Daily Devotion – June 16, 2020 – Steve Trandem

Proverbs 17:22, Good News Version.

“Being cheerful keeps you healthy. It is slow death to be gloomy all the time.”

It’s a strange time, for sure.  After retirement, Susan and I usually worshiped once on Sunday, in a church building.  One Sunday in May we worshiped twice, both times from our recliners.  After St. John’s we tuned into Messiah’s broadcast where an old friend, Pr. Matt Valan, was preaching.  His last statement was, “And don’t forget to laugh.  It’s good medicine.”

My favorite depiction of Jesus is the one by Ralph Kozak where he is laughing.  Not smiling…laughing.  ArgyleIllustration’s laughing Jesus is even more raucous.  Jesus is roaring with laughter.  

We have been treated to many inspiring, comforting and challenging daily devotions.  What a “spiritual buffet” we’ve tasted!  Although coronavirus, isolation and disruption of our lives are not laughing matters, in the midst of this my wife and I have found times when we CAN laugh.  It helps us put our lives in perspective, helping us see that faith, hope and love endure.  In this vein, I offer a few examples of what has caused our hearts to be merry, even in the midst of our new, and very unwelcome, normal.

  • Before leaving Green Valley, AZ, in May we used the NextDoor app to find used furniture and keep up on neighborhood happenings.  One young woman and mother, trying to work from home, posted: “I’ve been eating like it’s my job.”  We roared because we were doing the same thing.  I’m so thankful to be back in Moorhead, able to be in my garden and wood-working shop so I can stay away from the refrigerator.
  • I ventured into several stores in Green Valley looking for essentials like toilet paper and disinfectant wipes.  Nope.  NOTHING to be found.  The shelves were as bare as Mother Hubbard’s.  A woman posted the following, causing Susan and me to laugh til we cried: “I used to spin the toilet paper roll like I was on Wheel of Fortune.  Now I carefully turn it like I’m cracking a safe.”
  • Another woman posted: “Now I know that the reason I hadn’t cleaned my house was NOT that I didn’t have the time.”

Prayer: Lord of the Dance, help us to step back enough to see the humor in our daily lives, as crazy as our lives seem nowadays.