Day 26

 

Unique Biceps

 

"All the days of the oppressed are wretched. But the cheerful heart has a continual feast."

 

Proverbs 15:15

 

 

Years ago when I was a youth minister I went with a group of teenage girls from the youth group to Dairy Queen after the church service. Much to my surprise the topic of discussion actually turned to the Sunday School lesson. (You see miracles still do happen). The lesson had been from Acts 8 about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The girls were not pronouncing it eunuch but instead calling him the Ethiopian "unique." One of them asked me, "What is a unique anyway?"

 

I explained to them that the Ethiopian was not unique but a eunuch and then I watched their eyes get big as I explained what a eunuch was. That was amusing enough but it wasn't the end of the story. From that point on when someone would use the word "unique"  in a sentence they would fall out laughing. No one else in the church knew why burst out laughing during the worship service when the pastor announced, "We have a unique ministry opportunity."

 

On another occasion, at another church, I was playing a game of Pictionary with a group of kids and parents, some of which English was their second language. The word we were to draw was "biceps." I drew my little stick figure man with bulging muscles and listened for my teammates' guesses. From the other team I began to hear some hesitant and bizarre guesses. I looked at the other man's drawing. The other man drawing was a deacon, an educated man, but he  had been born and raised in the Philippines. He spoke excellent English and rarely made a mistake. But on this night he had made a whopper of a mistake. He had confused the word "biceps" with a part of the male anatomy that without it you are a "unique." Needles to say his little stick figure man drawing was somewhat different than mine.

 

When I explained what had happened the adults and teenagers were on the floor laughing. We laughed so hard we had to go outside into the winter air to cool off. I had a whole youth group who would break up laughing anytime they heard the word biceps.

 

I don't know what makes you laugh. Each of us is unique (and I mean unique). I do know that laughter is good for you. In proverbs it tells us that, "a cheerful heart has a continual feast."  The great thing about a feast of laughter is it is not fattening.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Proverbs 15:15-17

 

• What part does attitude play in being oppressed or having a cheerful heart?
• Does great wealth have to cause turmoil?
• Is love the only thing that makes vegetables taste good?