Read this week’s excerpt from Bumping Into God, “Sleeping in the Park” here.
I’m convinced that most of us Christians take ourselves much too seriously. Maybe that’s because we imagine God, not as a loving presence who is always with us, but as a grumpy sort of deity who is too concerned about sin to take joy in the good world he has created.
Such notions of God prevent us from being truly free to live in expectation of God’s loving interaction with us. We’ve all known people who had no sense of humor, the ones who usually micromanaged and worried about every detail. We always had to censor ourselves when around such people, knowing that the most innocent jest could be taken the wrong way. To humorless people, life is but one long march of hard work and survival.
This week’s story from Dom Grassi is a great example of how sometimes the joke is on us. His own plan to deal with a complaint backfired on him. I remember a time when I was probably too worried about what size of clothing I wore. I was thrilled to find a pair of jeans that actually had a slimming effect. I remember wearing them the next day, taking the train to work (it was casual Friday), and feeling almost sexy—only to discover that I’d forgotten to remove the clear tape down the back of one leg that announced to the world just how big a size I was wearing.
Last week I suggested that you write the highlights of your life story—to help you identify how God has been present to you. This week I challenge you to go through a typical day, and then in the evening, write the story of that day—only write it as a comedy, with yourself as the main character.
Laughter is a release for us, bearing physical and emotional benefits. How often are we willing to laugh at ourselves? In doing so, we strip away that ultra-serious outlook that tends to make us anxious and negative. God desires for us an existence that is free and filled with gratitude—for our very lives, for the tough days as well as the more enjoyable ones. God wants us to laugh often and open our hearts to all sorts of possibilities.
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This is not a typical day in my life because we are at my daughter’s house with all the furniture stacked in various rooms to be moved, to sell, with stacks of pictures, linens, papers, books, to be packed in boxes. We got in late last night. Laura is sleeping on the floor because the extra couch has boxes on it and she’s too tired to find another place for them. I wake up about 2 am and cannot go back to sleep because I am thirsty. I try to be quiet, but my caregivers always want to know what i am doing! And this time there is no place to sit except in the room where Laura is sleeping. I finish my drink and wander back to bed. I don’t have to turn on lights – there is light from outside and even a couple of night lights.
Then, again, I am up in a few hours – this time an alarm keeps going off, but Laura doesn’t wake up. It turns out that it is the anti-biotic for my husband. I get the pill and some water and tell his nurse is here. He says he is not sick – and he is much better. His face is not swollen the way it was.
Laura is still sleeping so I decide to take a shower. I don’t know how she can bear to leave this neat shower – it is gorgeous – with a stone seat, several different hoses and nozz;es. And, because even with the remodeled bathroom at home, the tub is very narrow compared to this.
I get my husband his graham crackers, chocolate icng, and peanut butter. He is all out of routine and says he isn’t hungry. Laura finally gets up. She puts me to work packing her egg collection, but that doesn’t take long. Then, I start packing photos in all different kinds of frames. I manage to pack them in so that the box is packed exactly to the top! Then I get my husband to get down all the different kinds of fish Laura has stored on top of the kitchen cabinets. Laura wants to pack them in the towels so I get all the towels. It is not easy to use the towels for packing, so I get the bubble wrap again. And, I think of where she can put them in our house! We have a tiny bathroom with a claw foot tub. We can put them all in there. The knicks knacks I have there now can moved. Laura thought it was a good idea.
Not much of a comedy. I did have a good laugh for a fast food ad – there is a small boxy laughing so hard he falls over. It is a very infectious laugh! On the other hand, I wasn’t glum. For a comedic character, you can find out how much I don’t know how use Facebook. And I don’t have the inspiration to figure it out.
But there were some ‘aha’ moments like the perfect box and the inspiration where the egg collection could go. When things go in the groove they are supposed, that’s when you know that you are opening yourself to the Holy Spirit.
My daughter has found the perfect name for my waking up time. I don’t wake up easily. My husband says I get up two hours before I wake up. Daughter calls it “Mom’s Bumbling time” I bumbled so long this morning that my husband had to wait for us and daughter almost didn’t get breakfast. Husband and went for walk around parking lot and decided to get a rock souvenir from rock landscape. We have hot water radiators at home and I had a top made and filled it with gravel to use for plants. I have been replacing it with all the interesting rocks we have (and shells) and similar items so that’s where it will go when we get home. We made several stops on the way home for daughter to do errands. I observed the landscaping in all the parking lots because we were to trim bushes so the house looks good for sale. Daughter wants to cut things down. I want to trim. Fortunately, I get support from a friend who is helping. Together we create something pretty – even though she cut down half the tree we were going to save! I have a hard time keeping my hat on – need to be careful about getting too much sun because of the meds. The four year son of a friend is helping – and he is a help as long as you remember to tell him to keep picking up the trimmed branches. Didn’t understand what I wanted when I asked him to clean the grass from my sandals. Just as well as my sandals are falling apart! Hope they last until we get back home – only brought one pair. And I get my nap in – I claim it is the medicine, but I have missed my afternoon nap for 42 years since my oldest child stopped taking naps! Then we go to meet more of daughter’s friends. I order chicken wings and make a big mess. I decide it is not worth while to keep cleaning up and pretty soon everyone has asked the waitress for more napkins for me! At home, I am too tired to help gracefully as husband tries little home repairs, but he doesn’t get upset and we manage to get it done. I take a shower and manage to close my eyes enough so that I don’t get soap into them – I don’t get dizzy but I don’t like closing my eyes so I always come out of the shower with red eyes from the shampoo. All my clothes have drips of coffee or sauce on them, it seems like, but I finally find one outfit that I can wear tomorrow. Then, I find out where the spackle is to fill nail holes for mid night wake up. And so to bed where I stab husband because I have forgotten to take off glasses. Got lots done today and met lots of people and I don’t think I am a good comedy writer, but there were lots of silly moments.
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