First printed in August, 2001

Not everyone appreciates my sense of humor. In fact, there are some people who wouldn’t believe that I have one! And I admit, sometimes a person has to get to know me fairly well to realize that there is a twinkle in my eye as I make some deadpan comment. If I’m around people who I know don’t know me that well, I have to try to make my humor very obvious. And this has always seemed to be the case. Most of the people that I went to high school with would have told you that I was deathly serious about everything that I did. Indeed I was told at one time that the prettiest girl on our bus (who later became the homecoming queen the year after I graduated) had made the comment, “You know, Luebbert wouldn’t be so bad if he just wasn’t so serious all of the time.”

Now I have to admit that I did, and do, take a lot of things in life pretty seriously, but that has never kept me from seeing and enjoying all of the things that make life worth living and enjoyable. And one of those things, for me, has been to perpetuate the perception that I am a very serious guy. My closest friends in high school and college knew this, and we had a working arrangement. I would interpret or, if necessary, set-up situations that would allow me to make a deadpan comment, which would let them come back with a witty repartee and get most of those around us laughing. We worked as a well-matched team, pulling together for the jokes and the laughs, with me playing the straight man and them getting the punch line. The thing is, we were the only ones who fully realized that we were working together.

That is not to say that I wasn’t, sometimes, truly serious! I recall a girl that I dated for a few weeks the summer after I graduated high school. She was going to be a sophomore, and could have been a poster girl for ‘blond’ jokes. The first time that I drove her out to our farm, I pointed to the Herefords grazing in the pasture and said, “There’s hamburger on the hoof.” “What!!!” she said. “Hamburger on the hoof!” “What do you mean!?!”   “That’s where hamburger comes from!” “No it’s not!!!”  “Yes it is! Where did you think it came from?” “From the store! Oh my… I’ll never eat another hamburger!!”  After about four weeks of educational experiences like this one, I’d decided that enough was enough. Sitting in my car on a dark, deserted country lane, I tried to tell her that there was more to life than just fun. “Life is not a game!” I said. “It is serious, and must be lived that way if you want to make anything of it!” She started crying, almost hysterically. When I finally got her to calm down enough to talk between sobs, she explained that her last boyfriend had broken up with her by telling her that ‘life is just a game!’ Needless to say, she was very confused.

Throughout history, many religious orders/sects have believed that the Bible contained no room for humor. It seems that every word was to be taken literally, and if it didn’t say it out-right it didn’t apply. As two obvious examples, this is why certain denominations won’t allow musical instruments in the building (it isn’t specifically mentioned), and why others are against dancing (too much danger of enjoying yourself too much). Indeed, we all think about ‘old-time’ preachers spouting their “hell-and-damnation” sermons to our not-so-distant ancestors. And sometimes we all still need to be reminded that Hell is as real a destination as Heaven, and a lot easier to get in to if we are not careful!

On the other hand, there are some out there that would have us believe that following Christ will bring us good fortune in this world, and strive to make their buildings and programs appeal to people on a physical level. The actual teachings of Christ will be distorted or ignored in order to be more palatable to today’s generation.

I believe that what God really wants is somewhere in the middle if you will. Following Christ and doing His work is a very serious business, and should be treated as a great responsibility. After all, being a Christian is a way of life, and how we live that life must reflect Christian values. When God calls us, as He does each of us, we must be ready and willing to do whatever it is He is calling us to. We must also live our lives so as to be an example to the world at large, not a stumbling block! All of this requires dedicating our lives to studying, praying, and worshiping so that we might recognize God’s intent, and be ready to respond when needed.

But NOWHERE does it say that we can’t enjoy ourselves along the way!! In fact, we read about how the early Christians celebrated their new lives in Christ, even in the face of being persecuted. Today, those fears of persecution are largely in our own minds, yet we refrain from publicly celebrating our beliefs for fear of offending someone. A non-Christian might see us and question our sincerity about our faith. One of our fellow Christians might see us and wonder what we have been up to. So we hide our faith… our Christianity… away from our daily routine, bringing it out only on Sunday mornings and ‘special occasions’ to parade it around a bit.

Our first responsibility as Christians is to do God’s work. But the work should be joyous! Can you imagine everyone getting together at, say a soup kitchen, and singing as they helped out because they where so happy to be doing God’s work? How do you suppose the recipients of that help would respond? Wouldn’t they want to know where all of that happiness is derived from?

God didn’t intend for us to be miserable in this life. Yes, Heaven is offered as a ‘reward’, if you will, but the peace of knowing and loving God, and being loved by Him, is fabulously wonderful today! Rejoice! Enjoy the life that we have been given, for that life comes through God, and is made wonderful by worshiping Him.

BE HAPPY!    GOD LOVES YOU!!