It’s almost laughable…how life is just one sucker punch after another.

Just when you think you’ve recovered from one crushing situation, just when you’ve gotten back up on your feet and are in a semi-upright position, another seemingly catastrophic circumstance hits you in the gut, and down you go again.

I don’t know why this surprises me. The cynic in me knows this is how life goes. The Bible even says this is how life goes, “In this world you will have trouble,” (John 16:33). But I’m still always unprepared when another bad situation comes my way. I always act shocked.

It’s almost comical, both that the number of ridiculous events seems to grow daily and that I am always taken aback by such a reality each and every time.

I’ve made it a habit for the last 20 years to respond to hard situations with anger and sadness. Those are the default emotions, after all, so I didn’t have to try very hard to develop a pattern of responding to hardship this way. But you know what reacting like that has done for me? It has made my heart hard. It has made me captive to bitterness. It has robbed me of joy.

And so I’m wondering if a new approach would help…

I want to laugh.

The next time I get bad news, I want to laugh, not unlike Tom Hanks in the Money Pit when he starts to lose his marbles.

Go ahead and watch the clip. I’ll wait.

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I don’t want to laugh in order to suppress any anger or sadness but, rather, as a way of saying, “I see what you’re doing there, Satan (or broken world, or sinful self – whichever the culprit might be). You haven’t caught me off guard this time. I’m not surprised by your ridiculousness. I can laugh that you continue to send your haymakers because the truth is God is not moved by your efforts to wreak havoc. He is unchanged. He is still sitting on His throne. He is still working all things together for the good of those who love Him. He is still in control of every single detail in this world. And because these are facts, I have no need to get angry or sad.”

I can laugh out of pride – boasting in the Lord that He’s going to take care of whatever mishap comes my way – and I can laugh out of joy – rejoicing that the Lord is going to take care of whatever mishap comes my way!

He’s got this. Laugh with me?

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17