LAUGHTER

I hope our church is filled with laughter. Not the forced kind, but the kind that bubbles up when hearts are alive—full of joy, wonder... or even disbelief.

When do you laugh? When you’re happy? When something’s funny? Or maybe when something is just so absurd that it makes you chuckle in disbelief?

That’s what happened to Sarah. When God’s messengers told Abraham, “Your wife Sarah shall have a son,” Sarah couldn’t help but laugh to herself. At almost 90 years old, with Abraham not exactly in his prime either, the idea of having a baby wasn’t just funny—it was biologically impossible.

Let’s listen in:

“So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I now have this pleasure?’” (Genesis 18:12)

Honestly, who could blame her?

But then God turns the question back around:

“Why did Sarah laugh? Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time, I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Genesis 18:13–14)

You and I often see the hard facts—the data, the age, the odds. But God sees more. He invites us to lift our eyes and see His promise, His calling, His timing.

And yes, just as He said, Sarah did give birth to a son. At age 90. And they named him Isaac—which means “one who laughs.”

Her first laugh came from disbelief. But her second? From joy. From gratitude. From witnessing the impossible become real.

I long for both kinds of laughter in our church. From the laugh of cynicism to the laugh of surprise when God shows up. From nervous chuckles over uncertainty to real joy when His promises come alive. I hope the church is the place that this transition and transformation of our laughter happens.

We are all like Sarah. She didn’t believe God’s promise at first but stayed on the journey of faith with her husband, Abraham. And through that journey, she experienced a transformation—even in her laughter.

Maybe some of us are laughing right now at the idea that God could do something great in us, or in our church. Maybe we look around at our limitations and think, “Really? Us?”

But just like with Sarah, God’s work often begins with that laugh of “Huh, really?” And ends with the deep, soul-filling laughter of “He really did it.”

So let’s leave room for laughter—in our prayers, in our daily life, in our worship, in our ministries. After all, who knows? The next Isaac might be just around the corner.

Kyu