Ready for the laughter?

"(Jesus) said, 'Go away, because the little girl isn't dead but is asleep;' but they laughed at him." -- Matthew 9: 24

Most will concentrate on the death there, but I immediately go to the "laughed at him."

I wonder, have we ever admitted to ourselves that the No. 1 thing that keeps us from witnessing as much as we should, certainly as much as we could, is the fear of being embarrassed?

We know. We know. It makes little sense. It simply is the way it is. We love Jesus. But we fear we will get into an argument and, we don't know (we say with a simmering blush), we're afraid we will lose it. We're afraid we will be, we don't know, associated with all those "right-wing nuts." We're afraid. There we said it. Fear like mud in a bog coats us, the religious, the righteous, the glorified, the sanctimonious. When it comes right down to it, we're afraid we will be caught with our love down and then all we're left with is our, uh, beliefs. And if those beliefs are counter to the group we're in, and oh, you know they always are, and it's the group we work with or we want so desperately to fit into, then we're afraid to mention, uh, uh, "Do you mind if I tell you about how much I love Jesus?"

Because, because, if we did, then we would have to admit how much we believe He loves us, and then, then, then we might be ridiculed by those who believe that everything is fine and Jim-Beam dandy if you're happy. Oh, happiness is wealth and health and don't get in my way while I walk to the bank. We might get laughed at if we tell someone that we think the Bible differs with the everything is A-OK if you love someone, anyone, and want to be married, or if someone wants do do anything at all it's their business so you should keep your ever-loving Christian, right-wing, know-it-all nose out of their business. Whewwwwwwwww. Glad we got that over with.

And, oh my goodness on a full moon, they MIGHT JUST LAUGH AT US if we say something is called a sin in the Bible, though we will be amazed that bothers those who say they don't care about the Bible. And if they ridicule or laugh or eventually because they always do get mad at us, we might have to walk away from the group we sooooooo much wanted to be a part of with our tail between our legs or worse we might just raise our voice in return and even yell when the laughter would stop and the accusations would begin and they might just call us a BIGOT or even worse when all we wanted to do, tried to do, thought about doing was telling someone about the incredible love of the man-God called Jesus. And we walk away having done the very thing they would accuse us of.

So we don't say anything at all. And another day passes with so very many lost and least not sought at all.

Because goodness gracious great balls of firey laughter we couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't want to be snickered at.

Luckily we serve a God who could take laughter at his antics and simply smile back and love even the haters. We serve a God who wasn't affected by what the crowd thought or what the religion of the day believed or even what people thought about dead raising.

Oh, and try and tell someone about that....