relevant

This is an article from a Relevant email I received.. I like it :o)

Laugh Monkey by Mark Steele

Have you ever had that dream where you are alone on stage and everyone in the audience is expecting you to answer a question you didn't actually hear? And also, it's church. And also, you're naked.

That's what performing comedy is like.

I have spent the last 15 years doing, among other things, improv and stand-up comedy. This has perpetuated two consistent identifiers of my life: an unending sense of anxiety and a flaring rash when others ask me to "do something funny."

Do something funny.

Jesse Carey, the RELEVANT staffer whom I have known since he was a fetus last spring, asked me to write an 850 piece on this very statement: "Do something funny." Evidently, there was a message board thread of some sort on the subject. So, I am obliging to Jesse's strong-arming kind command request to compose an essay. For this purpose and this purpose only, I am agreeing to attempt to be funny on demand, even though today, I feel quite relevant serious.

I'm not complaining. I appreciate the God-given gift to bring others joy. But I don't always feel like turning it on. As a matter of fact, there are moments I know that I cannot turn it on - that I will fall flat on my face during the attempt and that the already-awkward moment will end with the cursed comment, "well—he was funny last time."

I am not alone in this anxiety. We all have that one talent that some find amazing and others find annoying. The refined or sometimes-unhoned detail of our existence that God seems to find a way to use even when we resist its label. The difference is: Most of us are not called upon to perform our skill at parties on a moment's notice.

· "Jason, do that quantum physics thing for Mandy."
· "Teresa, act like you're doing a price check on my ham sandwich."
· "Now you get over here and show your grandmother how you won that wrestling title."

But NO, comedy comes with obligation. I am required to do it—and do it justice, even when I feel like doing the opposite. I don't want to joke on my bad days and I don't want to bandy about witty repartee while I'm having my gums scraped by the dental hygienist. LOOK AT ME! I'M THE LAUGH MONKEY! My life-calling has been reduced to the equivalent of throwing my feces at my pile of banana peels in the corner for applause. I don't want to be the "do something funny" guy! I just want to be a human being who gets to be THE OPPOSITE OF FUNNY except for the moments where IT WORKS BEST FOR ME!

And I quickly see that I follow Christ in the same way.

Where He would quicken me to walk in His path especially in the moments I most want to stray or stop and rest, I would prefer to obey Him when it is most rewarding or impressive. Unfortunately, those moments are the exception. God's rule sounds more like this:

Hey, Mark: right now, in your bad mood when you don't particularly know or like or appreciate the smell of the other person asking you to be like Jesus—yeah, right now. Be like Jesus. Use what I've given you to work with and do something impressive. Impress an image of how Jesus can work through you when you're not really in that great of a mood.

It's why it's called a calling. Because even when we're wandering far away from home, the Voice beckons us back.

Every day, I have opportunities to destroy someone else's perception of Christ by giving in to my own comforts while calling my path His. The true miracle is that if I take the complicated choice and actually deny myself, revealing Jesus when all around expect a more human response, there is no chance that they will see me. They will see Jesus instead and one will not be confused with the Other.

The truth is, "doing something funny" isn't done for the benefit of the doer. It's done for the benefit of the one who needs the laugh. To that end, it doesn't really matter how the doer feels about the matter. It only matters that he does the "something funny" anyway. Who knows? In the process, the doer may just burst into laughter himself.

Mark Steele is author of Flashbang (RELEVANT Books) and the president and executive creative of Steelehouse Productions. He is also a really funny guy (seriously).