God Makes Me Laugh

"God has made me Laugh and all who hear about it will laugh at me." These are the words of Sarah after she bore a child to Abraham when both were in advanced old age. Sarah named this child "Isaac" which means "laughter." Thus believers, as descendants of Abraham and Isaac are "children of laughter." Luke takes the theme of joy and laughter through his whole gospel. The angels at Jesus's birth announce "good news of great joy" to all the people. Jesus presents his teaching in the form of grace and surprise which prompt joy and laughter on the part of the gospel audience. Luke has before him the image of a "laughing Jesus." As a climactic story, Jesus visits Jericho near the Dead Sea. The chief tax collector for Rome, Zaccheus, a most unpopular man, small in stature and character as well, climbs a tree so he can see Jesus coming in spite of the crowds. Jesus spots him with laughter, and calls out, to the dismay of the crowd, "Zaccheus, hurry up and climb down, I'm going to have dinner at your house today." Luke's gospel presents Jesus as a comic contrast to many ultra-serious religious teachers by his concern for the outcast, strangers, and marginalized of society.

A rich, unforgettable story of three unique women in post-Apartheid South Africa who are brought together in their darkest time and discover the ways that love can transcend the strictest of boundaries. In a squatter camp on the outskirts of Johannesburg, seventeen-year-old Zodwa lives in desperate poverty, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic. Eight months pregnant, Zodwa carefully guards secrets that jeopardize her life. Across the country, wealthy socialite Ruth appears to have everything her heart desires, but it's what she can't have that leads to her breakdown. Meanwhile, in Zaire, a disgraced former nun, Delilah, grapples with a past that refuses to stay buried. When these personal crises send both middle-aged women back to their rural hometown to heal, the discovery of an abandoned newborn baby upends everything, challenging their lifelong beliefs about race, motherhood, and the power of the past. As the mystery surrounding the infant grows, the complicated lives of Zodwa, Ruth, and Delilah become inextricably linked. What follows is a mesmerizing look at family and identity that asks: How far will the human heart go to protect itself and the ones it loves?

Is Your Life Working? Most of us are trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle we call life without a very important piece. Over time this becomes incredibly frustrating. In this extraordinary book, Matthew Kelly powerfully demonstrates that we cannot live the life we have imagined, or experience the joy we yearn for, unless we learn to tend the soul. From there, with his classic style of practical wisdom, he teaches us how to remedy this problem. When our bodies are hungry, our stomachs growl. When our souls are hungry, we become irritable, restless, confused, overwhelmed, exhausted, anxious, discontent, and tend to focus on the things that matter least and neglect the things that matter most.

Everyone can relate to walking through very dark periods in life which seem will never end. Noel Jones is not speaking from a vantage point of one who has never suffered so his words of encouragement and promise carry weight and hope. Sorrow and adversity come, but they do not stay. This book conveys the message that suffering and endurance are preparations for the reward that will come to the one who holds on to and trusts in the faithfulness of God. That one will experience the laughter of triumph. Joy comes in the morning to those who endure.

Perfect for readers of The Secret Life of Bees and The Help, a perceptive and searing look at Apartheid-era South Africa, told through one unique family brought together by tragedy. Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a ten-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin’s parents are left dead and Beauty’s daughter goes missing. After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection. Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum If You Don’t Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.