Humor in Faith

“Humor is the prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer”
Reinhold Niebur

At first glance that quote might seem like a slight aside or a quick attempt at a joke, but the more that I think on it, the more I can find meaning in it. Humor many times comes from a person making light of himself, making fun of his human condition. Humor is relaxing and lets the teller and the listener escape the mental anguish or mental preoccupations of the day. As we might have learned in our life, in order to get ourselves ready for prayer, we have to first shut out the rest of our day to day life so that we can be in a mood to communicate with God. Humor is a device that can start the relaxation process and laugher is the emotional release that puts us in a different frame of mind. I ask you just think back to how you feel after a good belly laugh. After you have
had that outburst of emotion that wipes clean whatever you were concentrating on prior to humor entering the picture, you are relaxed and your mind is open. It has made the transition from focusing on the day to day parts of life to openness for something different. Laughter can be that emotional preparation for prayer. These thoughts are not meant to say that prayer is humor or a joke. These comments are about preparation. But don’t forget that God created us in His image and likeness, so a bit of humor isn’t always inappropriate. In my family life, humor in prayer rights its ugly head sometimes in the grace before meals. We have had a few good chuckles with what one or the other of us had said. But I most often feel that God is having a good chuckle with us.