Gospel laughing

More than a few years ago, an NFL kicker by the name of Bill Grammatica actually tore his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament-in the knee) while celebrating one of his field goals. During his brief career in Arizona from 2001-2003, Grammatica became well known more for his celebrations than his actual kicks. The same thing went for his brother Martin "Automatica Grammatica," who played with Tampa Bay for a number of years until he mysteriously started missing his field goals.

The neat thing is that Bill still laughs about it. Christians have much to learn from Bill. We of all people, actually have the freedom to laugh at ourselves and how much we mess up. The ability to laugh at oneself is the natural application of the freedom from condemnation (Rom 8:1) and shame. Other people can laugh at us or with us too, because not only is "Jesus just alright with me (as the Doobie Brothers sang)," but "I'm just alright with Jesus" (as we can sing). And if that is the case, who cares how you look before others?

Some of us hate to look back on embarrassment, failure, and stupidity in our past. We don't want anyone to know about it, and we certainly won't tell others. Many times-though I don't mean to say every instance-our unwillingness to laugh at ourselves, or even talk about mistakes in our past, comes from a simple disbelief in the gospel.

The gospel gives us the freedom to laugh at the past and the freedom to celebrate the future.
Even if in that celebration we lose our balance and tear our ACL. Just try to stick the landing-another thing we learned from Bill.