There once was a Wednesday named Ash
It's Lent, and we all know what that means: time for limericks.
Consider yourself lucky if someone taught you along the way that the Lord has a sense of humor. Or are you one of those who have to wait until Easter falls on April Fool’s Day to discover that Jesus Christ has the last laugh? (See “The Jesus who laughed.”)
More than a few of us were raised in solemn traditions that view scripture as containing more legalism and moralism than levity and surprise. But what if humor is one of God’s chief attributes? How else might we explain the impregnation of 90-year-old Sarah? Or God afflicting the Philistines with hemorrhoids (emerods) when they stole the Ark of the Covenant? Or Mary and Martha needing to erase Lazarus’s obituary?
Humor is not the same as laughter or telling jokes. It’s what Viktor Frankl called “the soul’s weapon” for rising above our situation. Good humor relieves us from stale living. It helps us accept the incongruities of life. Among its greatest gifts, humor helps us name our weaknesses, keep things in proportion, and laugh at ourselves.
