(Today is a great guest post from Chris Laing. Check out his interesting sites or follow him on Twitter)
Psalms 126:2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing:
Serving and worshiping God should be serious, but it should also be fun. Our Christian duties should never be taken lightly or our worship should never become irreverent. However, they should never seem a burden. Service to God should bring us great joy. In Psalms 126:1-3 we find a people who have been delivered out of captivity by God. They are so thankful that their mouths were filled with laughter and their tongues with singing. As Christians we have been eternally delivered from the captivity of sin. We have been saved by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Is this not infinitely greater then deliverance from a temporary captivity here on Earth? How much more joy, laughter, and praise should we exhibit?
The joy that boiled over in laughter and singing had an effect on those around God’s people. They saw that God had done great things for them. This still works today. We have the opportunity to show those around us the great things God has done in our lives.
The trouble is many Christians seem reluctant to show any outward joy. Many of us have probably been in a church at some point with that church member who just refuses to smile, much less laugh. As the saying goes, “If they smiled their face would break”. Some Christians feel we must put on a serious face, especially when interacting with non-believers. They feel we must be pious. We have to appear sin free. They mistakenly think that laughing and having a good time would somehow give the appearance of sin.
We need to show the lost around us that being a Christian is fun. Some lost give the, “I’m not ready to give up my current life style and stop having fun.” as an excuse for not becoming a Christian. There is no separation between being a Christian and having fun. No matter how some Christians act. Christians just look for fun in activities that don’t cause them to sin. There are a lot of fun things that are not sinful. Many non-believers take the position, “If that is what living as a Christian is all about, I don’t want any of it.” Seeing how sour faced and cold some believers are, who could blame them. Some people never had a “church background” or may have never read the Bible. They cannot be expected to know that they need a savior. As believers, we need to show them God working in our lives. Like the people in Psalms 126, let those around us see the great things God has done in our lives. We need to show that we can have fun in the Lord and have a great laugh.
