One thing about telling something that’s supposed to be funny…the listener has to be on the same wavelength. He has to know something about the subject you’ve chosen.

Take what I call my “historical” jokes. You have to know that DeSoto discovered what we call the Mississippi River at the present site of Memphis, or you just won’t get a chuckle out of my story that when he came upon the river, he said to his men, “They’ll build a bridge here if we’ll wait awhile.”

Or my version of why Ponce De Leon did not discover the fountain of youth he hoped to find in Florida. My line is that he didn’t find it because he said, “I ain’t gonna jump into every mud hole I come to.”

And it may come to your mind that you know why I’m always serious as I bring my Conquest articles to you. I find it easy to make up jokes, but my listeners don’t find it easy to laugh.

But as you might expect, there’s a point to all this. It’s ok for Christians to have fun at a good clean joke. We’re not a bunch of

fuddy-duddies. We don’t have any record of Jesus laughing, but one time when he was told that Herod was after Him, he did say for them to “tell that fox” a thing (Luke 13:32). And he allowed Solomon to write that

“a merry hear doeth good like a medicine,” (Proverbs 17:22) and that “there is a time to laugh.” (Eccl 3:4) David said, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. (Psalms 2;4) And Psalm 37:13 notes that “The Lord shall laugh (at the wicked), for he seeth that his day is coming.”

Remember my telling you about Mom teaching me “The Glad Game?” It’s alright to giggle, and doctors say a good old belly laugh makes for good health. And God made us so that it takes several more muscles to frown than it does to grin. So be happy, every chance you get. There’s enough of the other thing.

And give God the Glory!