Genuine laughter cannot be forced.  It bubbles spontaneous from the heart in response to delight or pleasure.

Laughter has many expressions, from a breathy chuckle to a full out guffaw, with many variations in between.  When forced and awkward it is really laughter in disguise. 

But the purest of all laughter echoes a deep rooted joy in the Lord. 

Though genuine laughter happens spontaneously, it doesn’t always come easy.  Let’s face it, Jesus’ words, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33), resonates true for all of us.  We observe brokenness in the world, and we know all too well the brokenness of our own souls, relationships, and lives. 

When our hearts weigh heavy with pain and suffering, laughter seems foreign, impossible.  Then it’s a tremendous exertion of energy to just lift our voices.  Laughter stands in stark contrast to the weight of our hearts. 

Enter the Proverbs 31 woman.  She is a remarkable specimen of a Godly soul who looks like she has everything together.  And she does!  For she is an authentic woman of faith and wisdom! 

She is noble in character and consistently presents herself as trustworthy and good.  She is a faithful caretaker of family, home, and businesses.  This woman is strong and industrious, and works with eagerness, vigor, and diligence from early morning to late at night.  She is quick to encourage and care for the poor and needy.  No fault can be found in her. 

Her impeccable character and accomplishments can feel rather deflating. What woman can possibly keep up with her? 

Early in our relationship, my husband and I enjoyed attending summer conferences hosted by the Institute of Christian Studies, a graduate school of philosophical thought in Toronto.  Both of us were raised in Dutch immigrant communities, from which many attended the conference.  During one workshop, the speaker made mention of the Proverbs 31 woman.  From the crowd a woman blurted, “Dat nare mens,” followed by ripples of laughter.  Her words literally meant, “That nasty person,” and reflected irritation at someone who is overly praised and impossible to compare with. 

Does this not reflect how we can feel in comparison to the Proverbs 31 woman?

Yet, it is the woman’s spiritual qualities that make her shine the brightest.  She is a woman who fears the Lord with unshakable confidence and faith.  Her life is not marked by anxiety and fear, but by strength and dignity.  Her identity is deeply rooted in the God she loves and serves.  And so, she can speak with wisdom and give faithful instruction to others, because her life rests solidly on the truth and goodness of her Lord. 

And she can laugh; genuinely laugh!  Not because her life is all settled and put together well, though it certainly appears to be.  Rather, she “can laugh at the days to come” (:25) because she has the confident assurance that she is not walking her days alone. 

She knows whom she believes in and is convinced of (II Timothy 1:12).  Therefore, she is able to firmly take her stand “strong in the Lord and in his mighty power,” adorned in the full armor of God (Ephesians 6: 10-18) for each new day.

It’s not easy to laugh when troubles press in.  I know!  I’ve been through repeated seasons of pain and loss, where laughter felt foreign and distant. 

We cannot expect to laugh lightheartedly during struggles and grief.  Yet, our joy does not depend upon our circumstances. 

Joy is rooted in our identity in Father God, in who we are as chosen sons and daughters of the Most High King.   We are His, and nothing or no one can snatch us from His grip.  That truth alone is worth a ripple of holy laughter.

The Proverbs 31 woman laughs forward.  She looks at the future, regardless of the brokenness she faces, and knows her Lord is there.  In the midst of the struggles of life, she fights for joy. 

She sings with David, “Surely I have a delightful inheritance….I have set the LORD always before me.  Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken….You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” (Psalm 16: 6, 8, 11)

This is the woman we can strive to be; the one who lives with joy deeply rooted in the presence and power and love of her Lord, the one who is filled by Him “with an inexpressible and glorious joy.” (I Peter 1:8)

 This is how we can choose to live, how we can trust, and how we can laugh forward every day right into eternity.

Fall is not my favorite season, though it’s recently grown on me.  Instead, I relish the first signs of spring, of tracking the morph of new buds and leaf pods into maturation.  Every year they’ve escaped my vigilant observation, then suddenly display their glory of life unfurled. But fall is the opposite.  It hints of hibernation and the process of life shutting down.

My father died in fall.  The news of his fatal illness happened on the very day my husband and I were informed of our infertility.  Life paralyzed with this double blow.  The soul racking sobs were relentless. I struggled just to breathe.  Death permeated my past and future. 

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It was a full-fledged ‘tyranny of the urgent’ kind of morning at the ripe hour of 7am as husband and son rush out the door for work and school.  Once again, the car keys have gone missing.  Car key, actually, since the set of keys has been mysteriously MIA for the past six weeks.  This morning the spare key could not be found.  These things just seem to happen in our home…..not regularly, but enough to make you question just how the synapses of our brains keep misfiring into forgetfulness.  Thankfully, this was not my doing – this time.  A few months back my keys pulled a random vanishing act on me.  It was a complete mystery….until I found them in the pocket of a pair of capris weeks later.  A tad embarrassing!

The three of us kicked into high gear searching all the obvious places that the key could have been placed.  We retraced Frank’s steps of activities after arriving home from church yesterday.  We checked pants pockets and table tops.  Nothing!  So, the obvious decision was for them to leave with my van for the day.  They rushed out the door, my husband forgetting both coffee and lunch.  Yah, it was that kind of morning! Continue reading →

Oh, my heart is heavy today.  We had a rough night last night, my daughter and I.  She came to visit us to drop off her “furballs” for the weekend while she travels to the mountains for a business retreat.  One furball is her love pup, a twelve pound Morkie, the other a black lab she rescued from a gas station in a state of near starvation.  Together they make an E triangle: Erica, Emma, and Esme.

Erica’s dogs love to roam and play on our acreage when they visit; a more spacious environment than their apartment dwelling. We also have two dogs, and the four of them typically roam and play well together.

No sooner had my daughter entered the house when we heard dog chaos outdoors.  We ran outside into the growing dusk to find that the rescue dog we had taken in a few months earlier was attacking Erica’s Morkie.  It was a chaotic scene!  Her black lab cowering behind the porch railing in fear; our brown lab playing protector of the Morkie and trying to wrestle the rescue dog; the attacker clamping her jaws down hard on little Emma and refusing to let go.  It was hard to even see Emma in the chaotic scene, but her piercing screams cut to the heart.  It was a horrid human / canine battle.  In the end, sweet Emma lay on the porch in a puddle of blood as the attack dog was dragged off to secure lockdown. Continue reading →