Our church in Ohio had a softball team. I played first base. Not necessarily well, but I played first base. One day one of our young ladies brought a friend with her to the game, a woman she worked with. As the game moved along, I was my usual self, laughing and joking with people, cutting up with the other team being kind of goofy. At one point the visitor turned to our young lady and said, “It’s a good thing your pastor isn’t here. He wouldn’t like the first baseman being silly like that.” Our lady burst out laughing. “He is our pastor!” The woman couldn’t believe it. Her pastor never smiled or told a joke. How could this guy be a pastor? When we came in from the field she walked up to me. “Sir, what do you do for a living?” She didn’t believe her friend. In her experience, pastors were not people who enjoyed life.

          It reminded me of a story I once read. A stern, old Congregational minister was working over his congregation one Sunday morning. His topic was frivolity among the faithful. As he warmed up to his topic he read the New Testament passages that record Jesus weeping.

          “Now you see,” the powerful older man thundered. “The work of God is so serious that we see several examples of Jesus weeping, but there is never a single example of our Lord smiling. Not once did He ever smile.” The great preacher stopped and let his stern eyes scan the crowd in a dramatic way, seemingly daring anyone to disagree. He did not have long to wait. A small child sitting next to her mother in the third pew said to her mother, “Yes, He did smile, Mama.”

          The preacher heard the little girl. Leaning far over the pulpit he glared at her until she began to squirm. Then he sought to make her an example to the rest of the people.

          “Well, child, you seem to disagree. What portion of Scripture do you base your theological position on, if I may ask?” He kept his eyes on the girl, and the great church fell silent.

          In a small, quavering voice the child said, “Well, sir, the Bible says a child came to Jesus. If Jesus were as serious as you, the child would have been too scared to go to Him!”

          Humor most definitely has a place in ministry. In fact, with all the tragedy and suffering in the world, humor is sometimes the only way to hang on. Which is not to say it is one big laugh riot. It is not. There is much to be serious about. But, sometimes you just have to laugh.

          On a typical hot summer day in Ohio I was pumping gas at the local convenience type store when I noticed in the corner of the parking lot a lady and two teenagers, a boy and a girl that were probably her children, standing around a car staring solemnly at a flat tire on the front of the car. I went in to pay for my gas and when I came out they had gotten the spare tire out, but they were still standing around staring at the flat tire looking as if they had just discovered an alien spacecraft. I drove my car away from the pumps and parked it an went over and asked if they needed help just as the boy turned and headed for the store. The woman said yes, they did need help, so I set about changing their tire.

          Now understand the situation; As usual, I was in a hurry to get somewhere, but I couldn't very well leave these people in the lurch. After all, it was hot and they were going somewhere, too. The kids were high school age and school had another week, so I was thinking they should be in school, but perhaps they had a doctor's appointment or some such errand. I was in a suit and really did not want to get sweaty, but this was something I could do fairly quickly and still get to where I had to go on time. Changing a tire for someone is something I have done many times.

          Just as I was getting the lug nuts off the old tire the boy returned and began speaking in a very agitated manner to the lady. "No luck! They wouldn't even let me have just a little! We have to get going right now! I...I...I'm telling you, I just can't wait anymore!" Being human, I became interested. What was it this teenager needed so badly? If he needed it so badly, why didn't the folks in the store help him out? The woman said, "I think you can make it. This guy is just about done with the tire. We can leave in a few minutes." The words did not seem to assure the boy and he began to pace.

          By this time, I had wrestled the old tire off and was in the process of lifting the spare up to the hub and trying to line up the lugs with the holes. The boy squatted next to me and filled me in on his dilemma. "You know what? If I had another dollar I could buy a whole pack of cigarettes! I tried to get them to give me part of pack in the store but those %^&$#& wouldn't break up a pack!" He looked at me with a hopeful look, obviously thinking that after hearing such a sad story I might just reach into my pocket and give him a dollar. I just stared at him for a second. It crossed my mind to hand him the spare and get in my car and drive away, but I really couldn't bring myself to do such a thing. So, I just went ahead with what I was doing. He stood up and went over to his sister and began to complain about me. The woman just laughed and shook her head. It made me think that if that situation had occurred when I was a teenager and I had said that to someone kind enough to change my mother's tire, my mom would have straightened me right out. Then, when we would have gotten home and she had told my dad, he would have bent the tire iron over my head (not really, but you understand what I mean). And I would have deserved it.

          The point, I suppose, is this; you can let things bother you, or you can roll with the punches and see the humor in it all. Jesus did. If you read Scripture you can see a lot of humor. Bring some into your life.