“Humor is a prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer.” - Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr

Happy new year, Curls! I'm really excited about this post and I pray it blesses you in a life-changing way. I have to share that I was first compelled to write this twirl of thought because of my own experience with disbelief in God’s promises. When God revealed the grandeur of charges He had for my life in years past, I made many moves, ventured into numerous projects, and just became exhausted in “trying” to please Him with my life. I know for sure that I got in His way with my own actions of how I thought He would like things to be done. Truthfully, I wasn’t astonished at being called by the King of kings, I was overwhelmed, doubtful, definitely in disbelief, and felt ill-equipped to make God’s promise a reality and show myself approved.

I did not realize then that in His love and graciousness He shared this grand plan with me - and He does not gift that to everyone. It was not out of obligation that He did it. He was not looking for me to be responsible for the vision. But out of respect, love, and a desire for my participation, He shared His grand vision, and all He needed was joyful and confident obedience.

So I want to talk about a woman in the Bible who really captured the two polar opposite responses to God's revealed promises: that of doubt and that of astonishment. I want to examine how we can learn to laugh without fear of the future and rejoice at simply being called!

In the ancient middle East, a woman belonged to her father and then to her husband.

She was completely dependent, as men were legally and economically in control...and the Christian faith is based on that patriarchal mindset.

As God put it in place, we know that He is both our husband and our father. We follow His lead and learn from His instructions and actions, because He lovingly cares for us.

So what has He shown us about how we should depend on Him as women?

…and how has He taught us to do this...through laughter?

Laughter is neither sinful nor evil and it is safe to say that our Lord laughs and has given us the gift of laughter.

Our sense of humor is an indicator that the Sovereign Creator has one as well. Laughter has its place. After all, in Ecclesiastes 3:4 we are told that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh.

God laughs because He knows the truth. In the Bible, when He laughs, it’s found to be derisive:

•The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. PSALM 2:4 (NIV)

•…but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming. PSALM 37:13(NIV)

•…but you laugh at them, LORD; you scoff at all those nations. PSALM 59:8 (NIV)

God laughs at threatening things, and sometimes our disbelief and doubt are those threats.

We know that God will always get the last laugh, because He makes sure to laugh first. He’s victorious in the end, because He’s confident in the beginning.

Additionally, when Jesus provides humor in teaching situations it is to show the absurdity and exaggeration of a matter.

Because can anyone really continue living with a plank stuck in their eye? Or can a gigantic camel really get through the eye of a tiny needle?

(Plank - MATTHEW 7:3-5; Camel - MATTHEW 19:24)

I believe both Father and Son regard laughter as something that is healthy, even as weaponry. God desires for us to approach difficulties with laughter and to do so confidently.

So, who's this woman I want to focus on? It's Sarah and her laughter out of doubt followed by her eventual song of rejoicing.

Let’s take a look at her story:

I imagine Sarai replying to Abram as he shared with her what Yahweh proclaimed:

“My goodness Abraham, are you sure that’s what you heard? Well, pshh okay, I don’t know how something like this is even possible. We are going to have to think this over…I mean, are you really sure He said a child…through you?”

Sarai, like us, has the free will to speak, complain, suggest, and initiate actions under the Man she belongs. As a result, in order to assist, what does Sarai do? She plots and she doubts, maybe even visa versa. In Genesis 16, Sarai suggests the needed child be supplied through her Egyptian slave and Abram; Sarai stepped in and put her will into the promise.

She trusted doubt, more than she trusted God – and consequently delayed His will further.

We see them take on the responsibility of performing the work of God’s promise and that’s what we do as humans: we take what God has shared and make our own solutions, thereby delaying God’s true manifestation of the future. We subject God’s Word to the limitations of our world.

Picking up with Genesis 18:1-15 (CBS)

Then the LORD appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (ma’am-ree) while he was sitting in the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day. He looked up, and he saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed to the ground. Then he said, “My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, please do not go on past your servant. Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. Later, you can continue on.”

“Yes,” they replied, “do as you have said.”

So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Knead three measures of fine flour and make bread.” Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender, choice calf. He gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it. Then Abraham took curds and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set them before the men. He served them as they ate under the tree.

“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he answered.

The LORD said, “I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself: “After I have become shriveled up and my lord is old, will I have delight?”

But the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Can I really have a baby when I’m old?’ Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son.”

Sarah denied it. “I did not laugh,” she said, because she was afraid.

But He replied, “No, you did laugh.”

So what we have here is:

• Three men that visit with Abraham and inquire about Sarah, sharing verbally and within her earshot, the specifics of the timeline and ways in which a covenant-keeping child will be born to them.

• God wanted it to be known that He was looking for and scheduled this particular meeting for Sarah’s benefit. God came for her!

• The men specifically asked where she was – even though we know God is always aware of where we are. (PSALM 139:7-12)

• This is the first time that she is scripturally brought into the fold of what God will do through them both.

God wanted her to know that she was a part of this lineage building, she was a primary person, she would be the mother of Nations – not a shadowed bed-warmer or nameless helper.

However, Sarah laughs in disbelief at the revelation that she will be anything more than what she is now – let alone be able to birth a child at the post-menopausal age of 90.

The Lord then questions and confirms her disbelieving laughter - He hears her internal doubt.

Curl Check:

Sarah is the mother, we are the nations, and sometimes we respond just like her. She epitomizes the human woman who hears God and His promise and find ways to try and fashion the results for herself.

She represents our sometimes-disbelieving response to God’s promises; how we so easily laugh in doubt and not in astonishment – in fearlessness. We laugh at things we don’t feel qualified for – what do you believe was inappropriate about her laughter? Why did she laugh? Was it nervous laughter? Doubting laughter? Faithless laughter?

Have you ever laughed in doubt at God's promises? Are you aware that God hears and feels your inner-most doubts? Has He ever checked you on your disbelief?

Sarai received God’s word secondhand through her husband. Genesis 16:1-2 illustrates that the two of them probably had already discussed God’s promise, and possibly Abram did not fully and clearly lay out God's covenant.

How necessary is it for you to receive God’s word for yourself? Do you deeply question when you receive it through someone else? How does God often reveal Himself to you?

Whether directly or through someone else, once God finally gets specific with us (like in Genesis 17 and 18) and shares exactly how the promises of our life are to happen, like Abraham and Sarah we scoff in disbelief – because of course we have already considered the other options available and “know” them to be impossible. Why do we believe we know best, and in knowing His children, why does God provide a grand promise and not share the specific provisions at the beginning? He could simply halt our natural proclivity to fill in the gaps for ourselves by doing so.

Why would He not tell Sarah exactly what to do or what was expected of her? More-so, why would He say to you “daughter you are to be this,” “you are to go there,” “come, you are to produce this,” and then only later provide the how…?

Well, for one, a woman’s laughter should be a part of her security, her belief, and her peace – she is to despise difficulties because she recognizes that it’s not her hands that hold the future.

In Genesis 21:6-7 Sarah said “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me.” She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age” (HCSB). Sarah is astonished, in merriment, marveling over this child and the fact that God came to visit her with such a promise. Now, this is how He desires us to respond to His revelations.

He interrupted the impossibilities of nature to bring miraculous wonder.

A good example of that is the Virgin Mary, here is this young teenage girl, who has been told she will birth the Messiah. Come on now. Think about it, a holy impregnation, she has a whole fiancé, this would be an adulterous situation. She could be stoned. On the outside this definitely looked like a spiritual set up for failure. But look at how she handled it, in Luke 1: 46-55 NIV, Mary sings,

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,

because He has looked with favor

on the humble condition of His slave.

Surely, from now on all generations

will call me blessed,

because the Mighty One

has done great things for me,

and His name is holy.

His mercy is from generation to generation

on those who fear Him.

He has done a mighty deed with His arm;

He has scattered the proud

because of the thoughts of their hearts;

He has toppled the mighty from their thrones

and exalted the lowly.

He has satisfied the hungry with good things

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped His servant Israel,

mindful of His mercy,

just as He spoke to our ancestors,

to Abraham and his descendants forever.”

So, let’s talk about this God Mary is praising…

If God is our Father and Husband, then He should be regarded as in control and trusted in EVERYTHING and EVERY way.

Which probably can be the most painful for a Christian woman - to quiet her doubt and maintain a semblance of faith or a semblance of hope - to be in utter disbelief within herself while presenting a masked face of faith...trying to conjure up just how to make God’s revelation a reality in her situation.

Though it may look like a set up for failure, Curlfriend, we know our God can do everything but fail, so what He’s really setting you up for is greater faith and trust in Him.

God says trust Me with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:1-7)

Seek righteousness as I am righteous. (Matthew 6:33)

Lay aside every weight of sin and patiently run this race. (Hebrews 12:1)

We know that Sarah was in menopause, and had no way of making her husband’s offspring as numerous as the stars without a miracle.

She’d been barren her entire life.

God requires us to take off the weight of the years, whether we are 90 years old like Sarah or just entering adolescence, like Mary. He desires for us to be like children, empty of doubt and full or praise and faith. He says, take on my understanding because I want you as a believing participant in My will. Don't look at the circumstances, or the years of failure, the uncertainty, or your disbelief...

As kingdom women clothed in strength and honor, we are to laugh at the thought of worry. (Prov. 31:25).

We simply must trust the Lord.

Be at peace. God gives in grand fashion to strengthen your faith, and He will always reveal specifics in perfect time.

He needs you fully and obediently involved. You are important. Your fearless laughter wards off doubt and doubtful reactions.

God is saying, in this new season, this new calendar year, this new chapter…I need you to laugh, rejoice and believe, without doubt, in the plans I have set forth. Do not try to conjure up possibilities for yourself, making My promises sensible in the world or with the worldly.

1 Corinthians 2:6-7 reads:

“Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.”

Final twirls of thought:
1. Why is laughter important?

Laughter should be our response to the unknown or scary. It’s not a scoff of disbelief because of the circumstances, but a joyful warrior-like “are you kidding me?” to any thought, experience, or threat that comes against the “It Is So” nature of our God.

When we receive a grand revelation from the Father, we aren’t to plan and plot how to humanize His ways, but we are to trust that God will manifest the impossibilities.

Laughter is the emotional vehicle to faith when facing the impossible/unforeseeable/taxing situations.

We are to be boldly confident in Him and LAUGH at anything that would come to marshal itself against our Father and Husband, even if that thing is our own doubt and disbelief.

Remember, that in His grace, God can still use your laughter in doubt and turn it into a laughter of astonishment, a laughter of fearlessness.

2. How is Jesus at the center of all of this?

Jesus is at the center because all things are completed through Him. God said I will never leave you nor forsake you, and in His specificity to keep that promise, He sent His son. His sacrifice at Calvary completed it all. We have all the evidence needed to believe God at His word, and there is absolutely no reason to insert our will in order for His promises to come to pass. Jesus says: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38 HCSB) And we should make certain to proclaim the same words as our big Brother.

"He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.” JOB 8:21 (NIV)

Smile, Shine, and Love, Curlfriends!

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I love you, Curls!