Faith Laughs

After preaching on the laughter of Sarah a couple weeks back, I stumbled upon a couple of quotes related to humor as an essential quality of leaders in Oswald Sander's Spiritual Leadership.

(I'm reading and discussing Spiritual Leadership with a group of Grace men on Thursday mornings. We're having a great time and we'd love to have you join us . . . if you're a man, that is . . .)

From Helmut Thielecke . . .

Should we not see the lines of laughter about the eyes are just as much marks of faith as are the lines of care and seriousness? Is it only earnestness that is baptized? Is laughter pagan? . . . A church is in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the cabaret, the nightclub and the toastmasters.

From A.E. Norrish, a missionary to India . . .

I have never met leadership without a sense of humor; this ability to stand outside oneself and one's circumstances, to see things in perspective and laugh. It is a great safety valve! You will never lead others far without the joy of the Lord and its concomitant, a sense of humor.

Let's laugh some more.