Settle Yourself and Release
Find a quiet place to relax and be with God. Settle into your seat. Let go of any distractions. Hand them over to Jesus.
Encounter: Feast on God’s Presence
Read this passage over several times. Let the words take shape inside of you.
Job 8:21
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.
Contemplate
Look carefully at this sculpture of Jesus laughing.
Then, read and ponder the following words from Martin Luther.
Christ is a God of joy. It is pleasing to the dear God whenever thou rejoices or laughest from the bottom of thy heart.
Prayerfully consider these questions:
1. Am I able to laugh, not at, but with myself when I goof up?
2. Is laughter something that lightens my day? Is my “mouth filled with laughter?”
3. Do I see Jesus as “the heavy” or do I see him as this sculpture depicts him?
Pray
Prayer for Good Humor
by St. Thomas More
Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.
**The sculptor of this work was Jim Carlos. He and his wife, Freida, were members of Sterling Heights UMC, in Sterling Heights, MI. This was sculpted after Jim had retired from working for years as a welder on the assembly line in an auto factory.
Kathy Milans is the lead member of the Soul Care Collective Steering Committee.
One Response
Dear Kathy:
Without. a sense of humor,. ministry would be a barren chore Granted, much of what we encounter daily is often serious stuff
Your writings reveal a compassionate interior with a funny exterior. Good, good, good.