Laugh, Dance, and Be Merry

A merry heart does good, like medicine. —Proverbs 17:22

ODB ("Our Daily Bread") today has a beautiful message of joy and happiness and laughter and dancing. I'm reminded of my friends Eric and Jason Hoover. Not that long after I met them, they came up to me and asked, "Would you be my friend if I thought I were a dolphin?" I laughed, smiled and knew that we would be fast friends. Laughter, joy and fun are special gifts from our creator. The one would brought joy into the world does not want us to live joyless lives. In fact, we must sing to Him with a smile on our lips and joy bursting in our hearts.

It's interesting that ODB recounts the story of King David who begins to dance when he brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. (Brad and I were just talking about this last night.) David didn't even care when his wife thought his behavior unbecoming. He said that he would become even more 'undignified' and continued dancing 'with all his might' before the Lord.

I'm reminded of the Dominican song, "Tu has cambiado mi lamento en baile." The Dominicans sang loudly and danced around to this chorus properly named "You have changed my lament into dancing." We must dance before the one who has changed our sorrow into dancing! God reminds us to 'take time to laugh.' (Eccl. 3:4)

I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD." - Psalm 122:1

I'm lucky that for me, 'the house of the Lord' or the church has always been a place of joy. Even as a young girl, I looked forward to Sunday School (a crucial part of church for us), children's story and children's church (with Uncle Rod's easy, medium and hard questions). I was an odd one. I'd sit in church while I was a little older, writing one or two possible sermon ideas for different familiar Bible stories. And I remember one saturday morning when I sat making up geneological family trees for the Old Testament scriptures of records.

But I believe a reason that I rejoiced in God's house was that everyone in my church made that joy a part of who we were. We are free from judgment, free from our sins and free to rejoice in God's love for us. We enjoyed being with one another, praying with one another and I rejoiced at every Sunday morning just as much as every Thursday evening of Youth group and every Saturday service project. I always wanted to go. There was never any kicking or screaming.

I believe the joy that God has given us is something the world desperately wants and really needs. If we share that and ask people to come to God's house with joy in our hearts and a smile on our lips, I think that offer is very hard to refuse.

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. - 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Racing is something I can always relate to and something I really really enjoy doing. So while some people may think it has no place in a study of joy, to me it certainly does. But look... prizes, crowns? What's not to love about that? And we will all receive a crown at the end of the race... and a crown that will last forever. We can thank our God for the ability to run this race and receive this prize, even though we may not deserve it... just for entering the race we will get the prize.