Honorable Humor

If I did not love Jesus, desire to honor and obey him, desire to be shaped into his likeness, desire to point people to him, believe people to be image bearers and therefore desire to honor them — IT WOULD BE SO MUCH EASIER TO BE FUNNY. Now there’s no true delight underneath those jokes, but the laughs would be easy and quick, and I’d pitch books with titles like Oops I Set the Laundry on Fire: Snarky Tales of a Mom Who Loves Her People But Not Enough to Do Stuff for Them, and You Can Have Another Wife If She’s Uglier Than Me: An Irreverent Guide to Marital Bliss, and She Ordered A Salad When I Ordered Pizza and It Was Rude: When Friendship Leads to French Fry Shame.

Surrendering to Christ means surrendering all of me, and it means it’s not a good idea to pick up every joke I see, to tell stories that make someone else pay, to conveniently relabel my own sins as hilarity, to take short-cuts like sarcasm and insults. When I see Christians doing that, it makes me sad. When I see myself doing that, it makes me grieve.

Though the world offers lightheartedness that requires someone else pay the cost, we can offer lightheartedness that nourishes the heart, remembering that Someone Else paid the cost. Though the world offers laughs that flow from hurt or horror disguised as delight, but we can offer laughs that flow from something that needs no costume: actual delight.

You remember that we have access to that, right? Consider this verse from a guy who found a feast in the wilderness: “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth with praise you with joyful lips” (Psalm 63:5). That’s what knowing Jesus is like, isn’t it? Being so hungry and finding feast where there should be famine. Finding life where there should be death. Certainly the Christian life includes struggle, pain, solemness, and sacrifice, but there’s also a soul that says, “Yum!”

There’s more confetti in this verse that we realize, because the original language definition of “praise” implies celebration, shiny-ness, and making a show. So, here’s a Caroline paraphrase: “My soul will be satisfied and content, the way I feel when I’ve eaten the best of foods, and with singing lips, my mouth will celebrate and make a show over you.”

Imagine the things that would spill out from a satisfied soul, from a mouth that desires to spotlight the Lord. It won’t all be serious, that’s for sure. And when it’s unserious, it won’t settle for lesser celebrations and lesser shows.

Christians, when we go for the laugh, let’s make sure it honors the One who invented the laughs. Let’s do the harder work of honorable humor, because we know we have the delight to back it up. Maybe the jokes we offer the world will be a welcome mat in the wilderness, the thing that gets them to the door that will take them to the table, where the real feast awaits.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” Proverbs 18:21

Want more content on humor? Check out this episode of Journeywomen podcast that I did with my pal Holly Mackle, or this book Holly curated, which features five of my humor essays.