Saturday, December 6, 2008

"Laughter is the Best Medicine"

I read a book several years ago, "The Humor of Christ." I can't type the author's name because I think someone borrowed the book and if it was you, please bring it back! I do believe one of the characteristics of a follower of Christ should be an ability to see and enjoy those moments that you laugh at yourself, others, and enjoy life. This picture is of Kathy Clark, on the left, and my wife, Chris, on the right playing Wii and laughing at each other until we were exhausted. I always enjoy being with Jeff and Kathy because they are always able to make me laugh!



Yesterday was a tough mile of the marathon. Chris has strep throat and still took me to McKinney Regional Cancer Institute for tests in the morning and then to the hospital for a bone marrow biopsy. I won't go into the details, but suffice it to say that since I still have staples in my back, the day and the testing was a challenge. I also now have an extra hole in my lower extremeties. I couldn't eat or drink for 16 hours before the procedures, so the day ended with the best cup of coffee I have ever had at Starbuck's, the humble abode of angels and caffeine. I will update everyone on the battle with cancer later. For now just laugh with me.
"So where is the laughter," you ask? Our nurse at the hospital, Leeann, did a wonderful job of preparing me for the surgery. As she was reading my file (yes, I have a large one now!), she commented that God may have saved my life with a sneeze, which is how I had my first back pain. Before I could respond, because I always respond verbally, we were interupted by the dark angel from the lab, to draw more blood. Soon Chris had to leave the room and I was put to sleep for the biopsy. The next thing I am aware of is Leeann patting my cheek and saying, "Kevin, I need you to take deep breaths. You are making alarms go off." As I was returning to the real world I recognized my nurse and if you know me, I still had thoughts that I had not verbalized and they were like hot lava, needing to be released. I said with a drug induced, thick tongue, "Leeann, are you a Christian?" She smiled at me sweetly and said, "No, not yet. I need to clean up the room and the blood first."
I know I am a member of the coach's fraternity and we have been labeled as mentally challenged at times, but this conversation now had me completely perplexed. She wasn't a Christian yet, so I was assuming she was pondering this decision in her life. I was now fighting the anethesia fog with all my might as I realized the weight of the dialogue. But what about the blood? Was she struggling with the Jesus' sacrifice for us? What room? At this point she looked at me and I guess saw the look on my face and said, "What did you ask?" I repeated my question and she began to laugh so hard. I wanted to laugh with her, but what was funny? She said through tears of laughter, "I thought you asked "Leeann, is Chris with me?"
Soon Chris was in the room with me and we continued to laugh. The last 3 weeks have had a profound heaviness, but each day Chris and I have found a reason to laugh. I hope you have laughed with us today. I agree with Peggy Noonan who said:
"Humor is the shock absorber of life; it helps us take the blows and survive."

1 comment:

.:rweaver:. said...

I am pretty confident that the author of the book you mentioned at the beginning of this blog is Elton Trueblood (Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0060686324/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books).

This information is courtesy of a little-known and under-used internet tool called "google". Give me a call later and I will walk you through the details of using said internet search engine.

Anywho... Boomer Sooners! Love you Pops...




(press on)