Considerations

And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!” 
(Genesis 21:6-7 NLT)

Have you laughed lately? Not because of a joke or the mishap of another. But a laugh that came from being shocked by God. That laugh that finds its foundation in utter amazement about what has happened. Sarah found herself in that space after she gave birth to the child God promised her and Abraham. What 90 year old woman gives birth to a baby? How is this even possible?! Wouldn’t it be amazing to be on the receiving end of a miraculous feat that the only fitting response is to laugh just like Sarah?

Cynical Laughter vs. Laughing with Hope

So have you ever laughed like Sarah? Have you ever had your mind blown to the point where you cannot attribute what transpired to any thing or person except to the incomprehensible hand of God? Many years ago, I came across a quote that said how faith in God is believing that He is able to blow the socks off your feet; believing that God can do the most outrageous inconceivable acts. It’s a mindset that expects God to do astonishing things that would leave us in awe! I loved that quote as it dared me to view God in a bigger way. It caused me to believe that God could do the impossible, beyond what my little mind could perceive. 

But you know what is the enemy of such faith? Our human reasoning. As children, we found it easy to believe the far fetched. All things were possible. And then as we got older, life taught us to lean more on our own understanding and to trust more in what we saw in front of us. If it couldn’t be explained, it wasn’t true or possible. The year before Sarah gave birth, she overheard Abraham being told that she would bear him a child. Sarah laughed in that situation too:

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?” 
(Genesis 18:10-12 NIV)

But this laugh seemed to be different from our focal verse. It was more of a laugh of disbelief; that what was said couldn’t become a reality. It was a laugh based on the facts in front of her: she was on her way to 90 years old, hubby was knocking on 100 and she knew that it was physically impossible for a baby to be born with these variables in play. 

It’s easy to become disillusioned with our circumstances and find it hard to walk by faith. Cynical laughter can become the response when confronted with the longings that continually go unfulfilled. But what if we chose to laugh with hope instead and dare God to shock us with what only He can do? That we would invite Him to invade our quiet predictable lives and turn it upside down by doing the unspeakable, unbelievable and far fetched all for the purpose of seeing Him for who He is. Not for the purpose of any physical gain for ourselves but to know how almighty, incomprehensible, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient our God is!

An Opportunity to Invite God

After a recent sermon from my pastor about our Big God, I chose to laugh with hope and invite God to blow the socks off my feet. He had done it before in my life and I was feeling a bit low and unsure about next steps in life. So I dared to laugh and ask for God to do what only He could do. I believe God waits for invitations from us to step into our lives to reveal who He is. He doesn’t barge in but patiently waits for us to open the door to let Him in. Not for the purpose of getting stuff from Him but for the purpose of truly knowing who He is. 

So after inviting Him in to shock the socks off my feet that Sunday afternoon, He had me laughing by Thursday! Like Sarah, I laughed in shock and awe of how He opened a door of opportunity that I never saw coming. He reminded me of who He is.

What situation in your life can you invite God into? Where do you need Him to reveal how sovereign, omnipotent, and BIG He is? Where do you long to laugh as Sarah laughed in response to God showing up in ways that are impossible for man but not Him? May we all aspire to laugh in awe and simply sum up life’s mind-boggling unexpected gifts with these two words: BUT GOD!