Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and a lot of my friends are posting on Facebook about green beer, and going out to the pub. But one of my friends posted something that just cracked me up. It’s an old clip from The Muppet Show. It’s silly and it’s frivolous and it’s fun.

Sometimes during Lent, people get the sense that laughter is not ok. That we are meant to be downcast and heavy hearted for the entire journey. But I don’t think that’s realistic. Life is weird, friends. It can have you crying one minute and then giggling like a fool the next. Real life is kind of messy that way – emotions don’t stay in nice neat categories, they spill over each other and weave through each other.

And life is the richer for it. God made us to laugh (and to cry, and to feel all the other things we feel), and though there are times when it is inappropriate to do so (which makes whatever is funny all the funnier…don’t you think?), for the most part I think God delights in our laughter.

So watch and laugh my friends, and when you do – try to feel God’s delight.

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.
Proverbs 17:22 NLT