Humor

Chuck Swindoll asks,

How is your sense of humor? Are the times in which we live beginning to be reflected in your attitude, your face, your outlook? Solomon . . . says three things will occur when we have lost our sense of humor: a broken spirit, a lack of inner healing, and dried-up bones [Proverbs 15:13, 15; 17:22]. What a barren portrait! . . . Humor is not a sin. It is a God-given escape hatch . . . a safety valve. Being able to see the lighter side of life is a rare, vital virtue.¹

A refreshing sense of humor is never distasteful, ill-timed, or tactless. Instead, it lightens our spirits and energizes our thoughts. It helps us step back and not take this fleeting life quite so seriously.

“Three tests of good humor: Can you laugh at your own mistakes? Can you restrain when it isn’t fitting? Can you enjoy it all alone?”² If you can’t yet answer yes to these questions, we invite you to enjoy these resources. You may feel your strained muscles relax as your troubled thoughts are chased away by good old-fashioned laughter.

1. Charles R. Swindoll, The Finishing Touch: Becoming God’s Masterpiece (Dallas: Word, 1994), 220.
2. Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrations & Quotes (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998), 283.