New Page 0

Open Wide Your Heart

In this morning’s news on the internet I read that comedian Richard Jeni took his own life with a gunshot wound to the head. Since I rarely watch TV (well, except for “24”), I had never heard of Richard Jeni. The tragic irony of a comedian killing himself, however, caught my attention. Jeni was evidently very successful at making other people laugh, for Comedy Central ranked him as the 57th greatest stand-up comic of all time. The news of his suicide suggests, however, that the funny man on the outside was not the real Richard Jeni. He made others laugh, while he himself perhaps had no real joy. In a further irony, the news reported that he had co-starred in a movie with Jim Carry called “The Mask.” Perhaps Richard Jeni’s comedy was a mask to cover up his real self. We can only guess what went on inside the man, for the true Richard Jeni was not what the world saw.

But what about the rest of us? Do we put on a mask for the world? Do we cover up what we are really like on the inside? I’m not talking about the blatant hypocrisy of the Pharisees who appeared righteous and holy and sparkling clean on the outside while inside they were full of “robbery and self-indulgence…dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Mt 23.25-27). I hope we are not that. Yet it is true that we all struggle more with sin on the inside than what it appears on the outside. We all have “hidden faults” (Ps 19.12) and hidden pain. Not that it would be healthy to let everyone know our every sinful thought, though we cannot hide them from God. Nor would it be healthy to let the entire world know my inner pain. Can you imagine if every time you asked someone how they are doing, they really told you? We would soon stop asking. But let me at least be honest with myself and admit that the world doesn’t see the real me, if only because it does not see the entire me.

Maybe the reason comedians like Jeni are so popular is because they help so many people cover up the pain they feel inside, which is to cover up their real self. Laughter is an effective means of doing that, but that’s all it does, i.e., cover up. Prov 14.13 says, “Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, and the end of joy may be grief.” On the other hand, “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken” (Prov 15.13). Only Christ can deal effectively with our pain, as well as the guilt that is the cause of our sorrow. He far surpasses all comedians in helping us to laugh, for he gives us a joyful heart. But I’m getting off the subject. I wanted to talk about being real. The apostle Paul said to the Corinthian brethren, “Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also” (2 Cor 6.11-13). Unless we open wide my hearts, we will soon die. While such a “death” would not be as dramatic as a gunshot to the head, it would be no less tragic. For it would be a spiritual and emotional death, even if not seen on the outside. So let us seek to open wide our hearts, first and foremost to God, and then to one another. Let us be open and real to one another. Only then can we truly laugh a laughter of joy.