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| The Laughter with no Sorrow by Cadi Nobles |
| Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. Proverbs 14:13 Today’s generation has an abundance of “happiness.” Natural herbs, anti-depressant medications, and chemically altered foods all promise an “improved emotional well-being.” The entertainment industry spends millions of dollars every day supplying us with every conceivable form of entertainment. Even in the smallest towns, gathering places are established to allow us to socialize with our peers. Anywhere you go, you can hear the sound of laughter. Groups of business people in a restaurant, teens congregated in a parking lot, people shopping or tending to their daily affairs. Laughter is everywhere. Yet, with all the entertainment, drugs, and socialization, the laughter that we have paid and given so much for has produced very few positive results. We are dying from stress and laughing all the way to the hospital. “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful.” The sorrow of our generation does not come from lack of necessities (indeed, we are blessed with an abundance of “things”) nor does it stem from a lack of education or wealth. Our sorrow is caused by the widening gap of separation between us and our Father. Like the prodical son we have moved away from the comfort of our Father’s house to “enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”(Hebrews 11:25). As a nation, we disassociate ourselves with the very principles that made us great. Truth, honesty, fairness, justice: even to say these words sounds dated and out-of-fashion. Our Christian nation is becoming more and more un-Christian as time goes on. “Happy is that people whose God is the Lord” (Psalms 144:15). This passage reveals why we continue to grow more unhappy as we spread farther away from our Christian roots. As the prodical son woke to find he had “wasted his substance in riotous living” ( Luke 15:13), we are slowly waking to discover similar truths. Lives that are lived for the moment, are wasted. Moments of senseless pleasure will come and go, but the after-affects of such recklessness are felt long after those few moments are past. Indeed, even in laughter the heart is sorrowful. There is, of course, a cure for this disease of self-indulgence. It is to return to the Father’s house and once again submit ourselves to His rule. Like the son, that desired nothing more than to become as a servant, we must seek God’s will and give all to Him. The Holy Scriptures assure us that when the father saw his son “he had compassion on him”(Luke 15:20) and prepared a great banquet to celebrate his return. There was “musick and dancing” (Luke 15:25). In that laughter there is no sorrow. Luke 15:10 “Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth” |
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