The Hilarity of God
Whatever comes into your heart and mind
When you think about God
Is the most important thing about you.
-- A.W. Tozer
I believe that the closer we are to God, the more humorous or even hilarious God becomes. If you’ve ever heard two spiritual masters, Benjamim Tutu or the Dalai Lama, speak you may have noticed that they chuckle almost continually. Their God is funny! Just noticing that begs the question of who our God is. Is your God wise, stern, absent, loving, judgmental, cunning, mysterious, punishing, humorous, or merciful? Think about the source of your image and the repercussions of your answer. Hold that thought as you read this essay, dear reader.
We will explore the various ways in which the humor or even the hilariousness of God displays itself in our lives. Whether we think of God as humorous or not, God breaks through our constraints and restraints in creative ways. I’d like to suggest a few of God’s humorous ways of touching us. I’m choosing three aspects of God’s humor to focus on; God’s playful humor, God’s “warped” humor, and God’s miraculous or mystical humor. Hopefully, even the word humor connected with God may expand your ideas or experiences of God.
I will, of course, include stories, poems and questions to draw you into this experience as deeply as you choose to go. My desire is for you, dear reader, to see, appreciate, or experience another dimension of God. Hopefully you already have! If so, share your stories with others so the idea of God is delightfully enlarged.
John O’Donohue invites us to hear the laughter of God in his blessing, For Equilibrium. “May your prayer of listening deepen enough to hear in the depths the laughter of God.” Here we go…
God’s Playful Humor
God’s humor comes through in the everyday things of our lives even in embarrassing moments. But all of God’s humor comes with love and a rib-tickling pleasure. Teresa of Avila (who as you know is one of my favorite saints) wrote a poem in which God is inviting her to enjoy their connection. God said to her “enjoy me,” and then whispered, “I know a song. Would you like to hear it?” She said yes and it was joyful…you’ll have to wait to the end of the essay to find out exactly what happened!
I love that story of joy, humor and intimacy with God. So, I asked God to share a song with me. I was hoping for the Hallelujah Chorus or a thrilling lyric but God, in God’s playful humor whispered “Tutti Frutti sung by Elvis Presley.” Ever since, when I get discouraged or bring my wonderings to God I hear wise counsel. And I hear Tutti Frutti as well. I chuckle and watch as my world gets back into better balance.
Here are some other ways God’s playfulness, silliness, sweetness, or closeness shows up for me or others. See which ones are familiar for you and ask whether they may be God’s presence in your life.
*Finding things in unusual places that remind you of a deeper connection. Some people find coins or other items that are welcome signs from deceased loved ones. One friend always anticipated a robin at her daughter’s grave. The robin was special because her daughter’s name was Robin. Currently I’m finding sparkles and feathers in unusual and humorous places that make me chuckle and remind me of God. This morning at coffee with a friend, I looked down and there was a tiny feather embedded in a stitch of my jacket cuff. We both laughed. I also find God hiding things from me in playful ways. Almost every time I do a jigsaw puzzle one piece is absent. It always shows up eventually in various places and I say to God, “you think you are pretty cute, don’t you.” Divine inventive humor?
*Slips of tongue that surprise us. Sometimes when we need to laugh at ourselves or be reminded of something we are avoiding, we inadvertently say the wrong thing, to our embarrassment. It’s like calling our new unsatisfying date by our old unhealthy boyfriend’s name. Or our slips of tongue can be a bit more serious. One friend said, “my father said something difficult to me right before I died.” Whoa. These could be playful ways to gently invite us to look at something we might not have thought of. Divine gentle humor?
*Unpredictable laughter coming out of the blue. Sometimes we just experience something that touches our funny bone and won’t let go. We may not have made the connection of meaning if we hadn’t laughed so hard. Two things come to mind here. One was the clever and very funny posters that surfaced during our stressful ICE occupation in my city to give us respite from the occupation. Too pithy to reveal here! Or there were those that added a gentle humorous punch we all needed, like “Only Love Melts ICE, or “In the land of 10,000 lakes we know how to deal with ICE.” Divine chuckling humor?
Another was a car dealership logo on the back of a car in front of me at a stop light. It described in a play-on-words the unwelcome behavior of that dealership’s owner regarding women, which had come out recently in the news. Being a former recipient of that kind of behavior, it just struck me that even the dealership sign depicted his behavior. I couldn’t stop laughing because it was so cathartic to experience this strange twist of words. I will spare you the details. Just trust me, it still makes me laugh to this day. Divine healing humor?
*Our pets acting in our best interests. Pets show us playful sides of the Divine in many ways when we most need to do something or not do something. This may be God’s way of remaining anonymous. My twenty-two-pound cat, Mr. Nelson, would sit directly on my keyboard after I had been on my computer for more than two hours. He knew that I would just keep going if I didn’t have incentive to stop! And when I was busy and it was time to take a yoga nap he would lie on his back next to my chair in what I called the inverted lotus position. Divine creative humor?
*Nature’s joyful exuberance. God’s playful joy in nature. First buds of spring. First snowfall. Owls staring. Birds chirping invisibly within a bush. Trees whispering in the breeze. Parrots. Fireflies. Tropical fish. Turtle head blooms. Divine awesome humor?
Here’s a poem of mine that depicts what I think God is doing behind all the things that we enjoy so much or long for.
Multiply that by Infinity
Have you ever been/so filled with joy/you felt you might/burst with delight.
All your dreams/vibrate with possibility/colors shimmer with energy/the air heavy with hope.
Time stands still if only/for a brief instant/and you glimpse/through a thin veil/the miracle of eternity.
Multiply that by infinity/and you have a glimpse/of God’s heart.
Questions for Reflection
What are some ways you suspect God might be showing up in delightfully humorous ways in your life?
What do you think or feel when considering that these signs are of God?
Do these experiences alter or confirm your image of God that you chose at the beginning of this essay? Why?
Now I can imagine a few of you playful skeptics saying to yourselves, “that’s what Janet thinks but how can she be sure God is in all those things? It may be wishful thinking to see God in all things.” I hear you dear skeptics. I do lean into seeing God in all things and at times, it sounds too good to be true for me as well. Yet the intimacy I feel with God and the humor it sparks are my private proof. And really, how can you know, really know, it’s NOT God??
I’ll humbly thank you for inadvertently paying me a high compliment, that you think I love seeing God in all things. I would most desire God to be known experientially not just thought about! And after facing into my possible demise a few years ago, I feel more real, honest and vulnerable in my writing so I can admit to also thinking that everything is holy now. Yet if you, dear reader, have had enough of this God and humor stuff please stop here. But if you choose to go ahead, be prepared for an even more widespread experience of God’s humor. Yikes.
God’s “Warped” humor
I’ve alluded to God’s “warped” humor, which I sense invites us into deeper territory. What I mean is that God’s humor is not all silly or funny or joyful. Some things are not funny on the surface but the way in which God brings them to our attention does defy rational thought and may make us chuckle even while cringing! These camouflaged humor happenings sometimes reveal our shadows in need of healing or our stories in need of mending. If we can step back and take in this sideways humor, we can eventually just chuckle too. Essentially the joke is always on us!
*Repeated experiences in a short time. Once when I was trying to deal with a difficult woman named Sandra, four other Sandras appeared in my life within a few months. A few of them were also women I needed to gently shift my relationship with, and a few were just new random acquaintances, but they were all part of the humor of the Sandras. I mentioned to God that it felt like it was “raining Sandras” and that it was a rather insistent and humorous call to do my inner work. Divine reminder humor?
*Unconscious desires or requests. When I was in spiritual direction training, we were asked every quarter to name the cutting edges in our practice, those issues or people we were fearful of or at least not sure how to accompany. Each time I named my cutting edge, within a month or two a client representing my edge came into my sphere. When I laughingly told my supervisor that I would not be naming my cutting edges any more he said, “Oh Janet, you enjoy being in over your head!” He was right. The process of naming cutting edges seemed to be a divine direction for my practice, and I needed to trust it more, trust God more. Divine guidance humor?
*Humor in death. Many people report the surprising occurrence of humor in the wake of the death of a loved one. To some it seems inappropriate but to others it is a cathartic release of grief and a humorous respite from the relentlessness or heaviness of it all. Friends have reported being with family members telling stories of their loved ones which causes all of them to laugh almost hysterically. When my brother died, I recalled several memories of him in his teenage years while laughing with one of his friends. This is a favorite story: my brother had what was called a duck tail hair cut which was all the rage back then, and my brother had a lot of hair with a lot of Brylcreem in it! He also loved to drive and at a senior formal in high school he had an accident, denting the front fender of our new car. We were driving to Florida the next day so there was a lot of activity later that day and night to get the car fixed. As a result, we nicknamed my brother “hairy Gary the fender bender.” I still laugh about that and eventually I think he did too! Divine grief humor?
*Unsolicited Emotions. For a year or so I had what I now call the gift of tears. I was not depressed or grieving but I would break out in tears for no apparent reason, driving my car, meeting with a friend, reading, walking. Nothing obvious seemed to prompt the tears. My spiritual director saw the larger sacred meaning and told me that St. Ignatius had the same experience for a year and wrote a small book about it. Yikes. I never expected tears to be holy, just sad or maybe joyful. For him the tears lead to deeper intimacy with God and important discernment for his newly formed Jesuit order. For me, I had not been fully aware of the deeper call to intimacy in my life, nor to the discernment that my soul was facing. Once I read his book, I found a strong sense of comfort and lightness in the tears-- as a gift or a divine and holy twist to the tears. Once I acknowledged the intimacy and made the decision my soul yearned for, the tears stopped. Divine twist of humor?
Here is a quote from another favorite author that depicts how we may view all the aspects of our lives--the humorous and the painful-- as fathomless mystery.
Listen to your Life
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” Frederick Buechner, from Now and Then
Questions for Reflection
What camouflaged or “warped” humor have you experienced that felt orchestrated for your higher good?
How did these experiences affect the way you live or see yourself?
How did they alter or confirm your image of God?
Miraculous or mystical humor
In this section we will see how God infuses our entire lives with mystical -and I’d add humorous-experiences. Yet, to absorb the mystical humor of God in these experiences, we need to enlarge our definition and understanding of humor. A wider definition involves more of a wholistic sense of oneself living into a certain demeanor towards life, a habitual disposition as a person of good humor, a lightness of being. This lightness of being allows us to see all of life as amusing, paradoxical, juicy, absurd, awe inspiring, weird, or comforting. It is an outgrowth of deeper intimacy with God and invites a shift in being which is almost impossible to put into words. It’s like moving between the visible and invisible worlds, the eternal and earthly, until you can’t tell the difference. Another way of saying this is that our very countenance becomes a symbol of God’s good-humored Presence in the world. At times we may even become One with that Presence. Hence, we can see God in everything and therefore everything is holy.
Embracing this lightness of being brings us to the stance of our souls “always standing ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience,” as Emily Dickenson says so well. Let’s look at a few of these miraculous and mystical experiences as holy good humor. Perhaps transcendence!
*Music or lyrics that transport us. Have you ever listened or sung music that makes you cry, or takes you to a different era in your life that you now relive like it is in real time? Bridge Over Troubled Water brings me back to high school with my best friend pledging to be there for each other. I can still feel the experience.
Does music even tap into something eternal in us? I think so. I had to stop driving one Sunday morning on the way to church listening on the radio to Lang Lang play a Chopin piece. It wasn’t just the music that moved me but the way in which he played it. He brought me to tears. I got another recording of him playing the same music, but it just wasn’t the same. When I found the exact rendition that I had heard, I cried again. And each time I hear music that brings tears it is a good sign that music is reaching somewhere deep within me. Music is universal and I believe music connects us to all beings, even non-human beings. Bird calls in spring, trees talking to one another, dog’s and cat’s unspoken love sounds. And I’m now learning that we each have our special note. Transcendence!
*Dreams. Perhaps one of the most common yet mystical experiences we all receive from beyond is dreams. We don’t know how they appear, but we can learn a great deal from them if we take time to process them. I see them as postcards from God. They are filled with wisdom, weirdness, tension, healing, guidance, wonder, danger, humor-whatever we need at the time. Nightmares suggest we need additional supportive help, but most dreams simply help us process our subconscious lives. Like many of you I’ve had repeated dreams, scary dreams, humorous dreams, heroic dreams and warning dreams.
In one memorable dream I was sitting in my coffin with a business suit on surrounded by several men who were there to close the cover! You can only imagine how I processed that dream. A lovely dream was the one I had that gave me the visual and words for a personal growth model I had been developing, a design that became the core of one of my books. And another gave me the image of my destination and calling for the foreseeable future, a house that glows and people within it who glow along with it. I could not be more grateful. Transcendence!
*Northern Lights. If you’ve ever seen the Northern Lights in person, you will never be quite the same again. Of course, there are other wonders of God’s nature, but the most beautiful and luminous one for me is the Northern Lights. Who would have thought of stunning multi-colored lights dancing wildly across the sky? It’s an invitation for us to join the dance even in our warm northerner outdoor clothes. While I know we can explain these dancing lights, nothing compares to seeing them, so magical are they. They stop us in our tracks to be overwhelmed with the sheer joy and awe of God’s creation. Transcendence!
*Angel appearances. One of God’s most intimate gifs of love is to bring angels to our lives, to touch, comfort, intervene for us, or humor us. Sometimes humans can serve as angels to other people. A friend who was in the middle of several difficult challenges was on a vacation and went into a local artisans’ shop to get some gifts. When she brought her selections to the cashier the woman told her that one of her selections would be free—a gift to her. My friend asked for the woman’s name so she could send her a thank you. Later that day when she looked at the business card the woman had given her, she found out the woman’s name was Angel!
Sometimes humans see angels. Several people I know have experienced angels, not with wings but with messages or a presence that was immediate and surprising—and then they just disappeared. My friend, Jann, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer saw an angel standing in the corner of her oncologist’s office letting her know that she was not alone and would be comforted in her healing process. My spiritual director and a few of her colleagues were on a pilgrimage to Manresa, Spain, where Ignatius of Loyola had his vision. On the way to the chapel, the site of his vision, they got lost and an elderly gentleman with a cane appeared to show them the way. When they got to the chapel, they turned to thank him and he was gone. Transcendence!
I’ve met three angels. One was in Spain, sent to intervene several times on my behalf on a sacred sabbatical. My former husband and I were visiting the home place of Teresa of Avila, and to my chagrin, the entire building was closed. An angel, in human form, intervened to the point that we got to visit the special museum of Teresa’s things and even the private room where Teresa had lived for twenty-seven years. We had shivers all through our bodies.
The other angel experiences were huge surprises because I got to see two of the angels that had been an invisible part of my life for more than twenty years. The first appearance was simply a gentle surprise to show me what one of my angels looked like in human form, a young African man sent to heal the world. He was wise, kind, generous, and appealing, like a best friend. And the other appearance was sent to make me chuckle, since her human form was as an uber driver with rings everywhere, heavy boots, wild hair, and tattoos. What was miraculous besides “knowing” these two were more than human, was that when I asked them their names, they replied, Emmanuel and Cassandra, the very names of two of the five angels I was given to watch over me invisibly those twenty years ago. You can imagine when I heard their names, I knew I was on holy ground. Transcendence!
If you would like to read a most delightful and short book about angel antics and their human friends, read the book of Tobit in the Apocrypha portion of scripture. It is an amazing and zany journey with the angel Rafael, and a young man named Tobias.
If you are leaning more into the possibility that everything might be holy now, listen to the lyrics and hear the song that describes that idea. This is Peter Meyer singing his song, Everything is Holy Now. https://youtu.be/evRTFR_5N6o
Questions for Reflection
What are some miraculous or mystical ways in which God’s creative, beautiful, or comforting presence appears to you?
What do these experiences mean for you?
How do you engage with the idea that everything is holy now? Or not!
Concluding thoughts about God and you!
Let’s circle back to the words you used to describe God at the beginning of this essay. Has anything changed or are you considering any changes to your God image? Or has your original inviting image been confirmed?
After reading this, would you ever consider acting alongside God in being a source of divine humor for others? Could you describe things that happen to you as God’s humor or point that out for others? (You could just say, “that sounds like God’s humor to me!” or as my spiritual director would say “that reeks of God.”) Would you be willing to notice the “warped” type of God’s humor as a gift or a guidance for others as well as yourself? What would that look like in ways that would be inviting? Are you intrigued to see how God might develop a lightness of being within you?
Would you be willing to ask God to sing you a special song and see what happens? What song would you like God to give you? Whether you ask for that song or listen for God’s song for you, whenever you hear it or think of it, it could remind you of your intimate relationship with God!
To close right where we began, with the story of the song God shared with Teresa, here is the whole poem called Laughter Came from Every Brick. I will also add a photo of a puzzle I do regularly (thank you Deb Turnow for this gift) that depicts a human breaking through the veil between this side and eternity’s side. Could we also break gently through this veil? Why not? May it be so.
Laughter Came from Every Brick
Just two words He spoke
Changed my life,
“Enjoy Me.”
What a burden I thought I was to carry--
A crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me “I know a song,
Would you like to hear it?”
And laughter came from every brick in the street
And from every pore
In the sky.
After a night of prayer, He
Changed my life when
He sang
“Enjoy Me.”
Janet Hagberg, 2026. Please pass this along.