Hahahahahahahahaha. Hohohohohohohoho. Hehehehehehhe. Umph.

I've been thinking a lot about grace (seethis post on a recent thought on grace) and inevitably that has led me to consider areas in which I could use a little bit more grace.

In particular, God's been teaching me a lot about the way I use my humour. More specifically, the way I use mean humour to get laughs. You know what I mean: we call it 'ripping off' and under the guise of 'good fun', we use words to break others down.

But on Friday, it suddenly struck me: Why do we distinguish between the way we joke and the way we usually talk about stuff? What makes it acceptable that we joke about coarse things or that we joke ungraciously when God commands us to be pure and gracious in all things? What makes it acceptable when we wouldn't even think about being ungracious or impure when we're 'serious'? I don't think this means the end to all joking. I think this means we must learn to use joking in a way that DOES build up or that does not rely on breaking others down.

I've heard from some people that it could be okay to only use 'ripping off' jokes on those people that we know are strong enough to deal with them. However, God's also been using people to make those jokes at my expense recently when I haven't been all that emotionally strong. And even though I was aware these jokes were made in jest, they really sucked. So again, why do we justify these jokes?

The one explanation I can think of is that this is the vocabulary of humour for the majority of the people we're surrounded with, and we've unthinkingly let the world's standards determine our own standards. Another thing is that we are deeply self-centered (or insecure) and we let our egos control our jokes - so we make jokes in a way that imply that we're better than others. One last factor I've been thinking about is that it's so much harder having to be creative with your humour and practising humour that won't offend or hurt. But let's do it! Let's be different and love Jesus and fellow brothers and sisters with our humour!

Here are Awesome Joe-some's thoughts on this: "But here's another thought, which we can ask ourselves once we've sorted out the bad joking - the question still stands, of what the main thing about us is:
[W]e should seriously consider whether there is more to us than just our joking - Are you most known for that, or for being a solid, sound Christian brother/sister who is fun?"