Good Humor
A few weeks before graduating from seminary in 1979, I invited my mentor and friend, the Rev. J. Gary Campbell out to lunch. I sought his counsel as I left the comfortable world of seminary to the trenches of full time pastoral ministry. I will never forget the wisdom Gary shared with me. First he told me to “play a lot” Second he said, “those who take life most seriously, take themselves least seriously”. It wasn’t that Gary avoided hard work or was a goof off. It was just that Gary had a deep trust in God, that he was able to walk through life with a lightness that left room for a sense of humor and a healthy suspicion on anyone who took themselves too seriously, especially himself.
One day a friend came up to me and said, “Bob, when was the last time you had a belly laugh? Not a laugh that originates in your lips, but one that rises from the lower part of my body and uncontrollably shakes its way up through my throat to my head and creates a smile on my face and tears in my eyes and causes me to double over in joy. Not a laughter that is gained at another’s expense, but one that is focused on our common humanity and rips away any pretense in our lives. Much humor today is biting, cruel and demeaning. What we need is a more belly laughs.
Gary knew something I would never hear from a classroom or read in a book.
