The Laughter of Friends

 

Here we are in April already. And I am really bad at keeping up with producing content. But I'mma at least try and be monthly. Ish.

This month, a wonderful sister in the Lord, who has become quite talented at making me laugh, asked why not make a blog post about "friends who make us laugh". Not sure if this is entirely what she expected, but here's my shot at it.

To start off with, really honest confession here... I do not have a quiet sense of humor. When I laugh hard, I laugh loud. Which can be obnoxious to lots of people.

Particularly to members of my family. Particularly because some of the people who make me laugh the hardest are several friends who live in more western time zones than I, who periodically call me at late hours of the evening.

 And I try to control my laughter. I do. But it works about as well as holding a sneeze in. Cuz here's the thing, there are few things as wonderful as finding friends who are so in tune with your sense of humor.

Proverbs 17:22, "A joyful heart shall do good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones."

Admittedly, my tastes in humor can be a bit odd. Not everybody gets it. But some of the people in my closer circles of friends... Oh, do they get it. 

And not all my best friends call me and instigate laughing fits. Some text. Some email. And its easier to restrain my volume then. But the friends who do call, or who I see in person? Its rarely long till they have me laughing loud.

Mind you, I'm not talking a short outburst of HA! No, this is hysterical. This is side-splitting. This is eyes and nose both running while both of you are gasping to breathe.

 Are we simply that good at coming up with the world's funniest jokes? Honestly, no. There's some things that would make most people laugh, that I would barely crack half a smile over. Yet some of the things that can kill me with laughter really aren't that objectively funny. They just hit a certain nerve. Some particular irony or absurdity that, for a couple minutes, becomes the greatest joke in the world.

And it really is the greatest thing. Maybe not the thing my friends and I happen to be laughing at, but the laughter itself. Laughter that hard, that full, that rich? That is vocal affirmation of mutual vulnerability. Letting go of any emotional apprehension or constructs of social properness and simply embracing a joyful spirit in its fullness.

Part of it is that laughter is more of a response to a person than the humor they presented. The degree of your laughter is a good index of how you feel about the people around you.

 Laughter has scientific merits, too. It increases the oxygen levels in your body. It can literally change the endorphins circulating in your brain. It lowers your adrenaline levels. And over a sustained fit of laughter, it can also reduce your levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.

It's no wonder that laughter is good medicine! High stress and low oxygen are both severely unhealthy.

Of course, the benefits of laughter extend to most forms of laughter. The chuckling, the snorting, the giggling, the hysterical fits, and even the sudden and short HA, can release stress and raise oxygen.

But I think the best laughter of all is laughter that happens with friends, loud, long and clear. Just the way Uncle Albert likes it.

 

And that's the kind of laughter that you can have with friends, who are people who we have fun with, who support us, and people who make us better. People we feel comfortable being ourselves around, because we know they are as weird as we are and nobody cares.

I have a huge appreciation for the friends who have taken the time to make me laugh out loud. You know who you are. And I want you to know, that's one of the things I most look forward to during hard weeks. The times that we lay our work down and share in some joy for a couple hours each week. And I have no doubt that many people look forward to you.

Friends are amazing. Laughter is amazing. And on top of all the benefits you reap from having friends who make you laugh, it can even be part of your witness. Part of letting your light shine.

Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”
Psalm 126:2

At that time John’s disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast so often, but Your disciples do not fast?” Jesus replied, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while He is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
Matthew 9:14-15

When other people see the rich joy of brothers and sisters in Christ coming together and erupting in echoes of joy, relishing in each others' company, in the glory of God and the wonders of his goodness, people start asking questions. Such joy is foreign to the ones who have no hope of a future kingdom.

So go out, grab a friend (or a few), and make time for a joyful heart.