Laughter

TUES., JULY 17, 1984, 6:18 AM
FARM, STUDY

You awoke late, and so I did the unusual by giving you the title while you still were abed. It refers to an important aspect of that sense of humor that I share with you human creatures. (It reminds you of another activity/focus or your workshop, and this is good, but hear this Teaching in its entirety first.) Laughter is a marvelous sound, and I do want to share with you some observations on this response.

Yes, laughter is a response to some sight, to something heard, to some situation, to some story that is funny. (Nothing very deep about that!) When the stimulus is a “good” one, the laughter is holistic, it comes from the total self. It expresses an emotion, the intellect says, “OK”… may even approve of the incongruity in the situation… (and) it may be shared with others, and it comes forth, a physical sound, with full approval of the spirit. This is laughter whose quality reflects the joy of other realms. Those who laugh best are those who have laughed before, in some variety of realms.

As I have told you before, there are many serious situations here in the earth that also have qualities of the ridiculous… and deserve a good laugh. Even some of the stories in the Scriptures, though intended basically as serious accounts of My dealing with humans in the earth, also do tickle a good sense of humor and should produce some laughter. I have no objection to Bill Cosby’s successful venture with this in his amplified version of My dealing with Noah in the pre-flood time.

Good laughter, then, is an evidence of spirit… one that I like. It is good to hear My servants laugh, and I am sorry when some feel that they must be constrained because of Me, in My form as Almighty God, I ask only this balance: if I, as God, cannot laugh, then I also cannot feel and express other emotions, such as rage and sorrow… I must remain the object of awe (that) who is beyond the expression of feeling. If I do respond in any emotional ways to human motivations and behavior let those include laughter, certainly. And I, the Holy Spirit, can and do laugh freely and unabashedly as I deal with this great range of human souls that I oversee.

As with any human response, there can be “too much of a good thing”… but this is not the same for each person. By the standard appropriate for you Lillian laughs too much… but for her it is “just right,” and I joy in her often silly laughings.

Yes, the earth I have created and have allowed to develop is a realm in which laughter is necessary… and appropriate. Spirit is that which determines whether laughter is the right response, for evil forces also can stimulate laughter, which is usually humiliating and degrading. Yes, laughter can also be cruel… when it is directed at a weakness or a foible in such a way as to degrade the human spirit. There are also some stories and jokes about Me that go too far and represent a lack of developed spirit in those who laugh freely.