Comedian Jerry Clower told a story about old Uncle Versie Ledbetter. Uncle Versie had a mule named Della. One day Della fell in a cistern that Uncle Versie thought he had covered up, but hadn’t. A cistern is a big hole for catching rainwater. Old Della stumbled and fell down in that thing about thirty feet.
That was his best mule and Uncle Versie had no way to get the mule out of there. He didn’t want her to starve to death, so he decided he would get a shovel and cover her up. It would be cruel, but it wouldn’t be as cruel and inhumane as to let Della starve to death in the bottom of that deep cistern. Uncle Versie took a shovelful of dirt and threw it down into the cistern. Every time a shovelful of dirt hit old Della’s back, she’d shake the dirt off and stomp it.
It wasn’t long before Della had shaken off enough dirt and stomped it so she was high enough to step out of the cistern.
Could it be that you could actually work your way out of the pit you’re in by shaking this dirt off and stomping it? Everybody has problems. You can either let them bury you, or, like Old Della, you can trample them under your feet until you rise above them.
Tags: humor, overcomer, trials, trouble
When our church was located at the smaller building on Washington Street, I was outside shoveling the walks one winter morning. That was back when my back could do that. An eccentric older man walked up to me and struck up a conversation. He was looking for some assistance and didn’t recognize that I was the pastor of the church.
We were both bundled up for winter weather. He was wearing a fur cap tied under his chin with white elastic with blue and yellow trim from an old pair of fruit of the looms. I was trying to treat him respectfully but had a hard time not breaking out in laughter. The more he talked the more my mind kept thinking about that white waistband.
He started attending the church and became a regular member for many years. We gave him assistance in many ways over the years and he became a regular ministry target. And, I have to admit, he provided many laughs with his eccentric behavior. I think God sometimes sends comedy-relief people into the church just to see how we’ll treat them.
Has God placed a comedy-relief person into your life? How are you treating them?
Tags: eccentric, humor
Everyone loves to laugh. Really funny comedians are hard to come by. Most of the jokes they use are so canned they’re really not funny. And, up until recently, comedy in church was an absolute no-no. Christians considered God too serious a subject to take lightly. Its more godly to fight than laugh.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld stepped into this cultural stigma and made it big. He once said that the downfall of every comedian was success. Success makes you hide behind ivory gates, he said, and separates comedians from the real world real people live in. His advice to comedians is that they must remain connected to the everyday world to find humor in their own lives.
Could it be that the same is true of Christians? Are we hiding behind ivory gates (stained glass windows)? Are we so separated from the world around us that we can no longer understand its pain and have lost the ability to speak truth into lost lives? That would not be a laughing matter.
Tags: hiding, humor, laughter, Seinfeld, success
Things have changed over the years. Back in the 1950s there was an active alley-way behind every house in Butler. A man named Goofy (that was actually what everyone called him) Bowers came down the alley with a team of horses and a wagon to pick up garbage and haul it to the city dump on the edge of town. Obviously, these were before the days of plastic garbage bags, and the wagon smelled horrific.
These days we have those sanitized garbage bags, and, unfortunately, sanitation labor strikes. During one of those strikes in a major US city, bags of garbage mounted up in alleys and along curbsides during the Christmas season, sending a stench into the air which quickly became unbearable. Tempers flared and news conferences were quickly called by city officials in an attempt to squelch the tempers and reach a solution.
One fellow was an entrepreneur, however.
He boxed his garbage, wrapped it in Christmas paper, sat it on the front porch, and then chuckled as thieves quietly mounted his porch in the darkness and stole all his garbage. He got rid of the stench.
Sin is like rotting garbage: get rid of it!
Tags: Christmas, garbage, humor, sin
Years ago I officiated at a wedding in our church. The bridal couple each had about five attendants stand up with them. About half way through the wedding ceremony there was a commotion as the largest guy in the wedding party passed out and fell to the floor. Although everyone gasped, we just left him there and continued on. He later awoke, thoroughly embarrassed, and rejoined us before the recessional began. He really got ribbed over that.
Several years later he was again standing up with another couple in that same family, when I was officiating in a different church, and he did the same thing! Flat on his back. Since this was the same family, everyone just smiled and let him lay there. They were anticipating it this time.
I smile every time I think about it. Why is it always the big guys that fall down? Perhaps there’s a spiritual lesson in that story. If there is a lesson, what would it be?
Tags: fall down, humor, wedding
Two construction workers sat down at noon to eat. One opened his lunch box and began to scream angrily, “Baloney again! I can’t believe it! I hate baloney! This is the third time this week that I’ve had baloney. I can’t stand baloney!”
His friend tried to settle him down, “Take it easy. Why don’t you just tell your wife that you don’t like baloney. Ask her to make something different.”
“Wife?” replied the first, “I make my own lunches.”
Much of our misery we bring upon ourselves. Perhaps there’s an area of your life that makes you angry. Could you be your own worst enemy?
Tags: anger, blame, humor
Reporter Chuck Shepherd of United Press Syndicate, reported, “In San Antonio, a man was sentenced to ten years’ probation for a bungled burglary of a liquor store. The burglar had cut his hand badly when he broke through the roof of the store. He tried to throw a bottle of whiskey out through the hole he had created but missed, causing the bottle to fall to the floor, shatter and set off an alarm. He then fell onto the broken glass, cutting himself again. Reaching the roof for his getaway, he fell off, leaving his wallet on the sidewalk. He also left a trail of blood from the store to his home, just around the corner.”
I wonder if the angels in heaven were laughing like that at me before I came to Christ. It seems that everything I did led to one more defeat in my life, just like the man above. While I was crying, perhaps they were having a good laugh. Do you think the angels might be laughing at your set of choices, or rejoicing because of the right choice you made with Jesus? Think about this today.
Tags: humor, laughter, sin