Last week I mentioned a couple of reasons that JOY can be lost or missing in our lives and today I will share one more. Hopefully you have had some time to look deep within to see if you are filled with the JOY of the Lord and if not, that you have allowed the Lord to show you where it can be found in your life.
As we grow closer to the Lord, we want to become the holy person that He designed us to be. At least that is what my goal was and is, however, I have realized that the pendulum has swung a little too far on the side of legalism. I am not a bubbly and light-hearted person by nature. I actually tend to be serious and even skeptical at times. This, compounded with the very serious topic of eternal judgment, I have become even more serious and almost pious.
It is important to stand for the Truth and to live a clean life so that God can use us and be glorified through us, but we can't be all doom and gloom or goody-goody while we are serving the Lord. We need to be real, which should include, laughing and having fun. God did ask us to live in a certain manner, but He didn't tell us to do it with a sour or negative attitude. We should be filled with JOY as we live on this earth. If others see Christianity as gloomy and serious ALL of the time lacking any fun and light-heartedness, it probably won't attract too many people. Don't get me wrong here, we DO need to take things seriously when it comes to sin and rejection of or disobedience to the Lord, but there are times for laughter.
A friend of mine pointed out that the sin in the world does make it difficult to have fun because the world laughs at sin. When we laugh at the things of the world, it may give the impression that we approve of the sin and that is a line that I have been avoiding. It is much easier to just not laugh than to risk having people think that I am laughing with the world. I intentionally don't watch sit-coms anymore because the funny parts are usually directed at sin; a disobedient child, a lazy husband, a sexual encounter that is immoral and the list goes on. It is my preference to just not go there. However, I have gone too far in that I have been shutting out the world as much as I can. There are parts of it that we can still enjoy. That will vary for each of us, but I am realizing that for the sake of my relationships, my emotional health and for the picture that I paint of Christianity, I need to seek out opportunities to laugh and have fun. I suggest that you do the same if you find that you are taking life just a little too seriously these days!!
I bought a few Christian comedian DVDs recently and am taking time to laugh on a more regular basis. If you haven't seen or heard of Tim Hawkins, I suggest you check him out. He really is funny!
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