Secondly, we don’t take God seriously enough.  God says stuff like this in His word.  Job 8:21.  “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”  Proverbs 14:30 LB.  “A relaxed attitude lengthens a man’s life…” You know what research says.

It says that when we laugh more T cells are released, more immune factors are kicked in, our entire muscular system just chills out.  The Bible says that laughter lengthens our lives.  Are you laughing?  If you are not laughing weekly, I mean a loud, bellowing, deep laugh, something is messed up.

Speaking of laughter and laughing about yourself, last weekend was a tough weekend for me because I turned thirty-five.  After the Saturday night service some friends of mine kind of kidnapped me and took me to a restaurant for my birthday.  I did get to choose the restaurant, Cafe Natura.

Now most of you if you know me well know that I watch my diet pretty closely.  I am not a purist.  I don’t eat and drink vegetables and carrot juice every meal, but I do eat like that a lot.  That is why I chose Cafe Natura, because all the fat grams are out there in the menu and everything is healthy.  You know I tell my wife often, “Lisa, don’t ever buy anything that is processed, with nitrites and especially, Lisa, stay away from baloney.

It will kill you.”  Well the other day I walk in while the children are having lunch.  Although I didn’t think that any of our children had ever seen baloney, LeeBeth had seen some at school and requested that her mother buy some.  When I saw Lisa putting baloney on bread with mustard, I said, “Lisa, what are you doing?  You are going to kill our children.  Baloney is horrible for you.”  She kind of started laughing at the time and later told some of my friends about the event.

Twister, Scrabble, Candyland, The Game of Life.  They are obviously popular board games.  But those games pale in comparison to the popularity of the Blame Game.  We all play it.  We are subtle about it.  We do it behind the scenes without a lot of people realizing it, yet many of us are caught up and mesmerized by the Blame Game.  We wake up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, take a shower and we carefully look for the pieces of the Blame Game, put the board in the Blame Game box, put it under our arms and head out into the world.

If we are fifteen minutes late to work, no problem, we blame it on the traffic.  If our kid has problems in school, we blame the teacher or the principal.  If we have any relational problems, especially a marriage difficulty, we blame it on our spouse.  Our society is caught up in blame.  Blamelessness has become an art form.  Have you ever read those “Not Responsible For” signs?  You hang your coat up in a restaurant and the sign reads, “Management Not Responsible for Harmed or Stolen Garments.”  For those of us who fly around now and then, have you ever read the fine print on your airline ticket?  It says that the airline industry is not responsible for delayed flights or missed connections.  If you do happen to lose your luggage, yes, they will pay an amount, and only the amount,  agreed upon around 1962 in some obscure conference in Las Vegas.  Try parking your car in an expensive lot in downtown Dallas.  You will see the “Not Responsible For” sign.  If you car is stolen or damaged, they will not be responsible.

Our culture has two major people groups, the Blaming Boomers and Generation X-cuse.  The Boomers bash their parents.  They say their parents are responsible for the messed up condition they are in.  The Xers say it is the Boomers, those wild and wacky and materialistic Boomers.  That’s why the Xers are in such a mess.  The Blame Game.  Blamelessness is as American as the Constitution.  Doesn’t the Fifth Amendment say that no one can make us blame ourselves for anything?  I think it does.