- Jean Houston

Tonight I had the honor of laughing with my friends. You have to understand that this is a pretty big deal for me. In college and in high school, I was surrounded by people who laughed with me. My friend Joe and I would get rolling for what seemed like hours... over almost literally nothing. A nonsensical remark or a spontaneous burst into song (which I've dubbed "musical terrets... but that's for another post) would have us in fits of laughter that was fit for kings. We felt like nothing could harm us when we were in that state... completely lost in the moment, forgetting the realities of life for a few minutes.

Laughter is an interesting thing to study. Just a little research introduces us to all new realms of reality.

"Laughter is an instant vacation." - Milton Berle

Laughter is a physical effect of the body's chemicals being released to the brain. When you are laughing, your heart rate speeds up, your blood pressure rises, your breathing accelerates and there is an increase of oxygen exchange. Studies have shown that laughing is simliar to a short aerobic workout.

Laughter exercises muscles throughout your body - the muslces of your face, shoulders, diaphragm, abdomen, leg and arm muscles. When a fit of laughter ends, these muscles relax. Laughter can leave you with a sense of euphoria, which is caused by the release of endorphins - the body's natural opiate. Endorphins regulate pain and hunger and are connected to the production of sex hormones. Laughter widens the blood vessels, suppreses the production of stress hormones and raises antibody levels in the blood, and it acts as a painkiller.

Deeper studies have shown that laughter signals a release from whatever was on your mind... even pain! 10 minutes of belly-laughter can be equal to hours of sleep - it nourishes the nerve endings in your brain and youthens them, just like sleep does.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." - Victor Borge

Laughter brings people together... it helps us establish trust together. We bond over laughter and feel connected on a deeper level. I believe this is our souls mingling. If we are created in God's image, and laughter is such an essential part of our diet, then it must connect back to our Creator somehow.

This week I want to begin dissecting what I believe. I want to talk about why I feel a need to ask questions and where we find truth. I want to look at the writings of N.T. Wright, of Abraham Joshua Heschel and my favorite pastor, Rob Bell. I want to start connecting some of my personal unconnected dots, bathe it in scripture and history and science and culture.

But I want to start by looking at our souls... pain, confusion, joy, anger, hope... and I want to start with laughter.

This post isn't really about the theology of laughter... it's about community. In high school and college I was surrounded by people who loved on me and let me be me. I had about four people in high school and seven or eight people in college who I considered my best friends. I've written about that before, and don't intend to delve back into a long post about friendships.

When I moved to Evanston, Illinois after school, I wasn't prepared for the effect of not being in a community.

A few things happened... first, I fell. Hard. I still loved the Lord, but I was slipping deeper and deeper into old habits and choices, and feeling very little remorse or conviction. At the same time, I was very very lonely. Like depressed lonely. I remember November 13, 2003 like it was yesterday. November 13 is my birthday and many of my friends knew I was lonely, yet no one called. No one. Well, my parents called of course, because that's what they do (more on that some other time) and without them I don't know how I would've made it through that day. I remember around 7pm when I realized that no one was calling, no one was knocking on my door, I decided to order a pizza and spend my birthday watching mind-numbing television. It was, and I don't say this to sound over-dramatic, the worst day of my life.

I don't know if it was the realization that my friends from my past were now gone (although they slowly came back into my life) or the throbbing pain of not having a single friend in Chicago, a city of almost 3,000,000 people, but it was that night that I recommitted myself to Christ. Sometimes I think He orchestrated the whole thing, although I'd like to think He's simply sovereign and used the dark to create light. I decided it was time to get serious about finding a church and finding a community.

Except that process took another two months. I won't go into the details of the journey, but there were points where I was close to giving up hope.

It strikes me now that I've been through much worse ordeals. I've seen death and addiction and attempted suicides and damaging relationships and living day to day not knowing if I'd have enough money to eat, but being too proud to ask for help... but it was the experience of not having anyone in my life that trumps those in spades.

I need people. I need people to confide in, to be spontaneous and silly with, to share music and poetry and frustration and celebration with. I need people with whom I can laugh, just so I can keep everything in perspective.

Sometimes I think that hell is like this... it's the worst day of your life, captured on TIVO and given "never delete" status and played on repeat over and over and over and over again. The day that everything is crashing down around you. It is the day you are devoid of hope. Except there's no one to stop by or give you a call to make you smile. There's no one to cry with. There's no one to talk to... there's not even TV to help you escape. I'm not a big fire and brimstone guy... I don't enjoy the "turn or burn" way of talking about Jesus. You'll rarely hear me ask "do you know where your going when you die?" But the possibility that the depiction of eternal life in the Bible is true... well that's a pretty rock solid reason to think about what you believe and begin or continue your search for truth.

Laughter brings us together. It bonds us. We learn to trust each other and we discover idiosyncrasies that endear us to each other. I once knew a woman who I was instantly head over heels for simply because she had the greatest laugh in the history of laughs.

It relieves tension and connects us to our inner four-year-old.

I'd like to think that John, with all his quirks, was howlingly funny. The kind of guy that everyone wanted to be around (I mean, who else would have the gall to point out not once, but multiple times that he was a faster runner than Peter and take notice that after rising from the dead, Jesus apparently honored his mother's wishes and cleaned his room?). And that when the disciples gathered, there was reverence and there was heartfelt conversation, but there were also bouts of laughter that made people's stomachs hurt.

There were two things I missed most during the fall of 2003... really good hugs and laughing.

We are called into community, and it is in community that I find my deepest inspiration and joy. It is where I arrive at my most profound personal revelations and work out my faith in powerful ways. I find hope and compassion. When I tell someone all my deepest darkest and at the end of the conversation they aren't running for the door but looking at me like... "Is that it?” it is one of the most sacred experiences life can offer. Knowing someone else knows how you feel, knowing there are people who will go out of their way to help you out in times where you are overwhelmed, knowing that you aren't alone.

There are people, people I know, who don't really have any friends. I used to think it was most important to nourish the closest friendships in our life, as I am more or less incapable of investing in more than a couple handfuls of people at any given time... but now I think it is our calling to be a friend to the friendless.

Perhaps you know someone who could use a friend. Don't assume that someone else is going to call them or hang out with them or ask them how their day was. Love God, love yourself and love everyone else. That's it. That's the message. It's profoundly simple.

Labels: Favorites, Jesus