Laughter Therapy

Dad Joke: In school I learned how to be famous. My teacher told me, “You mess up one more time, you’ll be history.”

My kids always loved it when I brought some jokes to read them at the table. Here are a few that helped them smile.

1. 1. A patient says to his doctor, “I’ve been forgetting so many things lately, and it’s getting worse. What can I do?” The doc replies: “I’m sorry. And there is no cure. Oh, and I need to remind you about that $800 you owe me.”

1. 1. A Mexican magician tells his audience, “I will disappear on the count of three.” He says, “Uno, dos,” and poof, disappears without a…tres. Okay, some of these may not quite make you laugh out loud.

1. 1. A guy hears a knock at his door. He opens the door and sees a snail on the porch. He picks the snail up and throws it as far as he can. Three years later the same guy hears a knock at his door. He opens the door and sees a snail on the porch. The snail says: “What was that all about?”

1. A guy arrives at a fancy party; the doorman says, “No tie. No admittance. No exceptions.” The guy walks back to his car. All he can find is jumper cables, so he arranges them around his neck in tie-like fashion. Goes back to the doorman and asks, “How’s this?” The doorman says, “OK, I’ll let you in. But don’t start anything.”

Laughter is great medicine. Norman Cousins is often credited for putting the healing power of laughter on the map. Cousins was a political journalist who developed arthritis of the spine. Nearly immobilized by pain, he asked a doctor to help him devise an unorthodox treatment plan. Cousins moved out of the hospital into a hotel room, quit taking pain meds, and spent hours watching old Marx Brothers movies and Candid Camera spoofs, hoping to inspire laughter.

“It worked,” he later wrote. “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep.” After only a few weeks, Cousins’ pain had diminished enough to allow him to return to work and make a full recovery.

Studies continue to prove the healing power of laughter. Stories abound of those who have used humor to survive captivity, cancer, war, trauma and illness, as well as the daily grind of stressful jobs. Researchers continue to discover the truth of Solomon’s words in Proverbs 17:22 (NIV), “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

The great evangelist and orphanage director George Müller once said, “The first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day is to have my soul happy in the Lord.”

Here are just three secrets to living “happy in the Lord.”

1. Don’t give in to the sin of comparison—unless it leads you to help others.
2. Avoid negative thoughts. Focus on who God is, on what He has done, and on what He is doing.

In some of Jesus’ last words to His followers, He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NIV). All around are troubled people. May they see in us the hope and joy of Jesus.

And may they see us laugh, too. As my kids did when I said: “If you ever get attacked by a gang of clowns, always go for the juggler.”

Huddle: Can you remember a time your spirits were lifted with laughter? Why do you think God has given us the gift of laughter?

Remember: “A glad heart makes a happy face; a broken heart crushes the spirit” (Proverbs 15:13, NLT).

Pray: Ask God to give joy to someone who is going through hard times.