Check out this cartoon. Click on it to make it bigger.
Also we talked about laughter and humor. Should we cease from all laughter?Check out the talk called "A Serious Look at Humor" by Peter B. Rawlins. I think I said it was from General Conference but it's actually a New Era article from 1974. The New Era is a pretty sweet magazine. I especially like some of the fiction in there because there's some subtle romance sometimes.
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Thank goodness we chose a comic to put on this blog post that wasn't funny in any way, shape, or form. Thanks for keeping us from sinning Mr Schulz.
ReplyDeleteI would like to submit a limerick (but I had to write two to complete the story):
ReplyDeleteThere once was a man named Job
-- a great whom abided the globe
Satan seized his life;
Lost support of friends and his wife
Yet the devil continued to probe…
Job refused to cave and curse God
Although he questioned His manner as odd
The Lord gave him a tour
Of His creations -- wherefore
Job saw it was HE who was flawed
I think one of the most valuable lessons we can learn from Job is how there is no ironclad relationship between sin and suffering. Life isn't fair, yet we have this obsession with justice. Bad things will happen to good people. And many lose faith in God because of this fact.
Job didn't necessarily need all of his trials. And just because we have a trial doesn't mean we "deserve" it or even that we "need" it. Yet, there's always something to gain from it. God permits bad things to happen to us. He doesn't cause them.
I read that Job is put in the "poetry" section of the Bible because it is written so poetically.
And regarding whether Satan and God make "deals" -- of course they don't. I don't remember which one of you said that God merely permitted these things to happen to Job. He knew Job would remain faithful. It served his purpose, so he allowed it to happen. And that part might have been more story than truth, you never know. It might have helped serve the purpose of the lesson Job has to teach us.
Great podcast. I loved the discussion about Job. Since I am in the Primary, I don't get Sunday School, so this is my SS lesson. Anyway, great lesson. Better than most I heard when I WAS in SS.
ReplyDeleteI think John started to say something about Job's wife's trials being worse than Job's because she had to have all those kids. Hilarious!
And thanks for blowing my mind!
About the humor thing: I think it's all so subjective. Making light of sacred things is wrong. What is "making light"? Does that mean there can be no joke about about something sacred? Or is there a way to make a joke that is not "making light"? Perhaps a joke where you are not mocking the "sacred" subject?
Also what is "sacred"? A joke about helping an old lady across the street seems harmless, but are not service and compassion sacred things? Missionary work seems like it would be sacred, but does that mean no jokes about Missionaries or Missionary work? Having children is also something we are told is sacred. Where would the line be drawn?
I personally know where I draw my line - but I have found many who think I go too far. Or people I think take a joke too far. So there's that.
What was the point I was making? I'm sorry, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteYou know Nelson on the Simpsons, when someone does something humiliating and he says "HAHA!" I think that is loud laughter. I think where you laugh at someone's expense - humiliating them, laughing mockingly, mean spirited, that kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteI think THAT is loud laughter.
I agree with Matsby on the definition of loud laughter. In many aspects, temple covenants have to do with our treatment of others and the need for us to be kind, and this is one of them. It also has to do with respect for sacred things, of course, but the relationship dimension needs to be acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteLaura's limerick = awesome, btw. She deserves a prize.
One of the messages of Job, to me, is that your capacity to handle rough circumstances is greater than you can imagine. It's one of those things that you can only really come to measure in the fires of sorrow, but we should be assured it is there and we can call upon it if we choose to do so.
A quote that I used in my lesson on Sunday had to do with the fact that if you trust that God knows when you need a blessing, you must trust that He also knows when you need a trial. Something Job exemplifies to us.
In my class, we also talked about how Heavenly Father knows the strength of His children and quite often allows the greatest trials to happen to His most faithful ones...which goes back to the lesson that we cannot attribute all trials to sin and unrighteousness. There are certainly times when the opposite is the true genesis of the situation...the righteousness of the person/people.
We also talked about how inspiring it can be to observe others enduring trials well...how that can build our testimonies and help us in our own individual situations. It must have inspired at least a few people to watch Job endure well as he did.
I almost wept hearing Rhett's never seen "It's a Wonderful Life". One of my all time faves there, dude. It makes me cry every Christmas too, Jon. No shame.
I think Abe Lincoln's Secretary of War's name was Elihu Root. But that was like 150 years ago...so no, no one names their kids stuff like that anymore.
I liked Peter's point about posterity...never thought of that one. Interesting.
People don't budget for tithing? Really? How stupid can you be? It isn't going to magically reappear in your bank account. Wow...hard to imagine people would be so, well, stupid.
Jon's point about misidentifying quick fix laughs as being "life" is also well-taken. We can't just go from laugh to laugh and base the meaning in our lives on stuff like that. It is an anesthetizing lie.
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Just finished listening to the first twenty shows. These episodes are all great! I had a smile on my face all week.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot guys!