I have always heard the term 'laugh therapy' in counselling, and even occasionally with regular doctors. I once heard a story (fact or fiction?) about a lady who was healed by a steady diet of The Three Stooges. Although there isn't very much scientific proof when it comes to laughter as medicine (at least, not that I can find... Want to do some digging, Matt?), researchers are gathering evidence that the way we feel can drastically affect chemical chances in our bodies, influencing everything from our brain to our heart. Laughter is thought to decrease stress and lover blood flow. In my opinion, it may even increase blood flow (which makes sense, right?) and act as a natural pain killer.
Even though this medical stuff is relatively new, King Solomon wrote about it thousands of years ago in Proverbs. "A merry heart does good like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones."
The Bible says a lot about joy and laughter. As I have been reading over the past few days and weeks, there has been a strong theme in what God has been telling me over and over again... The source of my joy is not to be found in what I own, how much money I have or even how healthy I feel. I could be walking through hell on earth, and according to scripture, I should still be able to lift my hands, sing and rejoice!
The source of my joy is God. He is Good. He is full of grace and love. I find that when I put my trust in Him, even when things don't make sense, I still have peace, I view life from a different perspective, I see things how He sees them and I am able to laugh.
The apostle Paul knew this better than anyone, in my opinion. He was whipped, beaten, tortured, shipwrecked, imprisoned, falsely accused and suffered illness, yet through it all he was able to rejoice. Amazingly, he even wrote the above verse while in imprisoned in a dark, damp and cold jail cell.
The trick of the enemy is to keep focused on the things around us, because he knows that when we do, we take our eyes off God and off the source of our joy. Eventually our strength will fail and we will fall.
Thankfully, my God is the God of second-chances, and He is always there for me, so even when I do fall, I am able to get my head back up, lift my hands and voice, and laugh out loud.
On a side note, there will be a Thanksgiving post tomorrow at 1 PM prompt!
I will be out cheering my father on as he runs in the marathon, so be thinking
of me as I'm out FREEZING my butt off. :] Stay tuned for more epicness...
1 comments:
A wonderful post and a timely (for me) reminder of what my source of joy is as well as the importance of laughter. Thanks so much for posting this!
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