This Little Light of Mine

It’s not that I don’t have a sense of humor, I do. However, I am Norwegian and our humor is hard to find. Overall, we are a serious bunch. I never once remember my Norwegian pastor telling a joke from the pulpit. I had a pastor once who felt he had to have a joke to start every sermon. I really didn’t care for that – but maybe it was that I was Norwegian.

I thought about that Pastor and wondered if I could remember any of his jokes to share with you. However, most of them weren’t that good. I don’t remember any of them. I thought about trying to find one of those funny stories from Reader’s Digest. Or maybe even one of those letter to God by children, etc.

I’m too serious. Everyone who knows me knows that’s true. To say that this topic is a challenge for me is an understatement. Then my good friend David knocks it out of the park yesterday. Feeling pressure over something funny really says something about me, doesn’t it!?

I have served in almost every capacity in a local church. I used to get to church early on a Sunday morning because I was in charge of the Sunday School. I’d get the supplies out and check on things. I also would check the toilet paper in both the bathrooms. It seemed they always needed a new roll of toilet paper.

Speaking of bathrooms, I’ve always had this fear that I would have the lapel microphone on and be one of those people who forget it’s on. You know, we’ve all heard those stories of someone with the mic on, they go to the bathroom and all the bathroom noises are heard all over the church. Fortunately, that’s not my funny story today.

At this church, I was also in charge of the women’s ministry. One of the most difficult programs we had was the time we decided to have fun. Now if this had been a daylong prayer program I’d have been fine. Or maybe if I were to exhort people on spiritual disciplines, I’d have done really good. But no, our pastor’s wife, this delightful woman with a real quirky sense of humor decided we needed some fun. Fun? In church – to this good serious Norwegian, church and fun in the same sentence is a bit of an oxymoron.

So what did we do? We decided to have a lampshade hat contest. Yes, we all made hats to wear on our head. We actually had to wear them in a fashion show. As you might guess, mine had to have a serious spiritual tone to it. I made a hat representing the fruit of the spirit.

Everyone else’s was less serious. It was hysterical. Here were all these women, young and older, with lampshades on their heads and no one was drunk; we weren’t even drunk in the Spirit. I know I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants as we paraded around with our hats. It was fun to be silly. We ended with a devotional on being the light of the world and sang "This Little Light of Mine."

Being serious is fine. Life is serious. Fun is scriptural too. I need some fun, how about you?

A cheerful disposition is good for your health

Proverbs 17:22a (The Message)