Lighten up, Francis!

Good morning everyone,

Our theme for this month: “Renewed hope”

Our Bible verse for today: “A joyful heart makes a face cheerful, but a sad heart produces a broken spirit.” Proverbs 15:13 (CSB)

Our thought for today: “Lighten up, Francis!”

The other day I was looking through family photos and I came across one of my wife Linda, looking directly into the camera and sticking her tongue out. It was actually a fairly recent photo, perhaps a year old. So, it was taken near the end of her life as she was rapidly declining in health. But there she was, mugging for the camera and having fun.

That picture reminded me of another time many years ago when I was taking a break from being a pastor and we were members of a large church in our town. I was the teacher of a Sunday school class and Linda was a member of my class. Sometimes, if I was getting a little too serious about something I was teaching, and was being a little preachy and overly pious, she would make that same face, sticking out her tongue and causing the rest of the class to bust out laughing. It helped to get me off my high horse and to lighten up a little. She was always doing things like that. Linda loved to goof around and have fun, even when she wasn’t feeling well. Her playful attitude always served to brighten up the mood in the room for everyone else.

In the last two devotionals we thought about ways in which we can lighten our own moods and thereby improve our mindset. We thought about avoiding emotional monkey traps, as well as people who could be described as nattering nabobs of negativism. Today I want us to think about other ways we could potentially lighten the mood a bit.

Being playful like Linda is a good one. Another one that I enjoy is reading newspaper comic strips. I love them. I’m one of those dinosaur people who still has a physical newspaper delivered to his house every day. I especially love the Sunday paper because it has what we used to call “The Sunday Funnies.” I’m talking about the comics section – large and in color. My favorite comic strip of all-time is “Calvin and Hobbes.” Although it isn’t published anymore, I have a Calvin and Hobbes collection and I read one or two of those comic strips from my collection almost every day.

The term “Lighten up, Francis” comes from a scene in the 1981 movie “Stripes” starring comedian Bill Murray. The line was said by a hardcore drill Sargent to one of the characters in the movie who was being entirely too tense and too serious. The guy hated to be called “Francis” and he threatened to kill anyone who called him that. So, the drill Sargent got right in his face, nose-to-nose, and snarled, “Lighten up, Francis!”

Many of us need to lighten up a little. It would do us good. Maybe your thing isn’t walking around making funny faces at your spouse (Linda), and maybe your thing isn’t a daily dose of Calvin and Hobbes comic strips (me). But there are certainly other things you could do that will put a smile on your face today. So, lighten up a little, Francis.

God bless,
Pastor Jim

(If you like what you’re reading in these daily devotionals, and if you would like more content from Oak Hill Baptist Church, join us on Sundays at 10:00, in-person if you are nearby or, if you are geographically distant or if you just can’t make it, online at www.YouTube.com/@oakhillbaptistcrossville

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