STEPHANIE HUBACH|CONTRIBUTOR When I was a child, there was a Good Humor truck known for circling the neighborhood, selling ice cream, at the most ludicrous time: 5:30pm. Right before dinner. The irony of it all. The Good Humor driver seemed to taunt us with a bad joke—showing up at the very moment that every neighborhood mom was most likely to say! “No way! That will spoil your dinner!” The arrival of the Good Humor truck was not only poorly timed in those moments, but it was also poorly named as well! Good humor in life, when rightly timed, and aptly delivered—is one of God’s good gifts to humanity. Merriam-Webster defines humor this way: “humor implies an ability to perceive the ludicrous, the comical, and the absurd in human life and to express these usually without bitterness.”[1] According to the University of Derby, in the UK, “Previous studies have suggested laughter has several physical, psychological and social benefits, including decreasing stress hormones, boosting the immune system, reducing pain, improving mood and increasing resilience. The psychological and physiological effects of laughter can increase optimism, energy and cognitive function, while decreasing anxiety, stress, loneliness, depression and tension, leading to a great deal of interest in interventions which focus on inducing laughter.”[2] Humor and laughter have been a mainstay of my life, which I attribute to my father’s side of the family tree. Our Opdahl family gatherings always involve witty jokes, painful puns, and gut-busting belly laughs. My son Tim, who has Down syndrome, often epitomizes this same sense of humor. One Sunday, we were in the midst of a sermon series on the Gospel of John. The pastor had preached on the story about when Jesus turned the water into wine. Tim turned to me in the car on the way home, and quipped, “Remember that Jesus said, ‘My hour has not yet come?’ Well, that’s how it is with me and dating right now. My hour has not yet come!” As a good gift, humor can be used to promote healing, help, and hope into the realities of our everyday lives. But as a good gift, in a fallen world, it can also be distorted and used to hide or to hurt. Let’s look at each of these quickly...