06-Five Senses and Two More

VI. Five Senses and Two More.

IT IS A COMFORTABLE AND USEFUL THING FOB EVERY man to possess all of his five senses unimpaired.

Yet it is not essential. There have been pastors who were blind, some who were deaf. My wife tells me that I have a woefully deficient sense of smell. No doubt there are those whose taste and touch are below normal standards. We cannot say that they would have better served their Lord but for this lack. Sometimes a handicap serves ultimately to increase one’s usefulness. For a minister the five senses then are desirable, but are not a matter of absolute necessity.

There is a sixth sense, however, and a seventh that are indispensable. The sixth is common sense, and the seventh a sense of humor.

Common sense is defined as “an ordinary mental capacity.” There are few who would deny that we ministers possess ordinary mental capacity, especially if the emphasis is put upon the “ ordinary.” Plenty of doubt, however, might be cast upon our measuring up to the further definition of common sense as “practical understanding; capacity to see and take things in their right light; sound judgment.” Our shortcomings are many. They are not all of them in the lack of good intent. Most of them are the result of a lack of just an ordinary common garden variety of good judgment. “We need to bring all the mental and spiritual capacity we possess to our task; but no literary or ecclesiastical alphabet after our name, or title, or position in the church is a substitute for good judgment, or any indication that we possess it.

Tragic, indeed, have been the personal failures in the ministry for want of sound judgment. Some men, seemingly possessing every other quality but this, have been brought low by its absence.

Good tools are not to be despised; yet, of themselves, they do not guarantee good work. This depends on the hand that uses them. Some men do better work with little than others do with much. For effective service in the field of pastoral endeavor, good judgment is second only to a convincing personal spiritual life. Every pastor can and must possess both.

There are many people who are not Christians, or who are, at least, outside of the church of God.

There are various reasons for it, chief of which is, of course, that the Evil One has sown his seed in the human heart. Our frequent approach to the problem is to assume that all of these deny God, and must be convinced of him and his ways and their own shortcomings. It would probably surprise many of us to learn how many of them do not deny God, or their need of nim. They are not with us simply because our interpretations and our ways and our approach do not make sense to them. The number of men is legion who are outside of the church because of someone’s poor judgment in presenting the Master of life to them. The Gospels are the only truly worth-while book on Pastoral Theology. What amazing discernment they reveal on the part of Jesus in his touch with men! All of us should read the G-ospels again and again, and yet again, for the purpose of absorbing something of Jesus’ good judgment in his approach to men. His ways were as various as the individuals whom he sought. Think of his dealings with Peter and John, Judas, Zacchaeus, the woman by the well, the woman taken in adultery, the rich young ruler, the questioning lawyer, the Roman centurion, the disciples on the way to Emmaus, blind Bartimaeus, Mary and Martha, Nicodemus, the Pharisees, Pilate! He had no single formula for all of these, only an unerring discernment as to their needs. He called his disciples to him with the simple words, “Follow me” nothing more. How short we come of Jesus ’ method with our creedal precepts and demanding forms of discipleship! We are more restricting but far less challenging than Jesus was. What was it that the Master had? Why not say it? Jesus had common sense, and he used it. May G-od forgive us for its absence or its disuse in our ministry! When we pray, as we surely do, for (rod’s blessing on our work, most of us ought to be more definite than we are. The words, “Bless us, Lord,” may mean little or much, depending on what we need. To ask just for a blessing is widely inclusive, but it is certainly not specific. And if we were aware of one of our greatest needs in our pastoral task, there would be one specific blessing “that we should pray for every day: “Dear Lord, bless me this day with common sense. ’ ’

Because in other chapters we have tried to detail something of this ministerial sixth sense, let us turn to the seventh, which is like unto it a sense of humor.

We may thank God that we live in a world in which there is laughter. There are tears here; there are tragedy and sadness. There are times when all we can do is to weep. But there is gladness too sunshine, humor, fun. There are times when all we can do is to laugh.

Humor is a universal quality in human nature.

There is no race of people who do not know how to laugh. Their humor may not be ours, but it is very real to them. Dan Crawford told us that the black man in the jungles of Africa can laugh most heartily. The Chinese have an especially keen sense of humor. It is something restricted to no race or color. It is such a universal quality that we should think of it as the gift of God it is.

It is certain that our work is cast with a laughter-loving people. Americans demand that in every program of entertainment there be some fun. Our religious papers all have their columns of jokes. Our newspapers would look strange without their funny strips. Several years ago, at the time of a nominating convention to choose a candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Will Rogers was appearing in a theater in the same city. It was actually difficult to keep enough delegates in the convention hall to do business, since most of them were listening to Rogers ’ fun.

He was probably saving the country at that!

Humor is undoubtedly a most vital part of life.

Most of us feel that there is something left out of the man who cannot laugh. We are uncomfortable in the presence of any man who has starved out his God-given power to see a humorous situation.

There is really no non-sense about humor. True humor is the best of all good sense. There are various tests for insanity, such as putting a pail under a faucet, turning on the faucet to fill the pail, and then directing the subject to dip the water out of the pail with a dipper. If the subject turns off the water he is sane, but if he dips without turning off the faucet he is crazy. Another test that seems more valid is that of normal reaction in laughter to a chosen situation. Not everyone, perhaps, who laughs is sane; but those who never laugh, or chuckle inside, are not normal. Russell Conwell used to deliver a great lecture on laughter in which in part he discussed the ill effects which the inability to laugh has on the rational mind.

Because he is dealing with reasonable beings, and because, above all, he himself should be a reasonable being, a minister does well not to neglect his sense of humor.

It is a quality which we should be sure to bring to our task. There is an expression of the Psalmist, “All that is within me,” which any Christian would do well to remember when days are hard. “When the Psalmist came into the presence of the Lord he was unwilling that his worship should involve only a fraction of his nature. He was not content that only one or two of his faculties or powers should prostrate themselves before the King of Heaven, but called upon everything within him to bless his Holy Name. Too frequently we endeavor to get on by the use of only a meager part of our equipment. We suppress a portion of our nature, and by the suppression weaken our power of service. A sense of humor is an asset at all times, especially in days that are particularly somber. If we suppress our sense of humor, we expose ourselves at once to all sorts of demons which are eager to overthrow us. We are never safe when we lose our power to laugh. A good laugh is a safety valve. The comic is a part of human life. The very reason that the world is dark is an argument that somebody should make merry. The world would be unendurable if there were no one in it any longer capable of mirth. If we wish to minister to the souls of men in needy times, we must use everything that is within us; and one of these things is our sense of humor.

There are, of course, different kinds of laughter and types of humor. There is the laughter at a sudden and clever turn of a word, the chuckle of pure good spirits, the laughter of buffoonery and the smirk of cynicism, the guffaw at the ludicrous and the cackle of unholy glee and irony.

There is the mirth of the devil and the laughter of God. Laughter and tears are both with us.

What we need to know is the proper time. And it is especially true of our levity. We scarcely make any mistake in our time to weep, but we often do in our time to laugh.

There is then a time to be merry. There is first of all a time for joviality in our relation to others.

Laughter may be personal and selfish. We ought to learn to be joyous with our friends. We are aware of the need of friendly sympathy. We know that it means sharing another’s grief, expressing our fellow feeling in our friend’s moments of sadness, and helping him to bear his burden of sorrow. Any sympathy does mean that, but that is only half of it. If you are truly going to help your friend and neighbor you need to cultivate the art of laughing with him and sharing his gladness. It is far easier to laugh with him than to weep with him, and yet we often fail to do it.

Joy may be as lonely as sorrow. There are times when joy is intensified wonderfully by another’s sharing it. We have all had times surely when our happiness needed only the glad sympathy of another to make it complete times when we could hardly wait to break some good news to someone who we knew would bubble over in elation with us. Assuredly it is a part of a pastor’s task, and one of the great privileges of his ministry, to add to another’s happiness by joining in his gladness and mirth and laughter.

There is always a temptation to laugh at others instead of laughing with them. There is a laughing at others that is harmless. We smile at the ludicrous antics of a person trying to keep his balance when slipping on an icy surface, and rare is the one who fails to laugh heartily when, after having gone down with arms and legs sprawling, he tries to get up with dignity as if nothing had happened. But there is nothing heartless about such laughter, for we rush to help him, and the laughter dies at once if he is in any way hurt.

Still, there, is a laughter at others which is mean, and the minister is not incapable of it. There is perhaps no weapon that can hurt so much as a laugh. It is never true humor to laugh at the failure of another. Furthermore, it shows our littleness of soul. There is a laughter and fun that is like medicine; but laughter at another, when it hurts that other person, is poison to one’s own spirit.

There is such a thing as the laughter of scorn, and it is not for any human soul to use it. One of the Psalms says, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” God can laugh that way because he is God, and we had better leave it to him. No one has more need of a sense of humor than a minister of divine truth. And no one can better serve himself with a sense of humor than the minister. No man with a sense of humor about funny situations has all the humor he needs unless he has enough to sometimes direct it at himself.

There is a sense, however, in which this may be a weakness. I once knew a seminary student who laughed away his chance to become an effective minister. He was a wretched preacher, but a most popular fellow. For that reason everybody tried to help him, but he loved a laugh too much. He was a great mimic, and he would imitate himself and turn his mistakes into something to produce a laugh. A proper sense of personal dignity, instead of making light of our failures and laughing at them, will endure the pain involved in overcoming them. On the other hand, there are many times when we take ourselves too seriously. The poorest of us often has too much pride for his own good. It would be better if we would learn at least to grin at our own shallow dignity. The proudest people usually have the least to be proud about. Now, the real enemy of pride is humor. The keenest barbs to pierce the armor of self-conceit are those of wit. The wit of others directed at self -pride and pretense would hurt, but our own wit directed against ourselves robs it of its sting. What could be more helpful when we find ourselves strutting over something for which we deserve no credit than to develop the art of just grinning at ourselves? It may be one of the most difficult things to learn to do, but the rewards are worth the effort. The impressive, prideful attitude of some selfstyled superior-minded people toward religion is just funny. We would be less disturbed by them than we often are if we could see the actual humor of it. How pompously serious and inflated the critic often is! I once heard Dr. Dunbar Ogden tell of his meeting with a critically minded professor on shipboard. The professor, upon learning that Dr. Ogden was a minister, asked him for a Bible that he might read the Old Testament. In three days’ time he brought the Bible back and, turning to several different passages in the Book, said, “Did you notice this little absurdity?” Ignoring the great laws of Moses, the sociology of the Prophets, the poetry and sublimity of the Psalms, all he could say was, “Did you notice this little absurdity?” Dr. Ogden >s humor saved him from concern and even annoyance as, looking at the man, he amusingly imagined God putting his finger down on the bald head of the professor and using his own words, “Did you notice this little absurdity?”

There are some pastors whose serious-minded religion would be better for a little humor. There are some good men who are saints all right, but of an irritating variety. It is not for me to say that they fret the Lord, but I do know that, for many others, they make religion a boring thing instead of attractive. There is nothing less attractive than piety divorced from common sense.

Even a little sense of humor would help the man who is always playing upon one string. There are too many of us like the student in the seminary who, in his practice preaching, always preached on the same theme baptism. His professors felt that he was going a little strong on one subject; so they decided to give him a text which they believed would compel him to preach on something else. But they did not know their man. Using the text given him, he rose to preach saying, “My text this morning is found in the first chapter of Genesis, ’God created the heaven and the earth.’ My friends, the Lord made the earth one part land and three parts water, which naturally brings us to the subject of baptism.”

What most of us need is an old-fashioned court jester. The king business is about dead in our world today. It may be that the passing of kings is due to the passing of the court jester. He was the court buffoon, but he was nobody’s fool. He was more useful than many a royal statesman.

Everybody about the king was likely to be a “yes man.” People were afraid to be anything else. The court jester could say “No.” He did not always say it in so many words, but he could mimic and play the fool and bring home to the king, with a laugh, the folly of some contemplated course of action. The laughter of a court jester saved many a kingdom. So it was a fine thing for a king to have someone who could look him in the face and laugh him out of his moods of folly, his silly pretense and his pride. It was a serious loss to our own country when the unofficial court jester of America, Will Kogers, passed away. It is a good thing for any minister to be laughed at sometimes. There is an inner voice in us all that can say to us what nobody else would dare to say. Knowing us as none other, it must sometimes chuckle in amusement.

It is a voice that is trying to serve us and save us. And if we are half as wise as we often pretend to be, we shall encourage our other self, the inner voice, to be our court jester, giving vent when necessary to a shout of laughter at our expense. In one of his parables Saf ed the Sage said, Now there be many Earnest Folk who lack something at this point, and it is an Important Cog that hath been dropped out of their Machinery. They would be able to make a number of Grades that now are impossible to them if they would Shift their Gears and not attempt to take all the hills on High. And while nothing is much worse than a Sense of Humor that is not Ballasted by Sound Common Sense, yet on the other hand there is no man who hath so good a right to a little spice of Nonsense as he who is Habitually and Consistently a Sensible Man.

There came once to see me a Woman! with a problem, and I listened unto her Tale of “Woe and smiled. And she said, Thou dost not sufficiently regard my problem as Serious. And I said, It is not Serious. All that thou needest is a Passing Smile and Something Else to think about. And she was grieved, and went her way, but afterwards she considered and thanked me.

Life is serious enough, beloved, and he is a fool whose Incurable Laughter at all that doth occur in life is like unto the Crackling of Thorns under a- Pot, as my friend Solomon was accustomed to observe. Life hath its concerns that are not only Serious but Tragiek, and they must be faced in their Stark Reality. But there is no command in Holy Writ for to. Increase and Multiply our Tragedies and Discourage the Earth. Wherefore hath God imparted unto us something that He must count Very Precious in his own Character, even a Sense of Humor.

I have no present intention of adding any to the Ten Commandments, but if I decide to supplement the work of my friend Moses, I shall consider this one, Thou shalt not take thyself too seriously. 1

Yes, there is a time to laugh; and the most frequent of times for the minister is to laugh at the man we pretend to be, that we may become the man we ought to be. None more than we needs to bid the inner self, who dwells in our soul, to laugh at us and to deride us, lest one day, for our failure to serve the Lord with “all that is within [us],” we may hear it in the dreadful form when “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.”

1 Reprinted through the courtesy of the family of the author, Eev. William B. Barton, D.D.