You can't tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor. The passage for today's sermon was Mark 4:35-41, where Jesus and His disciples were crossing a lake and got caught up in a storm. The disciples were frightened while Jesus was asleep so they woke him, and my version (the New Living Translation) quotes Jesus as rebuking the wind and saying to the water "Quiet down!" (vs.39). Suddenly I had the image of Jesus quieting an unruly classroom. I started giggling during the sermon, which I'm sure was not Pastor Dave's intention, but somehow I think God was trying to make a point about humor. First of all, this passage, no matter how it's worded, makes it perfectly clear that Jesus was boss. When He told the wind and water to stop, it did.  Second, humor has a way of driving out fear as well. Have you noticed that when you're laughing, there's an absence of fear or negative emotions? (Unless you're laughing at something inappropriate or evil, in which case you need to get yourself right with God.)
This helps us to get a grip on our thoughts, which we discussed in Sunday School. A good laugh is just as important as a good cry. Somehow I feel cleansed after I've had a good, can't-catch-your-breath kind of laugh. God made us this way, so we should never dismiss laughter as silly or unimportant. God doesn't want us to be joyless, dry, Christians, like those that Nathaniel Hawthorne writes about in The Scarlet Letter. He wants us to have joy and to do this we need to dwell on "things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise." (Philippians 4:8)