On Smiling
In your seminary training you learned deep and weighty truths. You studied serious and challenging topics.
This topic might not seem to fit in those categories. But it does. It is a deep and weighty truth. I am serious about it, and it is challenging.
Smile. God really does love you. Really.
Yes, you have a lot going on. Plenty of things fill your day: souls to save, hurts to soothe, sinners to reprove, confirmands to instruct, budgets to balance, sermons to prepare. It is hard work to be a pastor.
But smile.
Smiling may be the Church’s strongest confession of faith. (It certainly is a lot easier than reciting the Athanasian Creed!)
Look at this word from Habakkuk 3:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.
What a powerful sentiment! With the whole Chaldean army prepared to swoop down and wreak havoc, Habakkuk found something to smile about: God was with him. Joy because of the presence of God, not happiness at what is happening, drives the smile of the child of God.
And he is with you; he IS present. God is with you to love and care, to forgive and strengthen. Think on this: the eternal life giving God, who made heaven and earth, who has forgiven your sins and promised you all that you need for now and forever, is with you. That God IS with you! So smile.
Smile, and sometimes laugh, when you preach. Sure you proclaim a deep and weighty, serious and challenging message, but at the heart of your proclamation you declare the saving, life giving presence of God in Christ. In an incarnational way smiling helps the hearers experience the joy of the Gospel.
Smile, but watch the laughter, when you are comforting the sick or the bereaved. There especially a smile serves as a comforting sign of God’s presence.
Smile when you are teaching children. By virtue of your calling you present a sterner and more imposing figure than you realize. Smiling assures your students that you are also brothers and sisters.
Smile around your family. And definitely laugh. Don’t let the weight of your office become a burden to them.
And smile every once in a while in the mirror. God really does love that goof looking back at you.