Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: July 24, 2014

Why he writes Hope, Hilarity

People are funny. They make us smile by what they say and do. It is a great pleasure for me to write about the people I know because of the joy they bring to my life. I want to report on things that make me laugh in the hope that they make you laugh, too.

Proverbs 17:22 states: "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

So, sometimes, this little AVN column focuses on hilarity. If you think about it, many of the people you know are hilarious. And, so are you.

The mother of a 6-year-old was very concerned because her daughter came home from Sunday school and reported, "My new Sunday school teacher has no morals." The first time it happened, the mother just shrugged the comment off. But the second time her daughter suggested that the new teacher had "no morals," the mother had to explore the matter further.

"What do you mean when you say, ‘Miss Jean has no morals?'" the mother asked. "Well," the little girl replied, "Miss Deb used to always end the Bible story by saying, ‘This is the moral of the story.' Miss Jean never has no morals."

And, sometimes, I like to write about hope. Hope keeps us going. There are times when life is not so funny. There is much sadness in the world. Bad news reaches us daily from the farthest corners of the globe. I don't know what people do when they are faced with the stresses of life when they don't have faith in God.

My wife's grandma, Annie, spent the last year of her life in a nursing home. She had always been a devout Christian woman, but a debilitating stroke left her unable to care for herself. She could smile, and she smiled a lot, but she could not speak. It was difficult to watch her mouth try to form words that would not come out.

But Christmas time rolled around and, standing at her bedside, we discovered that she could sing! Christmas carols and hymns came forth from her lips. It was miraculous. She never did regain the ability to form sentences that would communicate to her family, but she continued to give Jesus praise through her songs up until the time of her death.

Oh, how that gave us hope! It is our hope that we can face the difficulties of life like Grannie Annie did. The Bible and Christian faith are great sources of hope. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness" (Edward Mote, 1834).

So, I try to write Hope and Hilarity. I think we need a little bit of both in our lives.

"The one enthroned in heaven laughs..." (Psalm 2:4)

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@ valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.