Laughing With God
by Ted Slater on 07/07/2009 at 1:03 PM
A few days ago Joshua Harris blogged about Regina Spektor's song, "Laughing With."
I had to leave the following comment:
I like what Stephen Capps wrote: "I think her assessment of the human tendency toward frivolity concerning serious/spiritual matters contrasted with the serious nature of a deity are both pretty spot on."
I've been interested in God and laughter for years, even wrote my master's thesis on it (which you can find online if you google for it). Among the many things I learned:
1) Laughter can be redemptive. It can help us humbly acknowledge our fallenness, and our need for help getting back up.
2) Laughter points us toward the incongruity of God's love toward us. And the unfathomable incongruity of the cross of Christ: terrible/beautiful, shameful/glorious, wrath/love, judgment/mercy, weakness/power, foolishness/wisdom, death/life. I think it's OK to revel in the mystery of the cross, to experience a kind of levity as we're provoked to wonder and awe and appreciation.
3) Laughter can be either virtuous or vicious, depending on whether its characterized by a humble heart or a prideful heart. Laughing at the folly of our sin, and repenting from it, is good. Laughing off what God's law says about our sin, mocking it, isn't good.
4) That we laugh tells me that God values freedom and glory, and that His ways are beyond our ways. And that's fine.
Laughter fascinates me. Scripture speaks of human laughter, of animal laughter, of God's laughter. Yeah, laughter. It's a funny thing.
Back to the title. I do think it's a good idea to laugh with God. To join in His derision of our sin, to enjoy the works of His hands, to embrace the solemn levity of the cross.
1. BDB said the following at 1:30 PM on Jul 7:
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My pastor has a pencil drawing in his office of Jesus Laughing.
2. Dan Gill said the following at 2:03 PM on Jul 7:
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Laughter is good, in and of itself. I can easily imagine God laughing at us as we scurry about here on the earth. The song, I have to say, is terrible. Frankly, the lyrics, while they are about a powerful idea, fail as lyrics. They are better as prose than they are as lyric poetry. YMMV.
3. obewan said the following at 2:25 PM on Jul 7:
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All I have to do to convince myself that God has a sense of humor is take a look at some of the crazy animals he created.
4. Brooke said the following at 2:51 PM on Jul 7:
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it was funny to have my musically clueless best friend tell me about a song she heard on Letterman by a girl named Regina Spektor about laughing at God. I've been listening to Regina for years and love most of her music - this recent album and that song is no exception. I think people listen to the song and I don't know if they get "it". I also love how she talks about praying to God a certain way like He's Santa Claus. amazing insight - her jewish heritage is evident in that track.
5. Josh M said the following at 2:55 PM on Jul 7:
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All I have to do to convince myself that God has a sense of humor is take a look at some of the crazy animals he created.
So far my favorite "crazy creation" is the Lancet Liver Fluke. I first read about its Life Cycle three years ago and it still makes me laugh.
6. mary kate said the following at 2:58 PM on Jul 7:
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loosely related... my friends and i had a conversation the other night about sacrificing sacredness at the altar of laughter instead of the other way around.
7. Jo said the following at 4:20 PM on Jul 7:
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Mmm, I hadn't heard that before but I quite like Regina. Dan Gill, I know what you mean about her lyrics fitting better as prose but I think that's the point, she has a very conversational raw style that jars to begin with but it does grow on you, or at least it did on me. Sometimes the more poetic lyrics hide a lot or pretty things up, so I think there's something to be said for the direct say-what-you-mean style that Regina uses.
I think God laughs a lot. I'm not sure about him laughing at our sin though Ted (is that what you meant in the last paragraph?) - though I can imagine him kindly laughing at our silliness like parents do with little kids...
8. Charlotte said the following at 5:11 PM on Jul 7:
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@Josh M #5
Oh. My. Word. Wow. That's like freaky and gross and amazingly clever all at once.... the fluke taps into the ant's nervous system and takes control?! Makes me think of Stargate or the like with unseen aliens taking over human bodies..... oooooo roflol!
9. Kathryn from Australia said the following at 5:45 PM on Jul 7:
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I love Regina Spektor and I love this song. Streamed it from her myspace page until I could finally buy her album. She's quirky and insightful.
10. Marie said the following at 5:45 PM on Jul 7:
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@Charlotte: if you think THAT'S freaky, check out the wikipedia article about the the protozoan that causes toxoplasmosis- the parasite needs a cat for part of its life cycle, so when a rodent is infected, the parasite causes the rat or mouse to SEEK OUT A CAT. The cat, of course, eats the rodent and the parasite achieves its goal of getting into a cat's guts. God's world is an interesting place, isn't it?
11. Mike said the following at 9:50 PM on Jul 7:
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All I have to do to convince myself that God has a sense of humor is take a look at some of the crazy animals he created.
You mean like humans?
:-)
12. CT said the following at 11:36 PM on Jul 7:
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Laughter is good, and so are games. I think it'd be a lot of fun to laugh with God while playing Scrabble with Him. Is that o.k.?
13. Peter Chase said the following at 12:19 AM on Jul 8:
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Yes, God is real prankster. Check out His
Candiru fish of Brazil.
14. khalil said the following at 3:39 AM on Jul 8:
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Spektor often taps into religious themes in her songs, so it isn't a surprise that her new single does as well.
15. Mike said the following at 12:51 PM on Jul 8:
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Peter Chase (#13) wrote:
Yes, God is real prankster. Check out His Candiru fish of Brazil.
I really didn't need to see that...
8-O
16. K.L. said the following at 12:16 AM on Jul 9:
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Obewan (#3):
If you wanna talk about crazy animals, Google "leafy sea dragon." They look like seahorses, but weirder. lol