Only five more days of our reading through the bible. Can you believe it has been a year? Many have kept up with the reading and will complete their read through the bible in five days. Many others have not completed reading through the bible but they have been faithfully reading at a slower pace. Both groups of people will be blessed for their faithfulness in exposing themselves to God’s Word on a regular basis.
The 26th chapter of Proverbs focuses on the fool…again! A very dominant theme of the proverbs returns. But I want to focus on verse 18 which talks about something that I have experienced often and probably have been guilty of on occasion. It says, “like a madman shooting firebrands or deadly arrows is a man who deceive his neighbor and says, “I was only joking.”
I was just talking about this with a colleague today. Humor is often used as a cover for criticism and ungraciousness. Someone says or does something and another person will say something “funny” in response to it. Then, if the reaction is negative, they can say, “just kidding.” The truth is they were NOT kidding. They were using humor to say something indirectly that they do not have the courage to say directly or they know it is not kind or gracious and so they mask their unkindness with humor. Humor can be healing or it can cut to the bone. The prioverbs say that a person who uses humor in such a way is deceitful and is like a person shooting arrows tipped with fire. They are very destructive to whatever the target. This is a form of sarcasm but when used with a twist of humor it is provides an “out” for the person speaking. Humor can be used to help a person feel part of the group and included or it can be used for the exact opposite–to make them feel embarassed and excluded. This is why the writer of proverbs likens it to fire tipped arrows that could set a whole village on fire. The person may be a “wise-guy” but definetly not wise, according to the proverbs. This person is a fool.
We need to learn to speak the truth in love if we have a criticism and to use humor only when the purpose is truly to bring joy to another person’s life.