If I had a list of the people I’d like to be Adrian Plass would be one of them. So, I know he’s a guy, that’s quite a bit older than me, and has a beard!, but stick with me here.

The thing I love about Adrian Plass is that he manages to treat himself with such humility, the church with reverence, irreverence and total hilarity all in one sentence, but in all he writes there are these bold and gentle echoes of grace. That is a skill I so admire.

His book ‘The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass aged 37 and 3/4’ (which is my current age, weird!) is the first book I ever read that made me really laugh out loud. So much laughing that I actually couldn’t recount it to others without laugh-crying. It’s the book I buy every time I find it in an op-shop just so I can ‘lend’ it to people without having to worry I might not get it back.

I include an excerpt here:

Friday 27th December

Went to Unity Hall tonight to hear ‘Bad News for the Devil’ practising. [His son’s ‘band]. When I got there, stood outside for a moment listening to a noise that sounded like a piano falling down a lift-shaft with someone trapped under the lid.

Turned out to be a number called ‘Peace Will Come’.

Anyone else have ‘youth band’ flashbacks??.

If your heart is weary for a good, deep belly laugh then I can so recommend this book or any of his sacred diary series.

I think it’s important, amongst the taking serious of our journey, that we can laugh at ourselves. So much science supports the benefits of laughter but I still go back time and again to those ancient words:

‘a merry heart doeth good like a medicine’

Today maybe you need a reminder that laughter is also a gift from God. That laughter is good for you.

That bubbling up and over laughter might just be a kiss from heaven to you today.

If your heart is heavy or if it all just feels too much to carry today I’d love to lend you my copy of this wonderful book – not that I can clearly – but if you need a laugh and some good doses of gentle grace get your hands on a copy.

*on the subject of wanting to be compared to a man…. I’ve spent my whole life being told by anyone who met my dad that I ‘look exactly like him’. Literally, he will walk into a place I work, where no one has met him, and someone will say, ‘Hey Miriam your Dad is here. You two look exactly the same’. What’s a girl to do with that???

Which is not exactly a compliment no matter how attractive my gay drama teacher told me he was. Perhaps, unsurprisingly, looking exactly like a man 20+ years older than me whose been rocking a beard since way before the hipsters made them cool again isn’t exactly the look I’m going for… I digress.

Be blessed today and feel free to not take yourself (or me) too seriously. And, if at all possible get into the company of a person, book, show… whatever that will make you laugh until your sides ache – that is a gift from God for your heart. xxx