Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor

By Rev. Susan Sparks

Laughter—the GPS System for the Soul

Laughter was honored by the ancients as a spiritual healing tool and celebrated by the world's great religions. So why aren’t we laughing along the spiritual path today? What would happen if we did?

In this personal and funny look at humor as a spiritual practice, Rev. Susan Sparks—an ex-lawyer turned comedian and Baptist minister—presents a convincing case that the power of humor radiates far beyond punch lines. Laughter can help you:

• Remove the fearful mask of a God who doesn’t laugh
• Debunk the myths that you don’t deserve joy
• Find perspective when faced with adversity
• Exercise forgiveness for yourself and others
• Reclaim play as a spiritual practice
• Heal—emotionally, physically, and spiritually
• Keep your faith when God is silent
• Live with elegance, beauty, and generosity of spirit

Whatever your faith tradition—or if you have none at all—join this veteran of the punch line and the pulpit in reclaiming the forgotten humor legacy found in thousands of years of human spiritual history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
• Release date: May 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781594733437

Rev. Susan Sparks

Rev. Susan Sparks, the only female comedian in the country with a pulpit, is senior pastor of the historic Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City (the first woman pastor in its 160-year history). She is author of Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor. She has been featured on ABC, PBS and CNN, as a regular guest with country music star Naomi Judd on Naomi's New Morning on the Hallmark Channel, in the New York Times and in numerous comedy clubs. She is the recipient of an award from Intersections International for her interfaith work to promote justice, reconciliation and peace among diverse communities. Find out more at www.susansparks.com. Rev. Susan Sparks is available to speak on the following topics: Transform Your Life, Work and Spiritual Path Through Laughter Life Transitions and Finding Your Path Humor and Life Crisis Presentation Skills Using Wisdom from the Courtroom, the Pulpit and Comedy Clubs The Power of Humorfor Clerics, Chaplains andCaregivers Click here to contact the author.

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Reviews for Laugh Your Way to Grace

[erratic_charmer · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I feel like I'm going to have to rack my brain for this one. I don't know that I can write a fair review of it, as the subject matter didn't really speak to me at all. Or rather, didn't have too much to say that was new.The author, Susan Sparks, is a Baptist minister and stand-up comedian, and the premise of the book is that our spiritual lives would benefit from less self-conscious gravitas and more joy and laughter. For someone raised (like Sparks) in a stern hellfire-and-brimstone tradition where 'people never, ever laughed in church,' that could be a game-changer as far as spirituality goes. Personally I follow a broadly Pagan path with a lot of cheerful borrowing from different traditions and a lot of ribald humour about Maypoles, ladies' front bottoms, etc. This book is a bit like a 101 class and I'm in a religious group that's, like, professionally ridiculous. On the other hand I also feel that, while often joyful, spiritual life isn't all hilarity, and that sometimes we go to church precisely for silence and solemnity. In which case, an event like Sparks relates wherein a little boy in her congregation belches loudly into the pulpit microphone during a sermon on Jonah and the whale (he's playing the part of the whale) would be more obnoxious than whimsical or charming. Joy and laughter-with in the face of suffering and oppression is potentially revolutionary stuff; laughter to the exclusion of all other emotional response is immature.So, not hugely relevant to me as a reader, and also kind of one-sided.