If It’s Funnier Than It Is Wrong Do It…

The preceding statement was at one point a staple of how I lived my life. Now some years later, it is something that I want nothing to do with. I have been a witness to many a funny thing in my day – in no way am I myself claiming to have what someone might call a humor bone – things from the outbursts of an off the wall comment, to the fluorescent light battles that seem all to common in our cities back alleys. But what I have seen is the destruction of myself and my fellow comrades spiritual growth a different points in our walks through this very concept of humor.

My findings have been this; we as Christians seem to in an overall sense do quite well when it comes to living out our faith in public. We do not cuss, we are polite, we will even drop a five dollar bill into a buskers basket once and a while (I once saw a man playing buckets full of glass, and he was good, how can you not support that kind of talent?) and of course there is always a smile on our face. But follow that same Christian home, and over to his friends house for a party – were talking about Christians, so a party is the concept of hanging out in the same house where nobody has any idea of what to do prompting everyone watch a movie, probably a new one where everyone will fall asleep, missing any and all memorable moments – and things tend to shift. If you listen closely you will hear a certain familiarity come out, a certain comfort with the crowd.

In my own experience I have heard many a crass word, joke or conversation, most often within the group of my Christian friends. In fact I have seem a number of people get frustrated with the amount of personal attack, racial jokes, sexual discussions, and sarcasm. It’s as though we leave out faith at the door and let out everything we keep covered throughout the day. I kid you not I have walked into a setting where a group of males who were being trained to be evangelists were living; by the time I left that that building some 10 minutes later I had vomited on the road from the amount of homosexual talk and actions taking place. But if it’s funnier than it is wrong do it right? Of course there was a lot of ‘humorous’ shock value that brought this kind of awkward smile to our faces. Why is Jackass so popular? Shock value; where else would you see a man thrust a fish hook through his cheek and go fishing with himself as bait in shark infested waters?

I have also come across a number of people whom are either new to their faith or not well founded in their faith, who are lost on the idea of people acting like that. “I can’t tell them from my non-Christian friends,” “My friends who aren’t saved have better morals than my Christian friends.” It has even come to the point where I am finally hearing people questioning their faith on the very basis that they see people following other faiths or no faith at all, living better lives than their Christian friends. This is not an attack to say separate yourself from the world and circle the wagons as it were, but it is a call to plead with you to live your faith without compromise at every moment of your life. Again I’m only stating these thoughts out of frustration from my own life, my own experience to get a laugh – which even with shock value seemed to get me no further. Perhaps a book on humor… How can you be leading someone to the Lord one moment and the next moment be engaged in a mocking display of sinfulness? I plead with myself and those whose sarcasm leads them to a place of comfort in sin, to step up and live a life of no compromise, whether your in public or private, because either way God sees our actions.