I’m the kind of person who finds a sliver of humor in just about everything. If I can’t laugh, I guess I’m not awake.
Several years ago, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, and I were celebrating our birthdays. We went to a restaurant, and I told the waitress we were celebrating our birthdays, which are just days apart.
She smiled and said, “Tell me, sir, how does it feel to be old?” Then she laughed.
I laughed back, then reached across the table, squeezed Martha’s arm, and said, “It sure feels good.”
The waitress and I laughed, but not Martha. She didn’t think it was funny.
Often, Martha will start a conversation by saying, “I was thinking…” I interrupt her and respond, “With what?” Then I laugh hysterically. Of course, I’m the only one laughing.
Riding across town last week with Martha in her “Sissy Van” on an errand, she neared a red light, and being the knucklehead I am, I said, “There’s a red light, make sure you stop.”
Looking at me, she said, “You think that’s funny?”
I did, because I was laughing. “Would you like to walk home?”
My wife is a hearty soul who fears very little. One of them is a cockroach.
As we were headed to bed one night, she saw a cockroach crawl from underneath her pillow. She screamed, grabbed a shoe off the floor and beat the cockroach into eternity.
She looked at me and said, “Did you put that cockroach under my pillow?”
I shook my head no, and quickly thought a similar instance could be another weapon in my arsenal of the practical jokes she despises.
Several weeks later, I thought about that again. Martha has a box of sugar-free cookies in the kitchen, and I’m only allowed one a day.
I’d already had one, but wanted another. She was in the kitchen so there was no way I could sneak another unless ... So I went into the kitchen, looked back down the hallway and said, “Oh my, is that a cockroach down the hall?”
She rushed to get the intruder while I ran across the kitchen for one more cookie. Returning, she said, “I guess it got away because I can’t find it.”
After she said that, she looked at me, then the box of cookies, and then back at me. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stifle my grin, and started laughing.
“What do you think is so funny?”
“Oh, nothing, I was just thinking of a joke.”
Still scowling, she stared at me and said, “I think I know what joke you’re thinking of.”
I was reminded of one of my favorite Bible verses.
“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
— Proverbs 17: 22
To me, no medicine is better than a “merry heart.” It often takes effort to have a merry heart, but it’s worth it. The challenge is what I find funny. Sometimes, I laugh at the wrong thing and suffer for it.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. Contact him by email at jamessnyder5’@ gmail.com.
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