God's Humor After Hours

Hey, this is Mike Zwick from If Not For God Podcast, our show.

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But most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Masculine Journey After Hours, a time to go deeper and be more transparent on the topic covered on this week's broadcast. So sit back and join us on this adventure. The Masculine Journey After Hours starts here now. Welcome to Masculine Journey After Hours, and we are talking about a very funny topic. It is. It can be. Well, it should be, but if you were raised on the old movies, God is not funny.

He's serious. But all of us, I think, in this room have experienced God humor, and you're going to hear about it. One of the things that it was sort of a funny thing that happened today, as Carolyn said, had just showed me a clip that showed God laughing hysterically because some parent had prayed, God, I cannot get my children to listen to me.

And he just laughs. And that's kind of what we're talking about, God laughing at his children. Yeah, and laughing with us, you know.

And sometimes it seems more at. Now we're getting transparent on this one, and we're going deeper. So we do amuse God. Oh, there's plenty to laugh about. I mean, there's plenty to laugh about.

Indeed. I'm going to, I'll go ahead and throw my other one in so I can shut up for the rest of the show and go get in the chair that vibrates. But yeah, you guys don't know about that, but we got a chair we fight over getting in here.

And Andy's losing. But one of the interesting times I had with God that was sort of embarrassing is when I was in Divinity School, I had a semester off, and I was planning on just going back. And they said, oh, no, it doesn't work that way.

We have to have a group talk to you about whether or not you should be coming back or not. And long story short, long story short, I like that. It's the microphone. It's words. Most of them weren't. But anyway, went through that process. And after the interview was over with three of the faculty members, one of them had said that we want to make sure that you're not an embarrassment to the cause of Jesus Christ. And that bothered me a lot. And I drove, it was an hour drive to and from seminary. And I was contemplating that. And I basically said to God, you know, if I'm going to embarrass you, just take me out now.

I don't want to be here. No answer. About a month later, same place in the road.

I'm thinking of that. And it's one of the few times I'd know that it's God's voice because it sure wasn't in my head. And it was a, Jim, you embarrass me every day, but I love you. And that's one of my funny stories. And I mean, I just laughed hysterically instead of being the depressed mope that I was the first time. That I was the first time.

Yeah. God has a way of, uh, with humor, getting to the heart of the point. It's not harsh when he said that to you. I'm sure you didn't hear it as harsh, right?

No, it was funny. And it was like your story in the other show. And if you haven't listened to that, what's wrong with you? You should have already.

That's right. You can go back and listen to it. But the other funny, Jim is going to tell us his story now.

Cause I was given the ability to pick who's next. So Jim Brekke, go ahead and share your God humor story, uh, to pick one. Um, one of the things I've learned in life has never tell God, never that he will come back to bite you. But you know, as I was listening to, uh, God brought back a memory to me when I was going through my divorce, I remember being incredibly angry at my wife and, uh, you know, I was going to hop on that religious bandwagon. I was going to sit down and read my Bible.

You know, I was going to make everything better. You know, I was going to be that righteous one. And so, and I couldn't tell you where it was at today, but I distinctly remember picking, picking up God's word. I was in the old Testament.

I can't tell you where it was at, but reading about how the King was upset with his wife because she was being disrespectful and he took her head off. But it was enough to make me laugh that, okay, God, I know you really don't want me to do this, but this was actually pretty funny that God would share that with me. And, but it got me out of the mood I was in. And I think that, you know, sometimes we have to realize that God will share things with us at certain points in time, because he knows what we need. He knows that we need to laugh.

He knows. And I find myself in those serious times that that's when God usually pulls the trigger and says, okay, you're, you're, you're, you're getting too serious about this. Let, let, let, let me poke a little humor into your life.

And the irony is usually so bad that you're like, okay, I get it, God, you know, and try not to take myself so seriously. You're talking, it seems like a weird thing to talk about in humor. But I remember when my father passed away the night before his funeral, my brothers and I went out and spent some time together. But the largest part of that evening was just full of laughter, telling stories about my dad's life, you know, and we laughed so hard. We were outside the house and we laughed so hard. We woke my mom up and I remember her coming out being just incredibly angry with us.

You know, it's like two in the morning at this point. We're just still outside telling stories and laughing. But there's something about that laughter that heals.

I know we talked earlier before the show, but I find myself drawn when I'm really feeling a little depressed into comedy, a comedy movie or a show. I know it's going to make me laugh because it invariably will help pull me out of that. Right. Right. And I think that that's, God knew what life was going to do to us here who knew, man, we better have a sense of humor. Right.

And you see that, you know, I've seen that all through my life. You know, I could give several other stories of, you know, situations that should have been serious, you know, and sometimes it's the expense of others. And I was at work one time and some guy tried to get me fired and I just tried to give him as much grace as I could.

Right. And in the meantime, there was a bunch of non-Christians in the room who was watching me, watching my behavior and asked me, don't you get upset? I says, oh, you don't want to see me.

It's not pretty. If I can take it, bottle it up long enough to take it to the throne of God and give it to him, then I'm good. And of course, one of the guys says, so you tell him you have divine help. It's like, that's exactly what I'm telling you.

Well, as they're all watching this, and we're all part of this project, the guy who ended up trying to get me fired ended up getting displaced. And the day he's handing in all his equipment happened to fall on his, fall on my birthday. And so while everybody's wishing me a happy birthday, he's handing in his equipment.

And it was just like this, the irony did not escape him. Now it's a sad story, but it was one of those situations where God is telling me, I'm in control, put your faith in me, and I will get you through this. Did God also say happy birthday?

God always tells me happy birthday. Is displaced just another nice word for being let go? Yeah. Okay.

Being laid off. Get out. Pack your things.

Don't come back. Yeah. I thought it meant the same thing. Yeah. Okay.

Andy, do you have a story to share with us? But first, before you do that, you have a clip. And the reason I want to play this clip is we don't often think about Jesus's time with the disciples. So you've got a group of 12 or so guys, 13, right? Yeah. Out walking around.

You know, if there's a bunch of guys together, they're going to laugh at some point. And so in this clip from a TV show, The Chosen. Yeah.

Go ahead. Tell us a little bit about it. On The Chosen, I highly encourage everybody that watches that says how good it is. But it's more, you know, we've had our different miniseries on Jesus's life before. I think they really put a lot of time and effort into really going into more of what life would have looked like in the way the disciples, Jesus interacted with other people and all.

And it's just really good. So anyway, in this clip, it's the disciples. They're on their way. I think it's where they're actually on their way to through Samaria where they normally wouldn't go. And you'll hear reference of the length of the trip or whatever and how short it is compared to what it normally would be. But anyway, it gets to talking about Peter and his concern with leaving his wife.

He was the only one. And the punchline is really what we're talking about in Jesus's humor. But you can see here, I can see Jesus saying this. I can see the dialogue like this.

Apparently only half as long as we thought. I'll explain later. Simon, what troubles you? Nothing, just excited for the trip, you know. You can tell me the truth. You're telling me you don't already know what's in my head? That's a conversation for another time.

Now. I'm the only one among us who is married. So you think I should have only called single people? Of course not. And I'm glad you didn't. But Eden will be alone with her email.

You're scared that things could get worse and you wouldn't be there. See? That's what I mean. You already know anyway. Simon, everyone here knows what you're thinking most of the time.

It does not take God's wisdom. Yeah, just reading the Bible, you that you can really see that interaction with Peter and Jesus because you heard every thought that Peter had almost in the Bible. Yeah, and you get to see humor. And you have to think that, again, just get any group of guys together. And at some point, you're going to hear some laughter. When I talk to my oldest son who's no longer playing football, the thing that he misses the most is really not competing on the field. It's the friends in the locker room and the camaraderie, right? Because there's lots of life that's there in the humor and the stories and the things that they go through.

You know, that's really what's missed most of the time. Yeah, and that's why I get from the group. I mean, we got a bunch of clowns in here, that's coming together and... Speak for yourself.

Yeah. But we all enjoy each other. We enjoy laughing with one another, giving each other a hard time. And it's, you know, I personally experience, I believe, the presence of God when that happens. I think that's the way he intends it for us, you know, to really enjoy each other.

It talks about how good is it when brother remain in unity and harmony. So I was actually hoping that Sam would introduce you with your new nickname. He's got several. Clippy. I like to make sure we're covered well with clips. You do a good job. Yeah, yeah.

You do a good job. But, you know, as in brotherly fashion, you know, you pick on one another. You don't seem to be enjoying it as much right now. You were just talking about it a moment ago. All right. You got me. You got me there. So I'll tell something.

So this isn't exactly... I got some stories about where God has shared humor with me, but I just thought this was cool. You know, you've heard... I don't know if you've heard the joke where the dad's talking to the son and, you know, they're like, well, dad, I know what God's name is now. And the father was like, well, really? I didn't, you know, it's like Yahweh?

No, no. You know, it's our father, which art in heaven, Howard be thy name. And it's like, oh, yeah, I always thought that was cool.

So I got to thinking about that. And I was like, God, you know, if you got a last name, you got to have a first name. And he was like, yeah, my name is Art Howard. Our father, which art in heaven, Howard be thy name. So that's what I got.

Search it for a drum roll. God, they gave me Clippy. I gave you your name, Art Howard. There you go. Thank you.

You lost your microphone. We'll have to remember that. Well, I was reminded of a story back in 2010. My wife had a co-worker that was getting ready to be married and she was kind of helping her with the wedding. And she says, well, how's the wedding planning going? And she says, well, she said, we can't find a minister. My wife says, really? Says next week, my husband will be ordained.

Let me ask him. Well, this was the first and last wedding I did on two weeks ago. Last wedding I did on two weeks notice because growing up in a Southern Baptist church and, you know, being legalistic as I still am a lot of the ways, but you're going to do it. You do it right. So I haven't sat down with a couple for one time and didn't get a whole lot of information. I'm a green rookie at this thing. So I didn't ask all the right questions.

So we show up at this community center. They're storming outside and I'm in a suit and the groom is in blue jeans, a rebel flag hat, got knives all the way around. It looks like a ninja coming in and his snakeskin boots. The bride comes in to not the wedding march, but Guns and Roses.

And I'm going, okay, I'm pretty sure this isn't going to go over well. It wasn't welcome to the jungle, was it? It was more like my biggest redneck wedding or something.

It really was. And so I'm just almost appalled at what's going on, but I have to go and do the deal. And just as I said, I now pronounce you man and wife, lightning struck outside. And I almost busted out laughing.

It was God's way of saying it's okay. Okay. Losing up a little bit. But that was the last wedding I did on two weeks notice. But for now. For now.

You don't want to say I'm never doing that again. Well, that's true. Yeah. You may end up with having to do that again.

Yeah, like in two weeks or something. Yeah. So Harold, what do you have to share with us today? Well, if you think God doesn't have a sense of humor, you need to look up a picture of the duckbill platypus.

That's true. And I guess my thoughts about God's sense of humor relative to me is that after having worked so many years as a systems analyst computer programmer, I took a little bit of pride in my problem solving abilities. And I have gotten myself into trouble several times at home, solving problems that my wife did not define as a problem. And I can just picture God up there laughing. And I think he also laughs when he takes people that are at opposite ends of the spectrum on most issues, and they're going to get married and God sits up there and says, now work it out.

So I think he definitely has a sense of humor. Yeah. John and Stacey Eldridge had wrote a book on marriage, and they talked about the divine conspiracy, where there's the little things that rub you in different ways, like especially a married couple that can rub at them. But it's just rounding off the rough edges when you look at it in God's perspective, that those times that, as you talked about, coming home and solving problems that weren't really a problem until you came home. That's what the problem was. You came home, right? And, you know, that's God just up there laughing, saying, okay, we're going to round off a few more edges, even though at that point you'd been married what, 40 some years at that point? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And that was my question. How long have you been married, Howard, now? 56 and a half years. And you've got her figured out now? Well, I know what to expect under certain circumstances. Did you call him Howard? Uh, probably. Well, you're the closest to God's age here. Trust me, I've been called a lot of things worse than Howard.

Art, Howard, yeah. I am going to go ahead and play another clip. We don't really play a couple clips of this, but I want to tell you the thing that probably makes God laugh the most is in this clip, and that's what I want to play. It's from Evan Almighty.

But I think this is where God finds the most humor in his children, which would be all of us. So you're really him, aren't you? You want more proof?

I haven't done the pillow soft thing in a while. That's all right. I believe you. I just, I don't understand why you chose me. You want to change the world, son. So do I. What?

Why an arc? I mean, that's like flood territory. You wouldn't do that again. You wouldn't do that.

Would you do that? Let's just say that whatever I do, I do because I love you. Well, then you have to understand that this whole building and arc thing is really not part of my plans here. I need to settle into my house.

I need to make a good impression at work. What? Your plans. What are you talking about? We're talking about an arc, right?

I mean, an arc, an arc is huge. I don't even know where I would begin. Well, I hear that a lot. People want to change the world. Don't know how to begin. You want to know how to change the world, son?

One act of random kindness at a time. Hey. Hey. What are you doing here?

Just hanging out with some old friends. You did good, son. You changed the world.

No, no, I didn't. Well, let's see. Spending time with your family, making them very happy. Gave that dog a home. Right.

So? How do we change the world? One act of random kindness at a time. One act of random kindness. Wow. Our plans.

There's a couple things in that clip that I liked about it. But really, how many times do we get all caught up in our plans? Not that God doesn't want us to make plans. But, you know, you hear in Evan's heart this almost an inflexible... I'm not going to be flexible with my plans, God, even though your plans are better for my heart, right? And so he, you know, has him go out and build this arc, which happened to be an acronym for acts of random kindness, right?

So it fits in the arc motif. And so he did change the world. But the world that he changed was his family, and adopting a dog, and the people he'd come in contact with. And I think that that's another thing that brings God humor, is I think a lot of times, we think that we need to have this great big grand gesture, this great big mission, this great big ministry. And he's like, oh, no, it starts at home. It starts with the kindness with the people around you. It starts there. If you really want to change the world for generations, change your household.

I love the clip, too. I did have one problem with it, which I mentioned. And then I realized, if it went my way, it would be ache. And that just doesn't sound right.

I think the acts of kindness need to be intentional rather than random. But it's amazing how happy that can make you. It is. It is. Jim, was there something you wanted to say?

Hey, I'm just thinking to myself, how many detours have I been on in my life where I'm going, all right, God, I don't know why you're doing it this way, but I'm going to trust you. And it usually ends up, and you guys have heard me before talk about the house, where we had moved in the middle of COVID. I had no clue why, other than it was a house we liked. And we added 900 square foot for a couple of... Plan on downsizing.

That's not what I call downsizing. Turns out God had other plans for that another 900 square foot. And my stepson and granddaughter ended up moving in with us because they had a death in their family. And I could sit here all night long and talk about the detours God has taken me on. And some of those detours, I went kicking and screaming, like, no, I don't want to go down this road.

But many were pleasant along the way. Yeah, I think that's part of God's humor is what we see is a distraction. What we see, not even as an enticement at the time, is God saying, look, I know more what your heart needs than what you know, right?

And I'm going to help you find it if you just let me. Now, Jim, I want to share something. God had kind of given you an indicator when he gave you part of your new name. Yes, yes. And you guys remember I said, no, I don't want to do this.

Hey, and what Sam is referring to is last boot camp, or this boot camp at the summer, God had shared with me your new name as host. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm a very private person. I like my alone time.

I like being in a house with just me and my wife. I don't want to host anybody, but God has other plans for us. It's like being part of this ministry. I had never planned on getting involved in this ministry until one day I'm at a camp and I'm watching these guys struggle with something I knew I could help them out with.

And I, you know, I was like, okay, I can't sit back anymore. And I'm glad I did it because I found a great band of brothers, you know, in this group that I'm meeting with now every week. And that's where God's sense humor comes in is that he'll lead us in these places if we follow him, right? And sometimes even when we don't want to follow him, he leads us there anyway, right?

But he will help us find that life that our heart really needs. You know, and we'll look back and looking back, don't you kind of have to laugh at the new name now, Jim? Right? I mean, honestly, don't you have to go?

Yes, yes. It seems like I've been hosting a lot of things from kids to pets to random cats that have shown up at my front doorstep. So yeah, it's, it's been interesting. Now, the other question is, how much joy has it brought you? It's brought you probably some tremendous joy. It does, you know, it I've seen relationships improve with, you know, my wife and her son.

I've seen, you know, a relationship grow and blossom between our granddaughter and us that probably we wouldn't have had if they had not been within our house. Yeah, yeah. And so God's just sitting back laughing on you.

You thought you knew what you needed. Exactly. And that is, brings to mind the one thing in that clip is that we make plans and God laughs. But if we are willing to give up our plans, we're going to laugh a whole lot more following God. Absolutely. Thank you, Jim.

And what a great topic. And what I'd ask you to do is pray this week and say, God, remind me of the times that you've helped me see things through humor, right? And open your eyes to that, right? And he may not choose to deal with you in that way, the same way he does with each one of us. But I promise you when you ask him, he'll come back and he'll remind you of the times. He said, remember this, when you thought you needed this and I gave you this, you know, those types of things. And you're going to find the humor that you're looking for. And it's going to draw you closer to him.

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