Laughter.

There’s a reason that we call it the best medicine.   It’s powerful stuff.

A small dose can relieve tension, change our perspective and even break down walls.

A large dose can turn a room full of strangers into a breeding ground for trust, friendship and love.

We laughed ALOT last night at Two Or Three and witnessed small miracles right before our eyes.

(At this point I am going to TRY to process what happened last night.  Any attempt is going to fall short, because miracles are like that.  Hard to put into words that will do justice to their beauty.)

My friend Karen came over early last night to pray with me about our first meeting.  It was basically our conversation with God admitting that we had no real idea who to expect, what their responses would be or how the whole thing would play out.  When a bunch of strangers get together, the possibility of great awkwardness at a first meeting is pretty high.  So we asked for wisdom and contentment with whatever He saw fit to do.  Because He promised He’d be there and if He was going to be there, failure wasn’t even in the cards.  Something about recognizing the very real presence of God puts a heart at rest.  Any anxiety is replaced by sweet anticipation.

At 7:00 p.m. there was the first knock at the door and two women entered the house.  And now there was no turning back.  This WAS going to happen.  The four of us chatted over food and drink and soon the group of four became six and eight and finally eleven.  Eleven women, only five of whom I’d met before.

And laughter.  It started in the kitchen with one on one conversations and introductions.  It took three (at least) attempts to get everyone’s attention to move into the family room.  Connection was already happening left and right.

As we began our evening I gave each woman a small chalkboard and a piece of chalk.  The first task was simple.  Write your name on the board.  Then we went around the circle and had to give our name and show it to give people a visual to connect a name and a face (name tags are so boring!) and tell an interesting fact about themselves.  This was fairly easy for everyone and resulted in even more laughter.  This group of women has a great sense of humor and it showed up in each of their comments about themselves.

Next, chalkboards were erased in preparation for the next thing.  If you could draw a picture of the one thing that shows who you are, what you love, what would it be?  Draw that.  This was a little more difficult.  They were asked to put roles aside and just look at their own hearts to see what is left that inspires, motivates, and captures their greatest interest.  I started the ball rolling with my example.  But my picture and explanation paled in comparison to the drawings and stories that each of these ladies shared.  Each unique.  Each that brought out a sparkle in  their eyes as they talked about it.  We were getting to know a little bit about what made each of us tick.

Erase again.  Now, write down the number of the age you were when you first experienced feeling “less than” or felt that you’d lost your sense of identity.  This flowed out of them like water.  We all acknowledged  that there were multiple times when this happened, but every single woman knew the exact age she first experienced feeling like she was not enough, not worthy, or no longer herself.  The ages ranged from six to 24.  The stories that accompanied these numbers were heartbreaking and profound.  These women were so very brave in sharing these honest and intimate stories.  There was no longer a stranger in the room.

It was obvious that this group of women symbolized women all over the globe.  Our society, our experiences, those voices in our heads can all make us feel like we will never be truly acceptable or fully worthy of love.

And while we all have that in common, we also share the desire to be saved from that place of despair.  We want to be rescued from that mindset by a love that finds us beautiful.  Picture the damsel in distress longing for a prince to come and rescue her and fall madly in love with her.  The fairytale that ends with happily ever after because she has gone from being lonely to being loved.

This is where Jesus comes in.

I read the story from my book (and blog) called Fairytale.  It’s an analogy of a fairytale telling the story of salvation – The lost girl is found, brought into the kingdom and becomes a daughter and friend to the King and eventually the bride of the Prince.   She goes from being a captive  to being freed and then enjoying an ever deepening relationship with her hero.

We talked about how God has done that for us.  He not only wanted to rescue us from our enemy of sin and fear and doubt and feeling “less than”, but He longs to take that relationship further and deeper.  To do life together in the most profound sense of the phrase.  To change our lives forever starting now.

In coming weeks, we’ll be looking at the Princesses in the classic fairytales.  We’ll look at their dilemmas, their enemies and their rescues and figure out what they can signify for us today.  How can we relate?  How does the hero look like God in our lives?  I think it will be a fun way to look at something old and familiar in a new and fresh way and hopefully cause us to think a little deeper about what Jesus has done for us.

Well, like I said, I am doing last night’s miracles no justice at all.  Strangers became friends.  Introverts shared.  Hurting people smiled.  Anxious hearts were calmed.  Hearts were united.  And all I could do was stand back and be amazed.

The evening that started out with laughter ended the same way.  Everyone left with a hug around their shoulders and a smile on their face.

And as one woman put it, it all started with the common ground of humor.

Laughter, once again, was the best medicine….:-)

Psalm 126:2 – Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.

Proverbs 17:22 – A joyful heart is good medicine…

Job 8:21 – He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.