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A Cause For Joy by Phil Callaway Experts tell us the average child laughs 200 times a day. I’m not sure who studies these things, but they could be right. Children find things funny. You hit your head on a cupboard door and this is hilarious to a four-year-old. A thick rubber band shot at Daddy’s newspaper and registering a loud THWAAACK!, after Daddy has endured a tough day of highly intense meetings in which he has been defending some declining sales figures, is just about the funniest thing a four-year-old can imagine. But those same experts tell us that adults laugh an average of four times a day. Incredible, isn’t it? Where did we lose 196 laughs a day? While speaking recently, I watched a lady shuffle through the back doors, giving an usher an earful on the way. “There’s no place for laughing in church,” she told him. “You tell Mr. Callaway that.” What this dear lady missed was joining so many others in celebrating our reason for laughter: the glorious hope of Heaven and the joy Christ can give His children on earth. The preacher Billy Sunday once said, “If you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity somewhere.” I believe in a holy and awesome God, the Maker of heaven and earth, but I also believe in a God who created the wiener dog and the duck-billed platypus. One of my author friends is Lee Strobel who has written several excellent books including The Case For Christ. With a law degree from Yale, Lee began a successful career as a journalist at the Chicago Tribune. His award-winning crime stories began gracing the front pages. Despite the success, Lee’s life was joyless, and soon his world began to unravel. Central to his selfish pursuits had always been the belief that there was no God. To him, the idea of a loving Creator was absurd. But when his wife came home from church one day with the news that she had placed her trust in Jesus Christ, Lee stood dumbfounded. Unable to deny the dramatic change in her, Lee decided to combine his legal training and journalistic savvy to systematically pick apart Christianity. Two years later, his journey through the evidence took him to the same place it has taken millions of skeptics throughout history: the foot of the cross. I talked to Lee recently about the genuine joy Christians experience. “I am so bowled over by the fact that God would forgive someone who led such a disgusting and immoral life for so many years,” he said. “There is a daily sense of wonder that God has not only adopted me as a son, but given me a ministry reaching out to people like I once was. The joy of it all overwhelms me.” I know of no better reason in all the world to celebrate than this: we didn’t get what we deserved. We got grace. We may not have 200 things to laugh about today, but we can try. And we can always find joy in the relationship Christ offers. Phil Callaway is the author of ‘Family Squeeze: Hope and Hilarity of a Sandwiched Generation.’ Visit him at www.laughagain.org.
Closet Faith by Rhonda Rhea I decided that if my daughter’s closet was ever going to get a good cleaning I was going to have to inspire her by helping her — from the inside. It was either that or toss in a grenade. I probably shouldn’t confess that I did look around for an aisle marked “Miscellaneous Explosives” at Wal-Mart. But since I never found it, we had to go in. Oh, the frightening things a mother must do! Mind you, Kaley was 15 at the time and we’d only lived in the house three years. Still, from the look of it, that closet hadn’t had a cleaning for a couple of decades. I thought about the origin of the word “closet.” Isn’t it from the Greek, “closetorium,” which means “where the dog wouldn’t even throw up?” We found broken crayons stuck to an old sucker stick. We were both amazed that there was so much stickiness when it had been over two years since she’d eaten it (the sucker, not the crayons). We found a math paper from third grade, the box from her SpongeBob clock, her cheerleading uniform from three years before, and a VCR she had taken apart and couldn’t get back together. But do you know what’s worse than 6,000 VCR pieces? Eight thousand price tags! She still had the tags from every item purchased over the last six years. Maybe it would’ve been better if we’d just closed the closet door. Couldn’t I at least just close my eyes? No, I guess that’s not always best. The book of Second Kings in the Bible tells of a time when a warring king had surrounded Elisha’s entire city. It says “there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere,” (6:15). They were in a situation a gazillion times stickier than any two-year-old sucker. Elisha’s servant asked what in the world they should do and Elisha replied, “Don’t be afraid! For our army is bigger than theirs!” I can imagine Elisha’s servant fighting the urge to say, “So, Elisha — math is not your thing, huh?” But Elisha did something grand that he really didn’t have to do. He asked God to open his servant’s eyes. Verse 17 says, “The Lord opened the young man’s eyes so that he could see horses of fire and chariots of fire everywhere upon the mountain!” A heavenly army that numbered more than the miscellaneous pieces of any VCR! How many times is my faith about as small as my earthly vision? Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29 of the Bible, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Seeing is believing. But believing without seeing is real faith.That’s a truly priceless faith (no price tag needed). Do you ever wonder what the Heavenly Father might be doing this very minute that we can’t see? Do we trust Him in complete faith even when He doesn’t “open our eyes” to those things? I’m asking God for an eyes-wide-open faith. Even when my eyes are closed. And anytime I have to help my daughter clean her closet again, I’m asking Him for dynamite. Rhonda Rhea is a radio personality and a conference speaker across North America. She is a wife, mother, and author of several fun and fruitful books. Look for her newest book, ‘The Purse-uit of Holiness’ in stores now. Find out more at www.RhondaRhea.org. 
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