LAUGHABLE

“Elmo” has been a part of our household for more than three decades. He's had a few battery “transplants,” but remains a dependable source of laughter. Just tickle his tummy. HA HA HA HA HA.....He's a good way to pull a grandson out of a funk. Ditto, me.

I'm not saying that a toy is my path to joy. Far from it. To be honest, this toy reminds me of a piece of art--the one in Proverbs 31 that we call a portrait of a “virtuous woman.” Her resume: hard-working, resourceful, wise, kind, generous, compassionate, strong with dignity, confident, joyful. Especially her confidence and industriousness inspire me. She doesn't go around blaming people and circumstances. Bad things happen to all of us. Some keep sucking on lemons and are known as complainers. The others make lemonade, knowing the “sweetening” to make the sour tolerable will come from a close relationship with Jesus.

I've thought a lot about the phrase in verse 25, “She laughs at the future,” the word “laugh” chosen for some English translations from the Hebrew word sachaq. In our culture, that word choice can easily be misconstrued as, “Are you kidding? Can things get any worse?” But sachaq has this range of meanings: “laugh, deride, play, rejoice.” In Proverbs 8:30-31 it expresses God's delight in creating the heavens and all the earth.

This is no tickle-the-red-fuzzy-creature laugh. It's one connected to wisdom and confidence. Some Bible translations use “rejoice,” as “She rejoices in the time to come.” And there will be time to come—or at “our” time on earth to end—for God's something more. I think that's the key to unlocking this verse. This chapter's description of “The Virtuous Woman”--who is the ultimate homemaker, supportive spouse, wise mother, and part-time businesswoman--has a God-focus. She's not bitter about her circumstances, but rises above complaint to do the best she can, Quite frankly, in our culture, I think she'd shove her television in a closet and guard against time-wasters on her computer or smart phone. (I smile to think of a smart phone in a Bible-times clay house...)

Would she keep a laughing Elmo toy on the shelf? If they'd had batteries in those days, maybe. But batteries deplete. The joy-of-the-Lord has a limitless source of power.

Think tank: "of good report"

With hedge-like foliage and less-dense blossoms, these "bush roses"
provide a boundary for the front of our yard, hopefully adding
to a "good report" impression of the people living here!

A series on Philippians 4:8.
Ah—words from the past, back to my childhood. Who said them to me, I can’t remember, but I can still hear the haughty tone in which the youthful speaker delivered them:  “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all!”  Words have the power to lift or to wound, and children are especially adept at the wounding skills. The apostle Paul certainly experienced “wounding.” In listing the good, bad and ugly he’d been subjected to as a Christian leader, he said he’d been target of “bad report and good report” (2 Corinthians 6:8).

I wonder if he had those reports in mind when he penned his list of things to think about, and included “whatever is of good report.” The original Greek word is euphemos, from which  we get our English word “euphemism,” defined as “the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.”  You’ve probably heard the witty story of a family that hired a writer to put together a family history.  They didn’t know what to do with a black sheep family member who was electrocuted after being convicted of murder.  So this is what the writer came up with: “He occupied the chair of applied electricity at one of this nation’s well-known institutions. He was committed to his position and literally died in the harness.”

Okay, done with jokes.  The Bible’s euphemos has a more positive spin, referring to “words or sounds of good omen.”   The “sounds” may refer to non-verbal ways, like grunts or sighs, to indicate agreement. 

I find each of Paul’s “think on these things” challenging. But this one really ties together the thought-life and the mouth-life. When I run against something negative, can I hand it over to God for help in finding that kernel of “good report”?

About thirty-five years ago I went through a discouraging, negative situation. I was unemployed, grieving, and working as hard as I could to empty out my parents’ home after their deaths so it could be sold. One day a former colleague called, asking me to do a special writing assignment for her publication. I was so discouraged and doubtful of my abilities that I tried to turn her down.  She wouldn’t accept my “no.”  Wisely, she knew accomplishing something outside my negatives would be helpful in my long journey to wellness.  “I have a Bible verse for you,” she said.  I could almost see this short, intense older woman standing hands-on-hips with a finger wagging at me. “It’s Nehemiah 8:20, ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’”  I accepted her rebuke, and the assignment, and it turned out a good thing for me to do. She turned my “bad report” (of my emotional state) to a “good report” of hope for how the Lord would help stretch me and heal me.

Turning “bad reports” into “good reports” is a lifelong learning process.  It helps to keep eternity’s purposes in mind.  Jonathan Edwards, the famed Puritan preacher, had a list of “resolutions” he followed, and one was this: “Resolved, never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.” Our ability to faithfully share “good reports” that glorify Christ  will impact others long after we’re gone.

Next: "virtue"