Funny is funny. And I've always worked, as I put it, "club-funny and church-clean."
My comedy has played in clubs, bars, galleries, living rooms, pool halls, fellowship halls, arenas, hotel ballrooms, coffeehouses, corporations, churches, strip joints, DisneyWorld, festival tents, country clubs, AIDS benefits (a passion of mine), all kinds of fundraisers, and on some great standup comedy TV shows and DVDs. Everyone likes to laugh, and I work clean because that's how I work.
It's what I do. I've started doing my comedy at churches the last few years, but my comedy is not just for Christians. I make my friends laugh, and most of them aren't Christians. (If all your friends are of one faith or no faith, you need to loosen up a bit. Just sayin'.) That would be living in a bit of a bubble, and I would rather be a bit more adventurous than that. I want to make people of many faiths, creeds, colors, religions, and genders laugh. And I believe laughter is from God, and it's for ALL of us.
I've been a follower of Christ since I was a mere giblet. It's how I was raised. There is a time in my life I pinpoint choosing to follow Christ, (right after we watched a film about hell, and I believe it was the "floating head in the lake of fire" which really made the biggest impression on me, but I digress); faith is definitely a journey. I believe God is an inclusive, loving God, rather than an exclusive God who chooses to shine his light on one little group in one little hemisphere - and I sincerely believe in the trendy but somehow deep phrase, WWJD. So much of what I see us doing as followers of Christ does not fit in that. Where did I hear this? "I'm not OK, you're not OK, but that's OK." Let's be really real. God is big, and we don't know everything.
God loves us ALL.
And let me expound . . .
God has always been there for me. Even when I didn't feel it, or think it, or agree with what he had in mind for me at the time! I remember BEGGING God for faith when I was a teenager, and I felt my prayers were just me yammering at the ceiling. I came across a Psalm where David begged God for faith, and I thought, that's where I am - that's my struggle, too. I mean, David was sometimes, before his greatness, kind of a big mess! He had a guy killed so he could have his wife! So, not exactly like David. But, I mean, c'mon. Here's a guy whose faith journey I want to know about. A guy who admits he had to beg for faith. Thanks, I needed that.
"I feel put back together, and I'm watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes." (PSALM 18:24, THE MESSAGE)
What I've realized over the years (and YES, it took me a while), is that God doesn't need us to beg him for anything. He gives us faith through his grace. He loves us in a way we may never understand. I have lots of friends of other faiths, as well as friends who see no need for faith, who have had negative experiences with Christians and the church. He loves them just as much as he loves me. (A note here: NEVER, EVER let Christians or the Church get between you and Jesus!)
I've gone through my own questioning, being a bit of a smart aleck and cynical and manic and depressive; and I'm so blessed to have a God who isn't afraid of my questions or moods, who can stand up to it, and who teaches me this part of faith; I don't always need to know the answers, and I don't have to be my own god. Who needs that pressure anyway? Frankly, if God were not any bigger or better than me, I wouldn't bother. I don't need a god who breaks in line at Starbucks, or has hissy fits at airports, or yells at people on the Metro or lets a bad hair day determine the mood. (All things which I do, except for the breaking in line part.) I also don't need a god whose every motive I understand and can predict. God is big. And unexplainable. Which might even sorta be the point of being God. I dunno. I do know if we can spell it all out clearly, it's probably not God.
But, I do know, that because I asked God for faith, for belief - for something more than talking to the air around me, he has drawn me to the facts of the life of Christ, and Christ's sacrifice and resurrection. I emphasize fact, because, believe me, my feelings do change. This matters to me deeply - that Jesus is so real and so RELEVANT. And I know that - even when I don't feel it. God is big. He is bigger than politics and religious movements and conflicts and disease and death - he is HOPE.
Do you have to believe all the stuff I believe to follow God, to follow Christ? I'm not sure. Probably not. (For instance, I'm very Baptist at heart, and I love seeing people get totally dunked in Baptism. You don't have to do that. I just happen to really, really like that.) I do know that being open to God is the jumping off point. Just being open. God will lead you. Just be open to God, and don't let all the stuff which society or American-Westernized-Churchianity tacks on to God paint the picture for you of what it really means to follow Christ. God is too big for one political party or creed. It is not my job to limit him - I do believe, it's my responsibility as someone who benefits from a faith walk, and who cares about her fellow travelers on this planet, to say, "Try this, it helps, and it means something." You and God can work out the rest. He "gets" us, and loves us anyway. And we can all laugh together, at our various and sundry journeys.
"God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around, but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us." (EPHESIANS 3:20-21, THE MESSAGE)
"A CHRISTIAN COMEDIAN": Not a name I like to call myself. It's a marketing term. And I think it says to people that "this is a person who is funny . . . to Christians." Well, I like being funny to a lot more people than that. So, while I'm a committed follower of Christ, I never limited my comedy to the one group.
Because . . . I'm a comic. To the core. Making all kinds of people laugh is something I love to do. My act plays to all kinds of audiences. I never think of myself as a "Christian Comedian", any more than an accountant would call herself a "Christian accountant". Funny is funny. A Christian is what I am. I'm a comedian who's a Christian. And being a Christian permeates everything I do, on some level. (Though I'm not sure the guy I yelled at on the Metro would agree . . . Ha!) I was a Christian before I was a comic, so keeping the language and subject matter clean, for me, wasn't a big struggle. Frankly, DRIVING and keeping my language clean is a much bigger struggle . . .
My biggest blessings in my life are my husband Gary and my son Andrew; my favorite time is time spent with them - we eat, we kayak, we watch movies, we travel - and we treasure our time together. Mainly, we LAUGH.
I'm glad and quite relieved that God uses "the foolish things" (I Cor. 1:27) to bring messages to us. I try hard to live my life by Proverbs 31:25 - "She can LAUGH at the days to come."
And I'm thankful, whenever God gives me the opportunity, wherever God takes me, just to make people laugh.
I admit, that's my favorite part!
