIPT Why laughter powerful Does God laugh How faith really laughs
www.crazygoodgod.org
Nancy Teague
nancy@crazygoodgod.org
Dec 21, 2020
Hi there, welcome to crazy Good God podcast. I'm Nancy Teague and thanks for listening.
00:17 In the previous episode, we talked about God's effusive joy and how it impacted some people. Today it's what do you know about laughter? Do you like to laugh? Have you ever laughed so hard you can hardly breathe, or you start snorting, even tears happen because something is so funny. When you're laughing that hard, other people around you start laughing too. Even if they don't know why you're laughing, it's the most delightful lif- giving experience.
0051 Have you ever thought about laughter happening in the scripture, especially in the Old Testament? Since Jesus was fully God, let's check out his light-hearted joy in Proverbs 8. “Then I was beside Him as a Master Craftsman and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world. And My delight was with the sons of men.” Rejoicing in Hebrew means - laughing, joking, smiling, playing. Delight in Hebrew – pleasure, intensive delight, enjoyment. Here's Jesus fully God fully Man laughing, smiling with intense delight over us! Picture that!
01:43 What happens when we laugh? Professor Sophie Scott, from the University College of London, did an MRI on someone speaking and then laughing. The MRI showed the complexity of talking - the tongue with multiple movements touching the roof of the mouth, the back of the teeth, back of the larynx. But when laughing the tongue isn't moving. It actually drops to the bottom of the mouth and even pushes back on the throat - because all the action of a laugh happens in the rib cage, not in the throat. A laugh is inexpressible, something bigger than words.
02:27 Now get this. Peter even described this kind of laughter. He wrote, “Whom you have not seen you love, and though you don't see Him yet believing, you rejoice in joy inexpressible and full of glory.” The Greek for inexpressible means unable to speak, impossible to communicate by words. Peter is talkin’ about laughter! What is this laughter of God that He gave us, being created in his image and likeness?
O3:05 What happens physiologically when we laugh? Twentyfour facial muscles, diaphragm muscles abdominal muscles kick in. Oxygenation of tissue, heart rate increases, muscle tension reduced. There are anti-inflammatory effects on joints and bones. Increased pulmonary ventilation and the lungs get cleaner. Cortisol, a stress hormone, is reduced. The brain and the body produce endorphins bringing relaxation, a feel good sense.
03:40 Let's consider the laughter Abraham and Sarah had at the birth of their son. The background -God had told Abraham, advanced in years, that he and his elderly barren wife, Sarah, would have a child. Sarah laughed inwardly when she heard this, but this was an inner laughter of ‘oh, sure, yeah, right, what a joke’. But God heard it and called her out, saying, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Little did Sarah know God had real laughter coming her way. When they had their son, they named him Isaac -Hebrew means ‘he laughs’. It comes from the Hebrew word ‘laughter’. After the birth of Isaac, Sarah said, “God has made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me.”
04:34 Do you know that laughter is connected to faith? Hebrews 11 - Sarah ‘received power (GR dunamis) to conceive and bore a child because she considered God faithful who had promised.’ Who knew, laughter and faith were connected? And don't forget that any faith we have is actually Jesus's. He's the author of our faith and the perfector of it. Hmm, have you ever pictured Jesus laughing in his faith?
05:12 Let's check out these Old Testament scriptures. “He will fill your mouth with laughing and your lips with rejoicing.” “The Lord brought back the captivity and then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. And then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.” It says when ‘Jesus ascended on high, He led captivity captive.’ That Old Testament verse is a picture of Jesus's finished work. He enveloped the world in joy and laughter. Remember, He is ‘always rejoicing over his inhabited world over the sons of men, rejoicing, laughing, smiling, playing.’
06:02 Now I want to share some bits from Walter C. Lanyon's book called ‘The Laughter of God’. Lanyon, born 1887 died in 1967, was a teacher and he had a life changing encounter with the laughter of God. Here is some of his experiential encounter with God's laughter, and may it take you to new places awaiting you of freedom and delight.
06:30 Lanyon writes – “I heard the laughter of God ringing in silvery cadences through the Timbers of my being breaking the human bonds and limitations as a strong, yet gentle wind in the forest sweeps aside, the strands of cobwebs. The hard, fast knots that I had tied slipped loose and the snarls of beliefs broke free. The river of my human life frozen by one thousand false ideas and teachings broke joyously into expression and went bounding to the infinite sea of life.
07:10 One dark cave of fear after another was illuminated by the light of this laughter and sick thoughts dried up instantly. Parched sands of hopelessness and futile efforts were drenched by the living waters absorbed instantly, like a wave breaking on the sands. God laughing at me and my puny efforts to make things happen, to make heaven appear, to attain sonship. It was not the laugh of derision, but of infinite compassion, a laughter so deep and sweet, so pure and glorious, that everything in the nature of struggle gave way before it and the breath of that glorious laughter blew all of my dirty rags of personal teaching and self-aggrandizement away from me.
08:05 No sooner had the filthy rags of personality blown free that I was clothed in a panoply of light. And in this glorious raiment of light I saw for the first time the glory of the spirit made flesh. I stood before the infinite peals of laughter which flowed through all creation like floods of gold and mist, filled with speechless wonder at the beauty of the world I had lived in, which had been invisible because of my separation, because of my personal idea about attainment
08:48 The glorious laughter rolled on searching the very joints and morrow of me, dislodging every belief, fear and sickness or age. As it swept over me through me and around me I was amazed with the wonder of it. The fierce, terrible thing which it was, at the same time so beautiful and free. The wonder of it kept singing through my soul, as well as veil after veil of belief was rent asunder. No matter how many struggles had been made, no matter how many mistakes, how many shortcomings, how many failures, how long the belief, how short the hate - it was all swept aside as nothing.
09:37 The people of God are a people of joy. Go within and hear the laughter of God and know that it does not matter that the things which gave you great concern are all swept away. If you in any way believe this, you will begin to listen for the laughter of God through your whole being and will know that the laughter of God sets you free, free from the snarling discontent.
10:05 You will hear it and gradually you will begin laughing. Billows of laughter silently audible laughter that will shatter one limitation after another. As you learn the laughter of God, you will laugh at yourself. You will perhaps go back and laugh all the mistakes, faults, and limitations out of existence. You will stand with your glorious feet on the mountain top laughing, laughing in words, “It is wonderful. It is wonderful. It is wonderful!”
10:46 My goodness, what an experience Lanyan had and then to share it to stir us to deeper places. May we say as we touch this Laughter, “God has made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me.”
Until next Wednesday, Bliss to you and never forget God is absolutely crazy about you.
References: 1Pet 1:8 Gn 21:3,6 Gn 18:15 Heb 11:11 Heb 12:2 Job 8:21 Ps 126:1-3 Jn 19:30 Gn 21:6