I love to laugh; I believe our laughter pleases God. God, afterall, created laughter, right? Some folks are pretty serious; and there are times to be serious. We don’t always feel like laughing. Yet, laughter is good for the soul. Think of it as exercise. Is that a stretch? 
Barbara Johnson said, “Laughter is jogging for the insides. It increases heart rate and circulation, stimulates the immune system, and improves the muscle tone of the abdomen.” Sounds like exercise to me.
A boy was sitting on a park bench with one hand resting on an open Bible. He was loudly exclaiming his praise to God. “Hallelujah! Hallelujah! God is great!” he yelled without worrying whether anyone heard him or not.
Shortly after, along came a man who had recently completed some studies at a local university. Feeling himself very enlightened in the ways of truth and very eager to show this enlightenment, he asked the boy about the source of his joy.
“Hey” asked the boy in return with a bright laugh, “Don’t you have any idea what God is able to do? I just read that God opened up the waves of the Red Sea and led the whole nation of Israel right through the middle.”
The enlightened man laughed lightly, sat down next to the boy and began to try to open his eyes to the “realities” of the miracles of the Bible. “That can all be very easily explained. Modern scholarship has shown that the Red Sea in that area was only 10-inches deep at that time. It was no problem for the Israelites to wade across.”
The boy was stumped. His eyes wandered from the man back to the Bible laying open in his lap. The man, content that he had enlightened a poor, naive young person to the finer points of scientific insight, turned to go. Scarcely had he taken two steps when the boy began to rejoice and praise louder than before. The man turned to ask the reason for this resumed jubilation.
“Wow!” exclaimed the boy happily, “God is greater than I thought! Not only did He lead the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea, He topped it off by drowning the whole Egyptian army in 10 inches of water!”
I have noticed that learning to laugh at ourselves takes a little longer than learning to laugh with others. Maybe that is an indication that we are taking ourselves too serious. Let laughter lift your heart. Be grateful for God’s gift and give yourself a workout; laugh!
“It is often just as sacred to laugh as it is to pray.” Charles Swindoll