The Healing Power of Laughter
By Scott Harrup | March 8, 2010
Bill Mauldin, the iconic World War II cartoonist, is being honored with a U.S. postage stamp. I think that’s great news. So does CNN contributor Bob Greene. You can read about the stamp and Greene’s tribute to Mauldin here.
Mauldin shares the stamp with his two best-known creations, Willie and Joe. Mauldin used the bearded, bag-eyed infantrymen to voice the pain and disillusionment their real-life counterparts experienced on the battlefields of the European theater. His cartoon captions spoke volumes in just a sentence or two, and his readers treasured each installment as a brief, humorous respite from their unbearable reality.
The gift of laughter — there’s no better medicine for the soul. When I get overloaded with life’s “stuff,” I turn to a trusted humor columnist, cartoonist or comedy movie/television series to find relief. It’s true; there is plenty of unwholesome humor to avoid. But there is also a wealth of laudable laugh lines to enjoy. Charles Schulz’s Peanuts immediately comes to mind. I’m sure you have your own favorites.
When I say that laughter is a gift, I firmly believe the Giver is divine. One of the greatest biblical references to laughter is found in Genesis. When Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the son of promise, she said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6, NIV). Isaac’s name is translated in various ways, but all the translations point back to laughter. So, near the very beginning of God’s story of redemption, a guy named Laughter takes center stage.
What are you going through today? Is it a financial burden, a health challenge, a relationship debacle or a job headache? Find a reason to laugh, even if the source is someone else’s humorous take on life. A chuckle won’t make the problem go away, but as you infuse your situation with joy you will find renewed strength to push through your day.
Who knows, someone might see you laughing and find some encouragement too.
Topics: History, Bible | No Comments »
Questions
By Scott Harrup | February 26, 2010
It’s a very quiet day at the Pentecostal Evangel offices. Fridays usually are. It gives me a chance to fill in the holes from the past week and give some thought to next Monday.
A glance at my bulletin board falls on Matt Key’s picture that has hung on my wall for nearly a year and a half now. Hard to believe Matt’s been in heaven that long. We lost him to a boating accident in 2008. I couldn’t tell you how many pages of the Evangel that Matt designed during his time with us as art director, but each one had a way of creatively connecting our readers with eternal truth.
These days Matt enjoys an up-close-and-personal perspective on eternal truth I can only yearn for right now. The painful questions we earthbound folk encounter (like Matt’s untimely loss, or the suicide of a friend’s husband I learned about this week), finally reveal their answers in God’s presence.
I’ve heard the expression, “When I get to heaven, I’ve got a question or two for God!” Often, it’s voiced with a measure of pain. Perhaps even a twinge of anger. Honestly, I don’t think I’ll have any questions. I believe the answers will become self-evident without any prodding on my part. Just being in God’s presence and receiving a renewed mind without the grievous limitations I have today should do the trick.
There’s an interesting passage in Malachi as the Old Testament is wrapping up. Malachi 3 speaks of the end times and God’s final judgment. Malachi 3:16,17 offers this picture:
“Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. ‘They will be mine,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him’ ” (NIV).
I don’t know what this righteous multitude talks about, or what is written on the scroll of remembrance. But I wonder if it has to do with some of those tough questions from here and now. Perhaps that scroll puts everything into final perspective as God invites His children into eternal fellowship with himself and they forever become His “treasured possession.”
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Truth Bounce
By Scott Harrup | February 13, 2010
When I was a kid, I got a double dose of the Olympics within a competition year and then waited nearly four years for the next set of games. These days, with the summer/winter split, it’s either an Olympics year or I’m looking forward to the Olympics next year.
Seems like yesterday I was watching the Beijing Games (and blogging about it with “Everyday Olympians”). Blam! Last night our family was again enjoying the amazing spectacle of the opening ceremonies. The Vancouver Games did not disappoint.
On a “shoestring” budget of $30 million (compared to the $300 million-plus spent on the Beijing opening extravaganza), Executive Producer David Atkins offered his worldwide audience a virtual tour of Canada’s history, geography, people and myths. It was breathtaking.
But amid the large-scale movement of singers, dancers, lights and visual effects, I found one of the most personally moving elements near the end with k.d. lang’s rendition of “Hallelujah” by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. For me, it was a bittersweet experience.
The song repeats the title word with an emotional energy rivaling Handel’s anthem. But the worldview shared is one of angst and doubt and the uncertainties of love gone wrong. Most sorrowful, at least in my evaluation, is the almost throwaway line “Maybe there’s a God above …”
Maybe?
When I hear “Hallelujah!” I am reminded of God’s supreme power and His grand plan for the universe as well as His compassionate interaction with individual people. To me, “Hallelujah!” is a one-word proclamation of the gospel on both a cosmic and personal scale.
But none of that truth came to life in lang’s heartrending repetition of the word. It was as if the truth of “Hallelujah!” bounced off of her and, perhaps, off of much of her audience. And that sounds a deeply sad note, even in the joyful symphony that birthed the Vancouver Games.
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Three-and-a-Half Hours on Sunday
By Scott Harrup | February 5, 2010
In anticipation of Super Bowl XLIV, National Public Radio yesterday aired an interview with former Baltimore Ravens coach Brian Billick. Fresh Air contributor Dave Davies opened the interview with the following observation.
“It’s hard to think of another job where you work seven days a week… 80, 90, 100 hours a week… sleep in your office… live on coffee and caffeine… and work around the clock. But you’re really judged by what happens in 3½ hours on Sunday.”
Billick agreed with Davies and offered his own perspectives on the challenges of coaching.As I listened, I thought of another job Davies and Billick probably haven’t considered — the ministry. My dad’s retired now, but for years as a pastor he put in major overtime each week before preaching the Sunday morning sermon that became the one point of evaluation for much of his congregation.
(Where Davies’ comparison would not apply to Dad was the caffeine consumption. I drink gallons of coffee; Dad eschews even chocolate.)
Whether you’re standing behind a pulpit or sitting in a pew this Sunday, however, you’re also subject to a certain degree of rapid scrutiny from everyone present. And while we’re all being evaluated, we’re also doing plenty of evaluating on our own.
That’s not always bad. We interpret much of our lives through the viewfinder of a moment. But my takeaway from my little NPR mental journey has me exercising more caution in making snap judgments. And it has me looking at my day-to-day life and determining to keep it consistent with the Sunday-go-to-meeting persona my church family sees.
Topics: Family Life, News | No Comments »
Live Long
By Scott Harrup | January 26, 2010
The cover of the February 2010 special issue of U.S. News and World Report offers to tell you “How to Live to 100.” Visiting cnn.com today, I ran across a video and summary article, both “Uncovering Secrets to a Longer Life” and focusing on centenarians.
A promotional copy of a new book recently sent to the Pentecostal Evangel’s office claimed to show readers how to live to 120 — apparently that author’s estimate of God’s preferred life span for His followers.
You can find practical advice on healthy life choices in each of the above sources. But all three have a common limiting factor — a barely-three-digit number. “You can live to 100 (or 120!) if you’ll do A, B and C.” (In fairness, the book’s author, like me, does not focus exclusively on this life.)
But try to imagine an alternate proposal. “You can live forever if you’ll do A, B and C.”
Just how long is “forever”?
I was blogging about John 3:16 in 2008 (you can read that article here) and cited one writer’s estimate of the molecules in a single teaspoonful of air — 100 billion billion. You could live a century for every one of those molecules and you would still be at the beginning of “forever.” The same holds true if you lived a century for every molecule of air in our planet’s atmosphere, for every molecule in our entire planet, or for every molecule in the observable universe. That’s an unfathomable stack of centuries, and still the beginning of “forever.”
U.S. News wants to tell me how to live a single century. The Bible offers exclusive information on that “forever” life span. I’m not going to ignore good advice on how to make the best use of the years God gives me here and now — but I know which set of facts deserves my closest attention.
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Cold
By Scott Harrup | January 8, 2010
The bottom’s dropped out here in Springfield. Overnight temperatures are dipping below zero, with significant wind chills. Schools have been closed for two days because of the frigid conditions. The snow is sparse, but I felt like my face went glacial as I shoveled the thin layer off my driveway.
It’s all relative. I was filling up the car yesterday at a local convenience store and commented on the cold to the manager. It was 4 degrees. He laughed.
“My wife’s family in Nebraska was dealing with 60-below wind chills before Christmas,” he said. “People around here don’t know what cold is.”
Comparing personal sagas of arctic adventure can be akin to swapping fishing stories about the “one that got away.” There’s an element of one-upmanship as competing snow depths and wind speeds and thermometer readings are swapped from memory. A lot of folks around here still talk about the ice storm of 2007, with each person trying to convince the other that their power was out longer and their survival tactics were more drastic.
Ironically, those January temperatures were practically balmy by comparison, hovering in a dangerous zone where rain could fall with impunity and slowly freeze until the weight of the ice snapped mature oaks like twigs. People began to run out of firewood. You couldn’t buy a candle at Wal-Mart to save your life. Pets began to disappear … (All right, I’m starting to fall into that winter one-upmanship mode again.)
When it gets this cold, I try to imagine what it will be like in just four short months or so when we get our first heat wave. I’ll be cracking the car windows again to dissipate the trapped sunlight. I’ll be walking around in shirt sleeves. I’ll be seeing how high I can nudge the thermostat at home without the family rebelling. (Right now they’re begrudgingly layered in sweatshirts so we don’t have to take out another mortgage with the next utility bill.)
Which all reminds me of one of life’s realities. Our circumstances are as transient as the weather. If your problems seem to be a blizzard, take heart. A warmer season is around the corner. In the mean time, why not entrust the Weatherman with your cares? God shifts entire cold fronts with ease; He is able to direct your steps.
“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7, NIV).
Topics: Bizarre, Family Life, Bible | No Comments »
What’s In a Date?
By Scott Harrup | December 7, 2009
Today many have been thinking back to the events at Pearl Harbor in 1941. President Roosevelt summed up our nation’s horror over the resulting loss of life from Japan’s surprise attack when he called Dec. 7, 1941, “a date which will live in infamy.”
Other dates come to mind when I contemplate humanity’s traded cruelties. Two more recent candidates are April 19, 1995, and September 11, 2001. I was working in this office on an issue of the Pentecostal Evangel in 1995 when our staff heard of the Oklahoma City bombing. I was at a family reunion in Texas when 9/11 occurred. Both days were personally transforming.
What is the purpose behind commemorating such days? It is certainly not to immortalize evil. We focus instead on those heroes who lost their lives, but who continue to inspire us by their example.
The ultimate clash between good and evil will be acknowledged in just a few more days, although most people observing the day won’t realize it.
Whether or not Jesus Christ was born precisely on Dec. 25, Christmas Day commemorates His arrival as a baby in Bethlehem. His birth, as announced by angels to humble shepherds, signified God’s favor and peace toward all mankind (Luke 2:14). Just days later, when Joseph and Mary presented Baby Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem, elderly Simeon reminded the joyful couple that the Child’s mission would be attended by death (Luke 2:29-35). The balance of the Gospels’ narratives portray a Hero’s life that could never be snuffed out by evil. Jesus willingly gave His life in our behalf, then rose in victory from His grave.
The apostle Paul contrasted history’s two most significant dates — the fall of man in Eden and the redemption of man at Calvary — this way:
“For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:17-19, NIV).
For me, today is another reminder that each of us has the opportunity to emulate history’s heroes. And to live for history’s ultimate Hero.
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The Greatest Generation
By Scott Harrup | December 2, 2009
Tom Brokaw’s 1998 best-seller, The Greatest Generation, looked back to the generation of Americans who came through World War II victoriously. The past few weeks I’ve been reading E.B. Sledge’s With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (1980, Presidio Press), a first-person narrative of two WWII Pacific battlefields. Sledge’s title and several passages in his book voice his conviction that the “greatest generation” was comprised of those officers and enlisted men who had come through World War I and were passing on their expertise and words of encouragement to the young Marines with whom Sledge fought.
Brokaw and Sledge, though identifying different generations, share an awareness of a vital truth. The elders in our society deserve respect and have much to offer. It’s a biblical principle. “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:32). “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life” (Proverbs 16:31).
You can learn much from an older relative or friend, if you’ll take the time to receive their wisdom. And the Proverbs passage alludes to another fact. Those senior ladies and gentlemen who have lived faithfully for God have the most to offer.
Sometimes I wonder how much wisdom and experience are locked up in hospitals, retirement complexes and assisted living homes across our country. I believe a lot of our nation’s problems could be addressed far more effectively if my generation and my children’s would more readily accept the counsel of their elders.
Topics: Books and Films, History, Bible | 1 Comment »
‘Premature Birth’
By Scott Harrup | November 6, 2009
National Public Radio broadcast a news story the other day on the impact of premature births on the U.S. infant death rate. A related Associated Press article at npr.org notes that “about 1 in 8 U.S. births are premature” and “the U.S. infant mortality rate is higher than in most European countries.”
Thinking back to the broadcast and reading through the online article, I’m glad to see the concern of medical professionals and government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the health of our nation’s babies. But here’s a disturbing reality.
America still aborts more than 1 million babies a year. According to the Guttmacher Institute, “nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. … In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred.”
What would the U.S. infant mortality rate look like if these numbers were part of the equation?
But that’s just the point. Babies who are blessed to inhabit the wombs of mothers who want to carry them to term have the support of a U.S. medical professional network dedicated to ensuring their survival. Should they not survive, they are considered “babies,” and everyone expresses regret for their deaths. Those babies who are tragically aborted, however, are relegated to the status of “fetus,” and their mortality is not even a footnote in the national infant mortality rate.
The CDC’s Marion MacDorman notes in the AP article above, “Once the baby [emphasis added] is born too early, we do a good job of saving it. What we have trouble with is preventing the preterm birth in the first place.”
All pro-life Americans would agree, there are at least another million “preterm births” each year not even being considered that we’d like to prevent in the first place.
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Ahoy!
By Scott Harrup | November 3, 2009
The world’s largest cruise ship, recently completed at STX Finland shipyard, sailed for Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Sunday. Royal Caribbean International’s Oasis of the Seas is due to begin service Nov. 20.
Oasis, built for $1.5 billion, is five times larger than the Titanic. Its 2,700 cabins can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members. Amenities include a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater, an indoor 1,300-seat theater, four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, an ice rink and a small golf course. Select cabins offer floor-to-ceiling windows.
The ship’s passengers can choose from seven “neighborhoods” with special themes, including a tropical environment of palm trees and vines. Another, “Central Park,” offers restaurants, bars and boutiques.
Will Oasis’ novelty attract sufficient interest in this lagging economy to offset its cost? I’m sure investors hope so.
I’m intrigued by anything claiming to be the “biggest.” How long the record will hold for the 20-story vessel is anyone’s guess. In the mean time, thousands of passengers can set sail on the current record-holder and enjoy bragging rights as they celebrate honeymoons, anniversaries and life itself.
Perhaps you’ll agree with me it’s a little humorous that cruise ships are constructed in such a manner as to make you forget you’re at sea. Looking again at the Oasis’ offerings, I’m thinking I can duplicate practically all of them — minus the ocean view — right here in Springfield, Mo. I mean, if you really want to go shopping, golfing, swimming, ice-skating or to the gym or theater, why pay thousands of dollars to do so in the middle of the Caribbean? And if you’re looking for a Caribbean sunset and endless vistas of crystal blue ocean, why hide from them in a shopping mall or theater?
All the same, I wish the crew and passengers of Oasis of the Seas safe sailing.
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