Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” (Psalm 126:2, NIV)
Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:3, NIV)
Scripture’s writers weren’t quite sure what to do with laughter. Was it a good thing, or something to be disdained?
Sometimes we don’t know whether to laugh ourselves—until we know the end of the story. Such was the case for Cody Blick.
If in the waiting you are looking for God, truly interested in seeing what he is doing in your life, you will be ready to receive the outcome well.After reaching the final stage of the PGA Tour’s Q School last week, where competitors play for positioning and exemptions on the Web.com Tour, Blick found himself struggling through the first three rounds. He would need a strong Sunday push to land in the top 40 and get the maximum number of exemptions (eight) given to players other than the winner. Blick was thinking 64.
But as he and his housemates were fixing breakfast in their rented home in Phoenix, his caddie’s fiancée came in and asked where his clubs were. The garage door was open and the clubs were nowhere in sight. They had been stolen.
Blick used social media to put out an all-call and offer a reward, but time was short, so he soon turned to this club rep and the course’s pro shop. They assembled a set of clubs as close as they could to what Blick knew. This is no easy task when you’re talking about tour-level precision. He wound up with a mishmash.
Then Blick went out and shot 63.
In the end, Blick was laughing about it all. Naturally. Mission now accomplished, he had nailed down those eight exemptions. “This is the weirdest week of my life, hands down,” Blick, who had also cracked a driver head on Saturday, said. “But a great week. It was awesome.”
Maybe you’re at a place in your life where you’re wondering whether to laugh or to cry. You’re thinking of this rightly if you don’t want to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. Where Scripture is clear is that flippant laughter is inappropriate, but laughing with joy at what the Lord has done is a perfect expression of praise.
Like Cody Blick, you may have to wait a dayful of hours before knowing whether to laugh. Indeed, you may have to wait far longer than that. But if in the waiting you are looking for God, truly interested in seeing what he is doing in your life, you will be ready to receive the outcome well—with your faith strengthened and the right kind of response, be it laughter, tears, or something in between.
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Jeff Hopper
December 12, 2018
Copyright 2018 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.