I once heard a profound quote: Love makes the world go around, but it's laughter that keeps us from getting dizzy.

Many people living today take life too seriously. As a result he or she can grow sick of the stresses and circumstances that one may encounter during a lifetime. Laughter is like a cheap medicine. It eases our tensions and makes us feel everything will work out fine. Laughter is a gift we can give to ourselves and to others.

American cartoonist Charles Schultz is a man who helped people learn to laugh through his comic strip, Peanuts. Although Schultz encountered tremendous difficulties in life, he continued to make his audience laugh at their mistakes. He discovered a secret that helped people persevere through their mistakes and failures. The secret was to learn to laugh at themselves. "If I were given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself."

Think about all the mistakes and failures you have made. Now, remember how six months later you were able to laugh at those mistakes. Life is not always perfect. Use Schultz's idea to create a great future. Give yourself a gift. Give that gift to others. Now is a good time to laugh your way into a great future.

I had the fantastic opportunity Sunday night to MC a fundraising event for a great ministry in Hollywood: Hollywood United. It’s essentially a collaboration of three organizations:

The Hollywood Prayer Network
Greenhouse
Act One Hollywood

The event accomplished three things:

1. It allowed people to see a vision of what God is doing in Hollywood through building up the Christian community, unifying the people and the ministries, and impacting lives and professional relationships. For those of us that have been involved in ministry in Hollywood for a long time—last night was the start of something new and significant.

2. To encourage people to join what God is doing by meeting other people, volunteering with the ministries to speak, offer expertise, and mentor and share contacts and resources.

3. Perhaps most important—to give financially to the ministries, starting with these three who are serving the entertainment and media communities.

When I was about 10 years old, I fell into a hornets’ nest. The hornets got caught in my clothing. The more I fought, the more they stung me. Later I counted about 20 stings. It was a painful few days, but I survived. Every now and then, I see someone caught up in a flurry of painful but meaningless activity.  I am reminded of my childhood experience and often use the age-old expression, “They fell into a hornets’ nest.” Most Americans agree that President Obama fell into a Middle Eastern hornets’ nest during the last few months. Despite the toppling of totalitarian states and the possibility of the establishment of new democracy, it is difficult to see a realistic end to the terrorism, bloodshed, and warfare in this important region of the world.   

The death of Osama Bin Laden marked a symbolic end to America’s war on terrorism. National jubilation is the only way to describe our corporate feeling about the demise of this “arch enemy” of everything Americans stand for. Perhaps this euphoric victory led the administration’s foreign policy strategists into a subtle state of hubris. This false feeling of power may have convinced them that they could actually advance the peace process by imposing the US will on the Palestinian/Israeli peace process.

The entire nation is aware that on Thursday May 19, the president declared Middle Eastern peace talks could only progress if Israel would agree to return to their 1967 boundaries. After a veritable maelstrom of rebuttals, the president's international policy team realized the error of their ways. Therefore, the next Sunday morning (5-22-11) the president retracted his peace talk ultimatum. He even went so far as to claim that he was misquoted. His clarification speech occurred at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) annual meeting in Washington, DC. Despite the public acquiescence of former Prime Minister Netanyahu, the president seemed to create even more controversy. As I walked through the more than 11,000 pro-Israel advocates, I heard everything from motherly articulation of forgiveness to numerous people declaring they would never vote for President Obama again.    

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has begun traveling his state on what he calls his “People First Campaign.” This not an effort to hear from his people, as the name would imply. Cuomo is actually attempting to sell three policy agendas. The following quote tells the story in his own words, "Our entire team is...speaking directly to New Yorkers...about the issues that can move this state forward...We need to pass a property tax cap, ethics reform, and marriage equality during this legislative session and time is short.”

For social conservatives the most alarming aspect of this campaign is the fact New York’s Senate blocked a same-sex marriage bill in mid-2009. The bill was stopped because of an amazingly motivated electorate’s desire to maintain traditional marriage. Instead of listening to the will of the people, Cuomo’s website carries this rhetoric, “…it is time to for our state to retake our leading role in guaranteeing equal rights for all. This is about civil rights and equality.”

Last Sunday, May 1^st, I appeared on Roland Martin's Washington Watch program with two other DC pastors. Our discussion centered on the role of the clergy in politics.  One of my fellow participants, Dr. Charles Wallace Smith, came to national prominence because President Obama attended his Easter services this year. Starting the Monday after Easter, conservative pundits played excerpts of one of Dr. Smith’s previous messages on race almost non-stop. A January 2010 speech at Eastern University in Saint Davids, PA conveyed these emotionally charged words:

“It may not be Jim Crow anymore. Now, Jim Crow wears blue pinstripes, goes to law school and carries fancy briefs in cases. And now, Jim Crow has become James Crow, Esquire. And he doesn’t have to wear white robes anymore because now he can wear the protective cover of talk radio or can get a regular news program on Fox.”

Dr. Smith must have known that he would eventually get a reaction from this speech, even though it was delivered 16 months ago. Despite his low opinion of conservatives and the Fox News team, I came prepared to affirm Dr. Smith’s right to speak. Further, I wanted to remind the nation that America has been repeatedly transformed by a free pulpit. The important fruit of religious liberty is easy to forget when someone is saying something we do not like. Further, I attempted to offer a plan of action for the nation to begin to tackle the 800 pound gorilla in the room - 400 years of racial turmoil in America.