This is a Guest Post by Tony Brent. He is a husband, father, neighbor, comedian, magician, guitar player, and writer. He produces and performs the “Outta Control Dinner Show” in Orlando. When not doing the dinner show, he appears at churches nationwide where he hope the audiences will throw their heads back and laugh.
Read more from Tony at his blog, TonyBrent.com, or contact him through social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
If you would like to write a guest post for this blog, check out the guidelines here.
When was the last time you saw a fellow Christian being portrayed as happy in the media? When was the last time you thought of church as being a “fun” or a place where lots of laughing could be heard?
Just the other day I had a conversation with a fellow Christian and he remarked that we’ve done a very poor job of showing the world that we know how to enjoy life and laugh. I thought for a moment and then had to agree.
I realized that especially in the media, Christians are virtually never shown as having any fun at all; rather we are shown as being sour-faced, judgmental and intolerant. We all basically look like the couple from the American Gothic painting.
This struck me where I live because I’m a comedian by profession. I make a living making (or at least “trying” to make) people laugh. I wondered why was it that so many of my friends who have a deep relationship with God are very happy and most laugh far more than my other acquaintances, yet that type of behavior is rarely shown in movies, on TV, or in books.
I think you and I already know the answer; Christians are the scapegoats. We should all know this, after all, Jesus said it was going to be this way:
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me (Matt 24:9).
No one, especially young un-churched-people, is going to want to get involved with a group who they perceive are “stick-in-the-muds.”
I think it’s high time we showed the rest of the world we know how to have a good time!
We are forgiven! We have eternal life! We should be the happiest people on the earth! We should be so freaking happy that the public and the media cannot realistically portray us as anything else.
I challenge you as well as myself, to actively seek ways that we can visually show the world how happy we are. If they can “see” us being happy then they will begin to wonder where is this joy coming from and how can they receive it?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful for people to come up to us and ask us about Jesus as opposed to us being nervous about bringing it up to a lost friend out of fear that it may damage our friendship?
You are saved. You will exist forever. You will one day fellowship with our maker. Now let’s be openly happy about it.
Really enjoying your blog 🙂 If ever you’re looking for an ‘Irish guest’ please shout 🙂