Perhaps you have seen a video clip from America’s Funniest Home Videos in which a pastor is baptizing some new believers. As the video begins the pastor has just finished baptizing a young man and is waiting for the next fellow to come down into the baptistery. The pastor turns towards the stairs on the side of the baptistery awaiting the arrival of his next candidate when he is drenched by a tremendous splash. The young boy, about nine or ten years old, chose to enter the baptistery by doing a cannon ball off the top step down into the water. He soaked the pastor, his bible and perhaps a row of choir members.

The pastor is speechless for a moment then pulls the young lad towards him as if he really wanted to “lay hands” on the young man but chose to refrain from doing so. He peaks over the baptistery window to see who may have also been baptized. He confesses that in many years of ministry this is the first and hopefully last cannonball from someone getting baptized.

Another pastor recounts serving communion in a church in Louisiana. He was amused to see the expressions on the faces of those in attendance when they took the cup and drank prune juice instead of grape juice.

In one church I served I prearranged with a jeweler in our church to interrupt me as I began a sermon on the pearl of great price. His wife had no idea that he was going to stand up in the middle of my sermon and interrupt me. As he and I engaged in conversation his wife, seated on the front row of the choir, slumped down in her chair, hand over her face, as she turned white as a sheet with embarrassment. She thought her husband had lost his mind. Bob was in the choir when he stood up to interrupt me, and later I learned that men on either side of him almost yanked him back down. They also thought he had lost his mind. It was funny to Bob and me because we had it planned it all along. The expressions on the faces of others was priceless.

Some funny and unusual things happen in churches which cause us to laugh. These kinds of experiences may be ways that God uses to keep us from taking ourselves too seriously and reminding us that it is o.k. to laugh in church. Proverbs says “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit… All the days of the oppressed are wretched, but the cheerful heart has a continual feast… A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. A cheerful heart is good medicine.”

As we move into 2007, let’s take time to laugh and enjoy all that God is doing in our lives. Life has enough challenges and disappointments. Let’s be sure that we enjoy the moments that cause a smile to creep across our face or laughter to come from our voices. As we recount God’s answers to prayer and his gifts to us we cannot help but smile and rejoice in our hearts. All are God’s gifts to us, his children, as we simply try to trust Him for each day.

Servants Together,

Phil Wilkes