One late
Sunday night, my friend came home after a hectic day of ministry. I happened to
be standing at my door with a bottle of water. He stretched out his hand on a
buoyant face to quench his thirst. I just said (pretending to be rude), “No! Go
and drink in your room. You have fresh water in your room. It's just upstairs.”
I was busy conversing with the pastor who was with him. He smiled tacitly with
a little wear of embarrassment on his face and went upstairs. I went back
to my room and engaged myself in what I had been doing before.
Then I
lay down to sleep, the picture of my thirsty friend came as a flashback. I just
felt bad because I chose to make fun when he was really in need of water. I
remembered Matthew 10:42, where the word of God says clearly, “And whoever
gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a
disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” I
thought to myself, “Oh! I have forfeited the blessings.” I decided to apologize
to him the next morning, and I did.
Of
course, he knew I was just grabbing an opportunity to make fun of him, which we
often did to one another. Moreover, his room was not far away. He had chilled
water inside his refrigerator well-suited and well-timed to battle the humid
environment. After all, my water was just warm, he would not like it. However,
I was not right; for I preferred making fun over helping him. It occurred to me
that I was fun-saturated more than Bible-saturated (at least at that moment!)
I must
have done like that many times before. We often choose to laugh at people
instead of doing good things for them. We must be gospel-oriented, not
fun-oriented people. I admit I must have sacrificed many noble works at the
altar of fun and sense of humor. Jesus had a sense of humor when He dealt with
the need of a Syrophoenician woman to cast out a demon from her
daughter; but He did heal her too (Mark 7:26-30). Any sense of humor or fun
without actual help is not Christianly. It is said that when Paul Washer was
asked why he was so serious all the times, he answered, “The gospel of Jesus -
heaven and hell is a serious stuff; so must I.” If there is a choice between
seriousness and fun, I believe we must choose seriousness because we have been
too much to fun and seldom to seriousness.
I also
remember one day in a classroom, a wall fan felt over one of the students. By
the grace of God, he was spared from major injury. The students were so
relieved to realize that he did not get hurt, that we all burst out laughing.
The professor reproved us to not laugh at adversity.
I also
remember reading a book of Ravi Zacharias, where he recounted the incident of
crowds laughing heartily in one of the streets of India. He went to see what
was happening. He was shocked that people were laughing at the sight of
somebody making fun of a beggar. We are not supposed to laugh at sin or
injustice, or pain or suffering or adversity. Nor are we to laugh at God, the
holy God. Our generation does not know how to be serious anymore. They would do
anything for fun!!! Are you a fun-oriented person? Be a gospel-oriented one! Are
you funny? Come on, be serious also! After all, the Son of man did not come to
give a fun, but to call the sinners to repentance. That is serious – it is hell
or heaven.
