THE EIGHTH TRANSFORMATION
MIRTH MAKING
We live in a
very serious age. At least we
think so. Everything seems so important. We are especially taken with our own importance. As a
consequence, we are very serious; we don't laugh very much either.
There was a
popular song in the 1970's that spoke of the, "day the music
died." In many ways we are
now living in the "days the laughter died". We need to grow familiar again with sounds of our own
laughter.
One of the most
important TRANSFORMATIONS we can make, in our own lives and in the lives of
those around us is to bring back the laughter. We must become MIRTH MAKERS.
Mirth means
gladness, especially as expressed through laughter. As people transformed by the Spirit of the Risen Christ we
should live with gladness of heart and laughter on our lips.
"Happy
is everyone who fears the lord,
who walks in his ways.
You
shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be
happy,
and it shall go well with you."
Psalm
128:1,2
There is a very
strong relationship between happiness and blessing.
In the Book of
Genesis, God tells Abraham that he will bless
him with a son; that he will make him the father of a great nation; and that
all the nations of the world will find blessing
in him. When Sarah gives birth to
this child who is a blessing, they name him
Isaac, which means "laughter".
In the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus gives his followers the Beatitudes, the beginning of each of
which is traditionally translated, "Blessed are the...". The Greek word that the New Testament
uses here is "Makarios", which means fortunate, well-off, happy.
It is a form of the Greek word "makar" which means supremely
blest.
Happiness,
laughter, mirth can be viewed then as a BLESSING - a GRACE received from
God. By extension, PLAY - the
activities of mirth - are the "sacraments" by which we receive this
grace!
Playfulness is
something that we loose to a great extent as we grow from childhood to
adulthood. In order to receive the
"sacraments of mirth", it is necessary for us to reclaim some of our
child likeness.
Let us attempt
to find within our sense of propriety, space to just be silly.
And while acting playfully, non-sensically, and generally like a child,
be aware that the word "silly" comes from and Old English word that
means "blessed" and a Middle English word that means
"holy". So feel free to
act like a holy, blessed child whenever you want to!
"Then
little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his
hands
on them and pray. The disciples
spoke sternly to those who brought
them;
but Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them;
for
it is to such as these that the Kingdom of heaven belongs.'"
Matthew
19:13-14
The image of
children is a very strong one in the scriptures. Not only the story quoted above from Matthew - which is
found in similar form in Mark and Luke - but throughout the Old and New
Testaments.
The prophet
Zechariah describes the restored Jerusalem, saying, "And the streets of
the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets" (8:5).
The Book of Proverbs
declares, "My child, if your heart is wise, my heart to will be
glad." (23:15). Indeed,
Proverbs 3:1-10 instructs children in may things from keeping the commandments
to loyalty and faithfulness.
In the New
Testament, Jesus warns, "Truly I tell, you, whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:15) and I
John reminds us of, "the love the Father has lavished on us by allowing us
to be called children of God, and that is what we are..." (3:1).
Indeed, the
greatest act of God in human history, the Incarnation, is in the form of a
child, a poor infant born in Bethlehem.
It would appear
then that children are important in God's scheme of things, and that, if Jesus
is to be believed we must become "like children" if we are to feast
in the Kingdom.
What is it about
children that we are being asked to imitate?
There are a
number of qualities that we all have as children that are in many way
"bred out of us" by adulthood that we desperately need to recapture:
Innocence
More than
anything we have lost our innocence.
This is not to say that we are guiltless of any wrong doing, but rather
that we have lost our simplicity. Modern
society has created a "tyranny of complexity" that is almost too much
for us to deal with.
We live our
lives at a tyrannical pace, rushing from place to place with scarcely time to
even find out where we are, who we are with, or what we are doing. We move from one thing to another
without a recognition of what lies ahead or behind. We rarely "stop to smell the roses".
Our technology
has far outstripped our moral, philosophical, and ethical capabilities. We now have courts deciding when a
person is dead and when they are alive.
People are faced daily with the decision to "pull the plug" on
some loved one.
Our social ills
seem to be well beyond the ability of anyone to comprehend, much less
solve. Racism, sexism, and all of
the other "isms" that plague us. Our complex society has caused us to be afraid to live together
in harmony with one another.
We face diseases
that are beyond our ability to control and which threaten the lives of even our
children. Nowhere can the loss of
innocence be more dramatically seen than in the fact that our children must be
informed, in graphic terms, how to prevent contracting AIDS.
We have lost our
innocence to the degree that nothing seems to shock us anymore. We have witnessed political
assassinations and wars on television - live and in color.
Now more than
ever our world needs to reclaim its simplicity, its innocence and break the
bondage of this tyranny. There is
a freedom that comes with simplicity.
The old Shaker tune is right,
"Tis
a gift to be simple,
Tis a gift to be free.
We can recover
our lost innocence with a dose of humility. "Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest
in the Kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:4). We need to not only recognize, but admit that we aren't as
smart as we think we are. That in
many ways we are really children who need the strength and guidance of a wise
parent to help us make it in the world.
We need to admit our need for God.
And it is indeed a gift of God to be simple, and a gift of God to be
free. We need to pray for those
gifts.
The Capacity for Wonder and Awe
Along with our
innocence, we need to reclaim our capacity for wonder and awe. Not much impresses us anymore.
I remember
vividly how everyone in America, and much of the rest of the world as well, was
glued to their television sets that day in August 1969 when Neil Armstrong
first set foot on the surface of the moon. It was an incredible day in human history. As the lunar missions continued, however,
we became increasingly blasˇ about them.
By the end of the Apollo program, the astronauts had resorted to hitting
golf balls on the moon to try and get people to watch. We were no longer filled with wonder
and awe. It was just something
that went on.
If we cannot get
excited about one of humankind's greatest achievements, how can we expect to be
filled with wonder and awe over life's "everyday miracles"? How can we become overwhelmed by the
sight of a mountain, or a glorious sunset, or the birth of a child? Life becomes shallow without moments of
"wow!".
Inquisitiveness
Children are
innately inquisitive. They
recognize there is a great big world out there to be discovered. There is much to know about that world
that they do not know. So they
explore, they ask questions, they take risks.
So many adults
fear exploration. They are afraid
of being challenged by what they may discover. And yet Plato was right, "the unexamined life is not
worth living."
They fear asking
questions because they believe that asking questions is somehow a sign of
inadequacy. "I should
know the answer to that question.
What will people think if they find out I don't know?" It is as if asking questions is an
admission of failure.
And for sure,
many, many adults fear taking risks.
No matter how bad a situation is, its familiarity holds us. Why risk the unknown when I can at
least cope with the known? And
yet, a life lived without risk is no life at all. We risk relationships, we risk self-revelation, we risk
"death" in a thousand little ways. But in those risks we grow and we find life.
Our ultimate
risk is taken in turning our lives over to the Lord. It is the final giving up of control. It is the most difficult risk that a
person can take. And yet, it is a
risk that never leaves us disappointed if taken in faith.
Imagination
Children have
such great imaginations. How many
times have you seen a child receive a new toy, and have more fun playing with
the box that it came in? Children
find a challenge in using their imaginations. They love scary stories because their minds can be the field
of imagination for all manner of demon.
They can image life as a prince or a duchess; a president or a pope; a
corporate executive or a mother.
Adults in
general need to reclaim their ability to imagine. Humans are God's only creatures with an imagination. We were given the capacity to imagine
so that we could "fill in the blanks" in the created world. Humans have imagined some marvelous
things in the past. Great art,
great music, the pyramids, democracy, empires. But we seem loathe to use our imaginations much today. We are faced with many challenges as a
people. Let's be children once
again, and imagine a new world, for ourselves and for the future.
Dreaming
Closely related
to imagination is having dreams.
Children have wonderful dreams of what they will do when they grow
up. Their worlds seem limitless
and their dreams boundless. Dreams
are what keep people going. They
are motivators and the fuel for the creative spirit. No one should live without dreams. We need to become dreamers once again.
The world of the
child is a simple one. It is
filled with laughter and singing and dancing; dreaming and exploring and taking
risks. But it is a wise world as
well. There is a great wisdom to
be found in the simple world of the child.
Robert L.
Fulgham wrote a wonderful book entitled, All I Really Need to Know I Learned
in Kindergarten, in which he wrote,
"All
I really need to know about how to live and what to do and
how
to be I learned in kindergarten.
Wisdom was not at the top
of
the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday
School. These are the things I learned:
o Share
everything
o Play
fair
o Don't
hit people
o Put
things back where you found them
o Clean
up your own mess
o Don't
take things that aren't yours
o Say
you're sorry when you hurt somebody
o Wash
your hands before you eat
o Flush
o Warm
cookies and cold milk are good for you
o Live
a balanced life - learn some and think some
and
draw and paint and sing and work everyday
some
o Take
a nap every afternoon
o When
you go out into the world, watch out for
traffic,
hold hands, and stick together
o Be
aware of wonder"[i]
This is the
wisdom learned in childhood. The
wisdom of those who laugh and play and sing and dance with limitless
energy. Don't we want to be as
wise as they?
"And
its still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the
world,
it is best to hold hands and stick together."[ii]
In medieval
Europe, kings and queens employed "jesters" at court. A jester is one who is given to a
frolicsome mood and attitude - one who brings mirth and laughter to others. When things became too serious and
complex , the king or queen would summon the Court Jester to "lighten
things up".
We live in a
time and place that desperately needs some "lightening up". Let us be the ones who bring the
transforming power of holy, blessed jest to the world around us. Let us be "silly for the Kingdom
of God".
Guidelines for Mirth Making
Being a Jester -
one given to a frolicsome mood and attitude - is a "vocation" that
must be worked on. Here are just a
few, out of a whole universe of possibilities, suggestions for developing your "jest
for life":
o Pray
daily for a SPIRIT OF GLADNESS AND LAUGHTER
+
keeping in mind Jesus' promise that, "whatever you ask for in my
name will be given to you."
o Nurture
your sense of humor.
+ Read funny things
+
See funny movies
o "Be
a kid again"
+
Fly a kite
+
Blow soap bubbles
+
Fall in love with helium balloons
o Get
yourself a "HOBBS"
Hobbs
is a character in the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbs". Calvin
is
a young boy, Hobbs, a tiger, is his constant companion. When
Calvin
is with others, Hobbs is a stuffed animal. But when Calvin
is
alone Hobbs is alive and becomes Calvin's playmate, confidante,
and
wisdom figure. As a child, I had a
stuffed monkey with whom I
could
share my deepest dreams, darkest secrets, and greatest fears.
He
was my "Hobbs". Everyone
needs a Hobbs - especially adults.
o Approach
each day with a sense of WONDER AND AWE.
+
Let yourself be impressed
+
Look for opportunities to say, "Wow!"
o Intentional
Covenant Fellowships Plan "Days of Jest" together.
+
Spend a day together at Valley Fair
+
Go to a waterslide
+
Have an "Unbirthday Party"
o Work
to free yourself from the "Tyranny of Complexity".
+
Simplify your life as much as you can.
I am convinced that we really did learn
everything we need to know in kindergarten.
o Study
the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
+
What better model could we have for a mirth maker than someone who
talked to birds and
bunnies?