Pastor is inviting us to think about Getting In the Habit this Epiphany Season: Mindful, Setting Intention, Dwelling, Sharing Stories, Worship, and Connection. I’d like to offer another habit for you to consider, one that helps me stay healthy: Silliness. Silly, Goofy, Nutty, Playful – in a word: “child-like” (ok, a hyphenated word). Jesus says, “Unless you become as a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven,” (Matthew 18:3) and, pointing to a group of children, “to such as these is the kingdom of God given.” (Luke 18:16).

Now of course children are also trusting, innocent, naïve, teachable, generous, and many other things. Yet when we think of children, whether human or some other animal – puppies, kittens, baby goats, etc… - we often think of how playful they are. Kids love to play make-believe, to use their imaginations, to have tickle fights, to tell jokes, to sing and dance, to make people laugh and to laugh themselves. Some of my favorite images of Jesus are those of him throwing his head back in laughter. “Laughter is good medicine.” (Proverbs 17:22). Mayo Clinic actually tells us that laughter is good for the body AND the soul – relieving stress which then reduces the risk of so many physical health issues.

There are so many real reasons to experience stress and anxiety, along with others that someone is trying to sell or convince us to accept. We can counteract all of that in part by the habit of laughter. One of the responses in the bible to God’s promise of blessing is laughter – Sarah named her son Isaac because God’s promise made her laugh with joy and gladness for God’s goodness. May you experience the same! 

This Sunday, January 16, in honor of MLK Day, Pastor Law has invited a beloved guest, Rabbi Nancy Kasten, to tag team preach with her during the 10:30 am worship service.

Rabbi Nancy Kasten is Chief Relationship Officer for Faith Commons, a Dallas-based organization promoting public discourse rooted in the common values of many faiths. She is a past Co-Convener of Faith Forward Dallas (FFD) at Thanksgiving Square. Ordained by the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion in 1990, she served as Hillel Director, Associate Chaplain, and Adjunct Professor of Biblical Hebrew at SMU, Associate Director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations Southwest Council, and Campus Rabbi and Head of Jewish Studies at the Wise Academy, a Reform Jewish Day School. She is a community educator, volunteer and activist, as well as a certified Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher. Rabbi Kasten has served on the governing boards of many nonprofit organizations, including the Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, the Greenhill School, and the National Council of Jewish Women Dallas Section.

Currently she serves on the boards of Polyphony Education and the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas, Dallas. In addition to Polyphony, Rabbi Kasten is involved with many organizations that support coexistence between Jews and Arabs and lay the necessary groundwork for peaceful solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She is married to Rabbi David Stern and they have three children.