|
“He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”
–– Job 8:21
“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.” –– Psalm 126:1-3
It wasn’t one daunting crisis but a gaggle of mini-crises that had transported me to the outskirts of the doldrums. A few too many meetings; a sudden rush of members at the hospital as if they were running a blue light special; treading the purple minefield of the middle separating the blue and red nuclear powers painting congregational life; and the consumptive pressures applied by the relentless return of the Sabbath. It was Wednesday and I had nothing but a sermon title. Self-pity was elbowing gratitude to the side, and I was late. One meeting was running longer than expected and I still hadn’t made my presentation, but the next meeting was across town and I was supposed to moderate it.
At the time my coping mechanism for stress consisted of grabbing a soda out of the machine at the church, and spoiling myself with the homemade chocolate chip cookie wrapped in plastic and sitting on the console in my car. Caffeine, sugar, and a cookie, my formula for survival in the face of life’s contrary winds. Yet, in keeping with the Schleprock feel of the day, the can of Pepsi sprayed me with a sticky brown coating, and the melting chocolate chips of the sun-roasted cookie found hospitality across the seat of my pants. I was a literal mess as I heard the mention of my name –– Leading us today will be this year’s president of Burke County United Way … Matt Brown.
There are multiple levels of awkward from unease to self-conscious to discomfort to embarrassment to humiliation to mortification to ignominy. Yet, occasionally, just out there beyond ignominy … is the grace of laughter. Forcefully exiled from self-importance, flaws exposed, pretense shattered, concealment no longer an option, we can finally laugh at ourselves and accept ourselves for who we are –– flawed, imperfect, and occasionally best identified as a mess.
To this day, Donna speaks of the joy she felt as I gut-laughed my way through an attempt to describe my day to her and my in-laws late that afternoon. William Ward once said, “To make mistakes is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity.” Something tells me that much of what makes heaven, heaven, is laughter, and to appreciate that this slice of heaven is accessible in this life, even on our Schleprock days, is joy.
| 
