September 8 “Laughter” Job 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old Candid Camera reruns. It didnt take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of pain-free sleep. Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of his victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world. Happy is the person who can laugh at himself. He will never cease to be amused. PRAY: Awake, my heart, with gladness, see what today is done; now, after gloom and sadness, comes forth the glorious sun. My Savior there was laid where our bed must be made when to the realms of light our spirit wings its flight. This is a sight that gladdens-- what peace it does impart! Now nothing ever saddens the joy within my heart. No gloom shall ever shake, no foe shall ever take, the hope which God’s own Son in love for me has won. Now I will cling forever to Christ, my Savior true; my Lord will leave me never, whate’er he passes through. He rends death’s iron chain; he breaks through sin and pain; he shatters hell’s grim thrall; I follow him through all. Text: Paul Gerhardt, 1607-1676; tr. John Kelly, 1833-1890, alt.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 15:13:37 +0000
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