It’s Monday morning. A man walks into a produce market and asks the manager if there are any oranges. He informs him there was a hard freeze in the area they get their oranges and there wouldn’t be any oranges for a week.
    On Tuesday, the same man walks into the produce market and asks the man if there are any oranges. The manager politely tells the man there is shortage of oranges because of hard freeze and there won’t be any oranges until next Monday.
    Wednesday morning the same man walks into the produce market and asks the same question. The manager is a little perturbed about the same question and as politely as possible gives the man the same answer for a third time.
    It’s Friday morning, you guessed it! Same man, same question. The manager is fed up with the request and is at wits end. He says to the man, “If you take the Straw out of Strawberries, what do you have?”
    The man answered, “Berries.”
    The manager then asked, “If you take the Blue out of Blueberries, what do you have?”
    He answered, “Berries.”
    Next, he asked, “If you take the Black out of Blackberries, what do you have?”
    He answered, “Berries.”
    The manager said, “Sir, so far you are correct. What if you take the Stink out of Oranges?”
    The man was puzzled and answered, “There is no Stink in Oranges.”
    The manager looked the man in the eye and said, “You are correct again! There were no STINKIN’ Oranges on Monday, No STINKIN’ Oranges Tuesday, No STINKIN’ Oranges on Wednesday, No STINKIN’ Oranges Today. We won’t have any Oranges until Monday. Now get out of the store and don’t come back until then!”
    I know what you are thinking. I am not very good at telling jokes. You are right. I do, however, know a good joke when I hear one and I like to hear them. Laughter is good for your soul! It helps us stay emotionally healthy, but only if we are able to laugh at ourselves and not at others!
    Proverbs 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, But a broken spirit dries up the bones.
    Here’s a little advice.
    Make fun of yourself, and not others!
    Avoid people who make fun of you but try to see if there is any truth in their comments.
    If you choose to make fun of others, be ready to take your own medicine!!!!!
    Avoid any jokes which demean a particular culture, gender, or a person’s physical appearance. There are a couple of exceptions! It’s ok to make fun of Rednecks and people from the North. I have family from the South and the Northeast, and we are pretty funny! You might even be able to make fun of people from California, but it may have fallen into the sea by the time you are reading this. Actually, stick to just making fun of yourself.
    As a preacher, I liked to make people laugh. Mark Rutland, who I wrote about a couple of notes back was very good at using humor to help make a point. I remember him telling me he wasn’t very good at telling jokes or funny stories, but he was good at telling stories funny. Though I was never as accomplished as Mark, I aspired to his style.
    When I preached, I liked telling stories. I shared a lot about our family. When your mother was young, each week she would ask if I was going to tell a story about her. When she was a teenager, I realized oflten what I thought was funny, was not always funny to her. I began to ask her permission if I could talk about her. Most of the time she approved. By the way, if I ever told a story demeaning anyone or putting someone else down, it never felt good! I regret I sometimes went too far. I had to apologize a few times. Sadly, I am sure there were people I hurt by my reckless and insensitive sense of humor. Let me see it again, I regret it!
    There were also Preacher stories I liked to tell. They probably weren’t true, but you acted like they were to make a point. One of my favorites was a behavioral psychological experiment testing the attitudes of twins. They put one twin in a room filled with manure up to his neck. He cried and complained until he was rescued from the setting. When the other twin was placed in the room, he immediately started to dive down deep into the manure and was laughing as he played in the deep pile. When the researchers removed him from the room, they asked “Why are you so happy?” He said, “With all this manure, there had to be a pony in there somewhere!”
    In your life, you will find yourself knee deep in manure sometimes. It is your choice how you will react! Keep looking for the pony!
    Preachers often tell stories as if they actually happened to them. It personalized the story. Here’s a favorite of mine. A little girl comes to her father and asks, “How does God open a rose and it is so beautiful, but when I open it, it looks like this!” She holds up a mess of rose pedals. The father is speechless. In a moment she comes up with her own answer. “I know,” she says, “When God opens it, He does it from the inside!” I hope you get the point. After your mother was born, I would tell the story as if it was a conversation we had. When I got to the end, I then said it really didn’t happen to us, but I wanted to personalize it. I tried to always be honest and never exaggerate, but it was fun to tell a simple story and use it to make an impact!
    Here’s my best advice! Laugh a lot! Laugh at yourself. Make friends with people who have a good sense of humor and don’t take themselves too seriously. Watch funny sitcoms! Find comedian, who makes you laugh!
    As you know, one of my favorite activities is playing golf. I was never very good, but I enjoyed the company. Golfers tell a lot of jokes. Some I can’t repeat, a lot I don’t remember, and a lot of them sound the same. One of my favorites is a story about a John Daly. John had a reputation for being quite funny. He is playing in a Pro/Am and the amateur asked if there was simple tip to drive the ball little further. John smiled, bent over, placed his tee in the ground and then placed his ball on the tee. He stood up and addressed the ball. Then he looked at the amateur and said watch. He bent over and pushed the tee forward just a little further and said, “Do this and it will go a little further!” Probably only funny to the others in the group!
    This is note 28. You probably have learned by now I like to tell stories. I am not interested in keeping my memory alive, I am interested in you learning a bit from my life’s experience.
    If you really want to laugh, ask your mother or Sassy tell you funny stories about me!
    By the way, one of my favorite portraits of Jesus was given to me by my mother when I was a teenager. He is smiling! Most all the pictures I had seen he looked serious and somber! I have kept that picture almost 60 years. It made me feel good to see just smiling at me! It makes me feel good sharing it with you! He is smiling at you!