The Laughter Plan Sample

When Life is Far from Funny

Erma Bombeck once said, “There is a fine line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, and humor and hope.” There’s a lot of truth in that statement. A great day can quickly go south with a single phone call, a letter, a rude clerk, and a host of other things that assault our upbeat attitudes.

But what about when the situation is even more serious? What about when it’s more than the day-to-day aggravations that are bringing us down? What about when you or someone you love is facing a life-threatening health crisis? Or you lose your job? What happens when the news you receive turns your whole life upside down—when you don’t see any hope in the situation, much less humor? What do you do when what you wanted to happen didn’t happen, and what you didn’t want to happen, did? What do you do when life is far from funny?

I’ve worked around a lot of comedians, and I’ve seen some of them go through some major life challenges. Somehow, they were still able to walk out onto that stage and find something to make their audience (and themselves) laugh. 

Rick Burgess of the Rick and Bubba radio program lost his two-year-old son, and somehow he was able to deliver a moving, powerful message at his son’s funeral. Were there tears? Definitely. But there was also laughter. 

Chonda Pierce lost two of her sisters within weeks of each other. But as difficult as those tragedies were, they propelled her into a life in comedy.

Comedian Derrick Tennant had a random brain bleed while he in his teens that left him in a coma for three days, and then he underwent brain surgery that left him paralyzed on his left side. Already blessed with a humorous outlook on life, he became a comedian, and today he talks about his experience in his stand-up act.

The first magazine article I ever wrote was about my full-term stillbirth. Later, I wrote about another son’s heart surgeries. Those challenges drove me into a professional comedy writing career.

But even with laughter, the challenges have kept coming. In March of this year, our seventeen-year-old grandson was diagnosed with kidney disease, and within only five months he had complete renal failure. He is now on dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant, but through it all, his attitude has been amazing. He doesn’t complain, and he’s hardly ever seen without a smile on his face. He watches comedy videos, loves to laugh, and has a firm belief that God is going to use this experience in some way to help others. 

Living a laughter-filled life doesn’t mean we won’t ever feel pain or sorrow. Unfortunately, both are parts of life. We will all face some kind of difficulty that we will have to get through. Laughter is a tool that helps us do that (Psalm 28:7). Laughter can get our minds off our situations—at least for a respite, and many times it can even improve it.

So don’t pass over those Bible verses about laughter and joy, thinking they’re lightweight or unimportant. When you go through hard times, dark times, and times when you wonder if you’ll ever smile again, every Scripture about joy matters (Psalm 30:11). These verses are like a lifejacket being thrown out to you, helping you hang on just a little while longer. In other words, when life is at its least funny, that’s when we need to laugh the most.