It's 7 PM (CST)… time for 7 Things!
Was Jesus Funny?
Read the Bible and you don’t see many one-liners from Jesus. But if you sit with his teachings and parables long enough, you’ll notice Hebrew humor all over the place. Can you fit a camel through the eye of a needle? Of course not, Jesus, that would be crazy. What if a Jew helped a Samaritan? Now we have to question your sanity. But sarcasm, exaggeration, and subtle humor is the way Jesus often teaches about the Kingdom of God. I find humor to be one of the better ways to back door truth, and talk about vital and difficult things. Elton Trueblood wrote The Humor of Christ and says: “Never trust a theologian who doesn't have a sense of humor.”
Oh, Clark…
Can we celebrate the best Christmas movie made in the last thirty years? Christmas Vacation, of course. You may say, it’s not really about the Christmas Story, yes true. You may say a little irreverent and raunchy, all true. But underneath the silliness of the movie, is the silliness we’ve made Christmas in America. We go to all this pain and struggle to decorate our homes and the lights never work. We spend money we don’t have to buy gifts people will never use. Our families are weird and don’t appreciate our decorations or the efforts we make to have a “special” holiday. Our jobs promise raises and bonuses that never come. Christmas Vacation is a meditation on how we’ve commercialized Christmas, and lost the plot of the Story. This is why so many can relate. It hits too close to home. Still my favorite Christmas movie.
Matthew Perry on Fame
I’ve enjoyed the memoir of Matthew Perry from Friends stardom. It’s a book about addiction and his struggles with drugs and alcohol for most of his life. And it’s also a spiritual book and the quest for what matters most in life. How fame is never a great god. Here is an expert about a prayer Perry once prayed:
“Out of nowhere, I found myself getting to my knees, closing my eyes tightly, and praying. I had never done this before. “God, you can do whatever you want to me. Just please make me famous.” Three weeks later, I got cast in Friends. And God has certainly kept his side of the bargain—but the Almighty, being the Almighty, had not forgotten the first part of that prayer as well. Now, all these years later, I’m certain that I got famous so I would not waste my entire life trying to get famous. You have to get famous to know that it’s not the answer. And nobody who is not famous will ever truly believe that.” ― Matthew Perry, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
The Garry Shandling Diaries
Judd Apatow put together a documentary on the life of Garry Shandling from his diaries. Shandling was a comedian, actor, and writer. What you learn in the doc is Garry was a deeply spiritual man. He was a seeker looking for truth wherever it’s found. Garry wanted to help people and wanted them to see a deeper level to their existence other than fame and money. He saw the emptiness of fame early in his life. This was in one of his journals: “Everything in the world functions on a monetary level. Search out the things that don’t.”
Pete Holmes on the Cosmic Mystery
I’ve been fascinated with the career of comedian Pete Holmes. He grew up Evangelical Christian and has not completely lost his faith with a tough upbringing, and a failed first marriage. But his faith has evolved, and he said something very important about faith and spirituality in an interview with Relevant magazine:
“Maybe there’s something so much more cosmic and mysterious and infinite going on here that is way bigger than just what you were told on Sunday mornings. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but instead of seeing that as the final destination, look at your life as an infolding of these ideas, as an evolution of these ideas, as a play or a dance of these ideas.”
It’s All Connected
Rich Cohen was asked in an interview about why he wrote in so many genres. He said while writing about sports, Jewish culture, mobs, fathers, and family, all the books were about the same thing: being Jewish and family. Cohen didn’t see these books as all that different. I think this is true in most art if you dig under the surface. Most of these themes, while not overt, are typically in there pulling on common threads. Most disciplines on the surface appearing wildly different, often have many common principles.
The Northern Lights
Check out these creative and stunning renderings of the Northern Lights.
Thanks for reading!
Ryan