Thomas Madden: God Has a Sense of Humor

Thomas Madden is the author of six books, an avid blogger, and the founder and CEO of the public relations firm, TransMedia Group. He also is a fervent believer in Jesus! He believes that Jesus should be our stockbroker! More than that, we should take everything to God no matter how inconsequential it may seem to us.

Books: Thomas Madden, author 

Website: TransMedia Group

Blog: Madden Mischief 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:07

If you're listening right now and you're a follower of Christ, then you, my friend, are a 21st century Christian. And if you're new to the faith or interested in getting deeper into it, you're in the right place. Welcome to the 21st Century Christian podcast. I'm Karyn Beach and this is another episode of the 21st Century Christian. And today I have a question for you. Why so serious? I mean, I kinda know the answer to that question. Salvation is serious business. Really, it is. Where you're gonna be for eternity is serious. Forgiveness and patience aren't things to be taken lightly. And then there's the fact that we all have a cross to carry. But we also have peace, and we also have joy, and where there is joy, there's laughter. I know sometimes it might get lost in the translation you're using, but believe me, God has a sense of humor. He created us in his image, and in every culture we laugh and we tell jokes. Where do you think we get that from? So today let's laugh. I'm gonna share with you a funny story from the Bible, and then I'll share a few other funny moments with you. Your call to action this week will contain a little levity. And our guest, Thomas Madden, also known as Mischief Madden, is going to talk to us about the power of belief and that God has jokes.

Speaker 1 2:10

Now, before I get into my story, I want you to know that I am working on building up the YouTube audience and my Facebook audience for the show. So follow my Facebook group at the 21st Century Christian. Find us on Facebook there. You can also find us at the 21st Century Christian on YouTube. So I'm gonna be putting a lot of good videos up there, things to make think, things to make you hmm, things to make you laugh. Haha. So follow me on Facebook and on YouTube at the 21st Century Christian. I've done the Bible in a year, and I learned a lot from it. I highly recommend doing it, but I never expected to laugh at something I found in the Bible, but I found myself loling several times throughout the year. And the first time I laughed and the loudest laugh I had was in the book of Numbers of all places. Chapter 22 to be specific. I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but there was a prophet for hire named Balam, and King Balak was tired of the Israelites, and he wanted Balam to curse them. Since he was willing to pay handsomely for this service, Balam agreed to do it. He decided to ride his donkey, and his donkey started acting very strangely, and this did not make Balam happy. First the donkey she ran off the road, then she ran straight into a gate and ended up hurting Balam's foot. The third time she just stopped and bowed down. Now what was actually happening was that the donkey was seeing the angel of the Lord in front of her. And she knew better than across an angel. But Balam didn't see anything, so he thought that the donkey was just acting weird. And every time the angel appeared and the donkey did something to avoid the angel, Balam reacted by getting matter and matter and beating his donkey. And the beatings got harsher every time. So what did God do? God gave the donkey a voice and the ability to say exactly what his mind what was on his mind, just like some not a Shrek. And the donkey started by questioning Balam in verse 28, and now you're probably gonna do it in the Eddie Murphy voice because I mentioned Shrek. I'm not gonna do it in the Eddie Murphy voice because I don't have an Eddie Murphy impression. And you probably wouldn't want to hear me trying to do it. But in verse 28 it says, Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balam, What have I done to you? That you have struck me these three times? And Balam said to the donkey, Because you've made a fool of me, I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you. And the donkey said to Balam, Am I not your donkey? Would you have written all your life to this day? Is it my habit to treat you like this? And he said no. First God gave a voice to the donkey, really like something out of a cartoon. Then Balam goes ahead and has a conversation with this donkey like they do this every day. If my dog started speaking to me, I would at least for a second be like you're talking? What is going on? But then God shows Balam what the donkey had seen. And the angel wasn't a fan of him beating that donkey either. And the angel told him if it weren't for that donkey, he probably would have gone ahead and killed him. So the fact that God gave a voice to the beleaguered donkey shows, if nothing else, that God has a sense of humor. And if you think about it, of course he does. We all have a sense of humor, and God created us in his image. Concepts & Clarity. Affordable Christian online courses for a very reasonable price. Get excited about reading the Bible and getting to know God better. This week I'm spotlighting all about those sheep. Sheep are mentioned over 400 times in the Bible. Why? In this four-week course you'll learn how much of a a flock of sheep was actually worth what sheep have in common with mankind, and believe me, you won't look at the twenty-third Psalm the same way again. And it's all over at conceptsandclarity.com That's conceptsandclarity dot com.

Speaker 1 8:14

Did you know? God has a sense of humor. And here are several reasons why I believe this. Humor is universal. Every culture through every time period has laughter, jokes, and humor. It's an intrinsic part of who we are. If you look at some of God's creations, you see humor. Most people can't look at a duckbilled platypus without laughing. You think a mine? Go ahead and Google it. Elijah was a trash talker. Now when he went up alone against hundreds of King Ahab's prophets, they had trouble producing their gods. And Elijah said to them, You'll have to shout louder, for surely he is a god. Perhaps he's daydreaming, or he's relieving himself, or maybe he's away on a trip, or he could be asleep and need to be awakened. Even Jesus used humor and hyperbole. Now he wasn't actually talking about a rich man trying to go through the eye of a needle. Sadly, I think some of the humor gets lost in translations. When God talks about us having peace and joy, I think he means we should laugh too.

Speaker 1 10:01

Thomas Madden is a founder of the public relations firm Transmedia Group. He's also an avid blogger and the author of six books. He's also a fan of Jesus, a true believer who has lived through enough that he can testify to the fact that God is real. Not only is he real, he wants us to bring all of our cares to him. Even if that means helping us pick out our stocks. So, Mr. Thomas Mischief Madden. That's what your name is. Thomas Mischief Madden. Welcome to the 21st Century Christian.

Speaker 10:50

Oh, we're so happy to be with you. I'll try to be as mischievous as possible.

Speaker 1 10:55

Oh, the more mischievous the better, because I like mischief.

Speaker 11:00

Oh, good. You also like humor too.

Speaker 1 11:03

I like mischief, I like humor, I like hijinks, I like all of it. But oh wonderful. Listen, you said something when you it uh sent me the pitch. You said, what if Jesus was your stock broker? And I said, Well, that would be great if Jesus was my stock broker, because he's gonna know how all the stocks are gonna perform, isn't it? So if Jesus was my stockbroker, that would be a good thing, don't you think?

Speaker 11:40

Yeah, no, I think it's a very, very admirable thing to wish for because you know we we can learn so much from our savior. I mean, he he has our interests really deeply at heart, uh, unlike the usual stockbrokers. I mean, they have their own agendas. But Jesus' agenda is ourselves. I mean, he wants us to be to be loving, to be fair, to be honest, to be, you know, do our work and and and achieve results the fair and honest way. And uh so he's the best person to listen to in terms of where to put your money, where to invest your life savings. I mean, can you imagine losing your savings? I mean, uh for some people that would be the the end. So uh why not pray for that? I mean, we pray for everything else, so we pray for you know getting a job and we pray for meeting the right person and and doing you know, getting the right thing that we're wishing for. So why not pray uh for uh putting our money into the right stocks? I I think it I think it's wonderful and comes with it a sense of humor, which is also wonderful to know. I mean, and many theologians have noticed and taken note about Jesus' teachings contain those whiffs of worldly wise wit and irony and hyperbole that that likely amused his followers if they were only listening to him. So we need to listen to him. Many scholars believe his occasional absurd hyperboles were tended to make his points memorable. We want to remember what Jesus says, and sometimes humor uh is that is that fuel that uh produces more memorableness. Take his um the blind leading the blind. That's his expression. The blind leading the blind. I mean, uh you want to find blinds leading other blinds? I mean, what about his camel through the needle analogy?

Speaker 1 13:50

I mean, he was trying to point out amusingly to suggest it's sometimes easier for that to happen than for a rich person to go to heaven, and it's so funny because depending on the translation you read, and I mean, biblically, we're talking about salvation and things that are very heavy and very serious, but that doesn't mean that you can't have a little bit of humor in it, and I think that that humor a lot of times gets lost in translation, so you have people that take very seriously a rich man is not gonna get to heaven, it's like going through an eye of a needle, and it's like, okay, but if you look at that as hyperbole, it's one thing. If you look at it as in you better get rid of all your money if you want to go to heaven, because you got a good enough chances of going through an eye of a needle, you know, that's not to be taken seriously. It's it's like you said, it's hyperbole, it's something Jesus said to make a point, and I think it's important because my podcast is for a lot of new Christians, is to realize that it's okay to have a sense of humor, it's okay to experience a little levity. If we talk about Jesus and God wanting us to have joy, then it's not a far stretch that He also wants us to have laughter.

Speaker 15:26

Well, if you're a billionaire and you're listening to those the analogy with Jesus expresses, you better not be stingy. Uh, you know, and I and I know some billionaires who aren't stingy, and I'm sure our Lord appreciates them. And it's making them even richer because they do wonderful things with their wealth, they help other people. There's one fellow who who's up in the clouds, he's a magnificent guy. I want to talk to him, talk to you a little bit about him. He's called the Oracle Guy, Larry Ellison.

Speaker 1 16:03

Yeah, I've been I'm familiar with Larry Allison.

Speaker 16:06

Larry Ellison is he's the he's he was he was almost richer than than uh than Elon. Elon was. Uh and now he's the second richest person in the world. But what does he do with his money? He gets puts it into philanthropic causes. He helps people with cancer, he's trying to find ways to make food more plentiful, he's doing things for mankind with his wealth. And he says, he's promising that he's going to give 95% of it away because he wants it to do good. So he's the kind of wealthy person that can get through that needle. He belongs through that needle. And I and I'm so proud uh of in fact I wrote I wrote about him uh in another blog, uh Larry Ellison and I I think he, you know, he is the oracle. You know the word oracle. It's a message from God. And here he is the founder of Oracle. He's the founder of this message from God. And I I wrote to him, I said, Larry, you do so many wonderful things with your great wealth. Why don't you offer to sponsor humanitarian organizations to go into Iran as soon as possible and start treating all the children and the families that have been hurt and uh you know scorched by this war. And that knowing that that's gonna happen, the population is gonna put pressure on that regime. Let's we better settle this because we have a billionaire ready to come in here and take care of us and heal us. So uh I I I'm I'm hoping that this message gets through because Larry would be a savior to a place like that that's been through the ringer. Uh the population there has suffered so much. So anyway, uh I'm glad that you appreciate that. And uh I want you to know that I am a fervent believer in God myself. I I had a close call myself early in life. I uh when I was a lifeguard in Atlantic City, New Jersey, I after work I dove off the lifeguard boat. I thought I was diving into about a six foot deep water, but it was only six inches deep. Yeah, there was a uh uh uh you know a land built built up and I didn't know it. And I and I hit my head on it and I and I fractured and dislocated my uh fifth and my fifth and sixth vertebrae. They call it a broken neck.

Speaker 1 19:04

Oh wow.

Speaker 19:05

So I wasn't supposed to live. I I prayed, I asked God, please help me out of this somehow, whatever. I'll I'll I'll do whatever I have to do, but please help me. And you know something? Six weeks lying in traction in a hospital. After that, I started to improve. I started to move, I started to regain my senses and everything. And while I was there, Jesus somehow wanted me to use the time productively while I was laying helplessly in bed, uh, you know, in traction with these holes drilled in my head, and I'm being suspended in this striker frame bed. And they turn me around like I'm I'm I'm the meat in a sandwich uh every so often, so I can my lungs could keep working. Anyway, I I started reading books and I read the complete works of so many great authors while I'm lying there helplessly. I was reading them through prison glasses upside down and with the book on my lap, and here I am standing and staring at the ceiling, and I'm reading books that are on my lap. And I read the complete works of George Bernard Shaw, the complete works, it changed my life. So here I am, Jesus is healing my injury and giving me another life. And it's just amazing what Jesus will do if you just believe in him. If you just believe in him, there will be a response. Anyway, I gradually got better. I became an actor on Broadway, and then I became a writer, and then I became a journalist, and then I went on with this all this craving for for writing and reading, and I built a nice career and a nice business, and I owe it all to the Almighty. And I'm what so whenever I see anyone in trouble and I see somebody needing something desperately, even myself, I I have life savings. I I I I pray to God. I said, Look, what do I do? Do I invest in energy now while there's a war in Iran and and the gas prices are going through the roof? And and then God says to me, Well okay, but be ready to bail right out when the when there's peace again, the stocks are gonna go right down again. So he's made me very f uh alert and and facile. I mean, I'm ready to to move things quickly. I mean, it's is he giving me exactly the names of the stocks to buy and stuff? No, no, he's just

Speaker 1 22:00

giving me uh the the in the instinct the the desire and the the impulse to do it and i do it and it's working yeah and all you had to do really if you think about it was ask him because so many many times we don't ask him we assume oh you don't have time for this this is too small for you this is too whatever and we put all of these conditions on god that god never put on himself he never asked us to do that so we have to ask god what do you want me to do in this situation in that situation not just you know my mom died when I was 15 and so I'm 13 I have a crush on David Arnold but I can't talk to my mom about it because part of me says okay well she just lost her sight she's on dialysis who cares about David Arnold but honestly my mom would have you know she would have talked to me about David Arnold you know she probably would have enjoyed that to take her mind off of everything else but in my mind we're dealing with all this serious stuff so I can't talk to her about this thing that clearly is not serious but you know God you know but it's so funny though we we we pray to God we we talked I talk to God I don't hear a response but I feel a response it's subliminal it's subliminal all of a sudden I find myself doing something that I never thought of doing where did I get that impulse that idea from above from the oracle the oracle I have friends that will wake up in the morning and have a dream or God told me this that and the other I don't have dreams I'll ask God I've asked God when I went through a long period of unemployment I said God why are you doing this to me I just want a job and it came to me the thought you ever think that maybe you're a little prideful I did not think that I don't think I'm prideful at all so that didn't come from me but that idea was in my head and I'm like where did that come from it must have come from God because it didn't come from Karen but it's in Karen's head so it had to come from somewhere and um and it made me really look at my behavior look at how I was thinking and I'm like okay maybe you have a point and then as I'm going through the day my husband said something I heard something on TV and it kind of confirmed what I had heard and I was like okay I get it I get it I am a little arrogant you know I mean maybe I shouldn't think you need to hire me because I'm awesome okay maybe that's not the way I should be thinking but listening for all the ways that God can speak to you. I mean it's he doesn't speak through like a burning bush or this big thunderous you know clap of thunder but he does interact with us through an intuition through a feeling through something that prompts you to act through a thought you know through some people through a dream through something a friend says to you the terminal the terminal starts with belief that's that's the that's the the phone the system the communications method that we listen to God it all starts with belief we have to believe in him and once he sees uh our belief in him and the passion we have behind that belief then he listens to us and he'll reward us and he'll get us through difficulties that are unimaginable.

Speaker 26:41

I mean I I can't imagine I I lived through what I had to go through. But I did and and it was because of God and and and my prayers to Jesus because and I've and I've been I've been a believer in Jesus you know from a little child I you know growing up going to Catholic school and I was an altar boy and you know and I did all that but it's that moment when I got injured and I was close to death and it became more fervent and more critical. And God listened and and I I'll never forget and I'll always be grateful that he got me through and he pulled me through difficult time and and then he put my life into a at a whole nother uh you know uh avenue and and I and into into new professions I never even dreamed that I would go into he he he knew me better than I knew myself and he laid out a course for me and suddenly I'm I'm a journalist I'm writing for leading newspapers I'm covering major stories and suddenly I people are noticing I have a skill in writing I never realized that and I'm getting bigger and assignments all the time because people like the way I write and then somebody says why don't you write books and I start writing books and they start being published and where did this all come from it it came from belief believing in Jesus and believing in what he can do to help us.

Speaker 1 28:26

And if more of us who take that on that belief we're gonna be so much better off it's gonna be a warmer friendlier more beautiful healthier world if more of us believe in him right and that and you're right that is the beginning you know we have to put our faith that's what our faith is that faith is that belief in Jesus and belief that he is the one that can help us he is the one that can turn a bad situation around you know he is the one that sees what we often overlook or what we can't see at all.

Speaker 29:14

Right right well you know and and and and there's turmoil like crazy in this world uh especially these days I mean uh you know because uh a lot of people are finding it tough you know just just to to keep the b above board here with the with the rising prices and fuel gas and everything you know so it's a challenging time but what will help us to get through those challenges and what will ultimately cure those challenges if we all believe enough and all look up to him I think we'll have a better world. But in the meantime individually let's find peace and solace and courage and endurance from the Almighty from our belief in him. And I and I can't stress that enough because I've experienced it. I continue every day to experience it and I see the result. I never I never heard him speak but somehow I'm getting messages and they're coming to me you know that's that word uh subliminal subliminally and I and I and I and it's if it's really make having an effect and I'm so grateful. And and what am I gonna do if I ever become wealthy you know like uh like Alison I'm gonna use that wealth to help others okay and I'm and that's that's my promise because I that's what I think wealth should be done.

Speaker 1 30:58

It should be a a means of helping others and anybody who just buys more and more fancy cars and and so forth forget about it they're not going to heaven but if they're gonna it's interesting when you see people who are always buying the red bottom shoes and the big cars and everything else those people are never satisfied yes yes yes those people always need to continue to buy to continue to consume because there's something inside of you that that buying that shopping spree isn't meaning and what is that that's something that the Lord put inside of us that we need to honor and obey and we need to you know use our powers for that good that you know you're gonna give money I mean I went through a phase a couple months ago after losing my job after everything I lost my home and I ended up staying at a homeless shelter for women and um I finally got a job and I it was like work from home I'm like well I don't have a home so I'm gonna work out a McDonald's so I went get coffee all day get something for lunch and work at a McDonald's and that's I would see the same people all the time and one guy asked me can you know can you afford a cup of can you give me a cup of coffee and I said of course I'll get you coffee and then when I saw him he was like well I need to give you the cup of coffee back and I said no what you need to do is when you encounter someone that needs a cup of coffee you make sure you give it to them and you pay it forward he didn't know my situation you know and that's my aunt would say you don't look like what you've been through so they don't know what I gone through but if you you don't have to be a millionaire to be able to help somebody you know I would use my McDonald's app all the time and I had a free coffee on that app so I gave him that free coffee and you can just really be there for somebody listen to somebody um be there to help someone because sometimes all you need to do is listen and just being there for somebody is enough you know when we when you think about it God is love so anytime we show kindness generosity um anytime we show patience forgiveness we are operating out of that agape love we are operating out of it and it's not about what you can do for me or what I can get out of it it's just you know what I'm God is using me to reach you right now and that's how I'm gonna reach you right now right now you want a cup of coffee you need a cup of coffee so let me do that and that will help you maybe make it through the rest of your day but I'm gonna do that for you and so I think we just need to be aware of the little things we do you don't necessarily need to do something big you don't have to start a nonprofit but just being able to do something for somebody people have to look up and they have to look up because above us all is the Almighty and he's caring about all of us. He cares about all of us and he wants us to laugh absolutely he definitely wants us to laugh well Thomas it was so great talking to you yeah it was great talking to you I really enjoyed it

Speaker 1 35:27

Acts 20 verse nine and a young man named sitting at the window sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer and being overcome by sleep he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead okay he fell from the third story window and died not funny but Paul did resurrect him I think we've all been there the sermon went on and on you yawned it kept going on your eyelids got heavy and there was still no one inside and luckily when you fell asleep your head fell down to your chest so it sort of looked like you were praying your Titus fell asleep fell out of the window was brought back to life by Paul and then Paul kept speaking if you your Titus still stayed I'm pretty sure he didn't sit by the window again I probably would have just gone home went to sleep but to each his own we've talked about laughter a lot and this is your call to action for this week read a Bible verse a story that makes you laugh call up a friend and reminisce and laugh go to the park and make some new fun memories God wants us to be joyous and I must believe that joy includes laughter. So go have some fun and remember laughter doesn't need to be at someone else's expense there's a lot that will bring a smile to your face and if you're wondering how you can find a verse that will make you laugh or a story just go ahead and Google funny Bible versus funny Bible stories and you'll get what you need. Now we're gonna go ahead and close this episode again follow me on Facebook or YouTube just look for the 21st century Christian. And if you like what you're hearing feel free to donate at $ran beach 921 that is dollar sign Karyn K A R Y N. Beach like by the ocean 921 once again that's Karyn Beach 921 K-A-R Y N B E A C H like by the ocean and 921

Speaker 1 38:23

Go ahead and join us next week for another episode another interview more verses more things to think about maybe a thing or two to make you laugh and it's all here at the 21st century Christian I can't wait to talk to you next week the conversation continues in the 21st century Christian Facebook group got questions, comments, feedback that's where you go God bless