Download or read book God Laughs Plays written by David James Duncan and published by Triad Institute, Inc.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Duncan offers a collection of "churchless sermons," stories, memoir, and conversations with the affirmation that the way of life preached and embodied by Jesus is apolitical.
Download or read book If You Want to Make God Laugh written by Bianca Marais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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?
Download or read book We Plan God Laughs written by Sherre Hirsch and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2009-06-16 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The old Yiddish proverb, “We plan, God laughs,” expresses a truth everyone can relate to. At every stage of life we make plans, setting out where we want to go and imagining what we will be like when we have “arrived.” But things have a way of turning out not quite as we hoped or expected. In WE PLAN, GOD LAUGHS, Sherre Hirsch argues that too often our plans are limited to ones we think up at bedtime, or are devised by our parents, or by what looks good on a résumé. Addressing serious spiritual issues, Hirsch takes readers through ten basics steps for formulating a plan that reflects who we are now and who we want to be—a plan that is alive, organic, and in sync with God. Hirsch teaches the importance of letting go and recognizing that even the most ordinary life is extraordinary in the eyes of God. She makes no foolish promise that life will turn out as we plan, but shows that with hope, faith, and belief, we can change our lives for the better and make a positive difference in the lives of others.
Download or read book Why Is God Laughing written by Deepak Chopra, M.D. and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2008-06-03 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this refreshing new take on spirituality, bestselling author Deepak Chopra uses a fictional tale of a comedian and his unlikely mentor to show us a path back to hope, joy, and even enlightenment—with a lot of laughter along the way. Meet Mickey Fellows. A successful L.A. comedian, he’s just a regular guy, with his fair share of fears, egocentricities, and addictions. After his father’s death, Mickey meets a mysterious stranger named Francisco, who changes his life forever. The two begin an ongoing discussion about the true nature of being. Reluctantly at first, Mickey accepts the stranger’s help and starts to explore his own life in an effort to answer the riddles Francisco poses. Mickey starts to look at those aspects of himself that he has hidden behind a wall of wisecracks all his life. Eventually Mickey realizes that authentic humor opens him up to the power of spirit—allowing him to finally make real connections with people. After taking the reader on a journey with Mickey, Chopra then spells out the lessons that Mickey’s story imparts to us: ten reasons to be optimistic, even in our challenging world. Chopra believes that the healthiest response to life is laughter from the heart, and even in the face of global turmoil, we can cultivate an internal sense of optimism. Rich with humor and practical advice, Why Is God Laughing? shows us without a doubt that there is always a reason to be grateful, that every possibility holds the promise of abundance, and that obstacles are simply opportunities in disguise. In the end, we really don’t need a reason to be happy. The power of happiness lies within each of us, just waiting to be unleashed. And Mickey Fellows’s journey shows us the way.
Download or read book Making God Laugh written by Sean Grennan and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-03 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Making God Laugh follows one typical American family over the course of thirty years' worth of holidays. Starting in 1980, Ruthie and Bill's grown children -- a priest, an aspiring actress, and a former football star -- all return home, where we learn of their plans and dreams as they embark on their adult lives. The empty-nester parents contend with their own changes, too, as old family rituals are trotted out and ancient tensions flare up. As time passes, the family discovers that, despite what we may have in mind, we often arrive at unexpected destinations.
Download or read book The River Why written by David James Duncan and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The classic novel of fly fishing and spirituality republished with a new Afterword by the author. Since its publication in 1983, The River Why has become a classic. David James Duncan's sweeping novel is a coming-of-age comedy about love, nature, and the quest for self-discovery, written in a voice as distinct and powerful as any in American letters. Gus Orviston is a young fly fisherman who leaves behind his comically schizoid family to find his own path. Taking refuge in a remote cabin, he sets out in pursuit of the Pacific Northwest's elusive steelhead. But what begins as a physical quarry becomes a spiritual one as his quest for self-knowledge batters him with unforeseeable experiences. Profoundly reflective about our connection to nature and to one another, The River Why is also a comedic rollercoaster. Like Gus, the reader emerges utterly changed, stripped bare by the journey Duncan so expertly navigates.
Download or read book I Heard God Laugh A Practical Guide to Life s Essential Daily Habit written by Matthew Kelly and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Between Heaven and Mirth written by James Martin and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Between Heaven and Mirth will make any reader smile. . . . Father Martin reminds us that happiness is the good God’s own goal for us.” —Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York From The Colbert Report’s “official chaplain” James Martin, SJ, author of the New York Times bestselling The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, comes a revolutionary look at how joy, humor, and laughter can change our lives and save our spirits. A Jesuit priest with a busy media ministry, Martin understands the intersections between spirituality and daily life. In Between Heaven and Mirth, he uses scriptural passages, the lives of the saints, the spiritual teachings of other traditions, and his own personal reflections to show us why joy is the inevitable result of faith, because a healthy spirituality and a healthy sense of humor go hand-in-hand with God's great plan for humankind.
Download or read book I Heard God Laughing written by Hafiz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-09-26 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From bestselling poet Daniel Ladinsky, a rich collection that brings the great Sufi poet Hafiz to Western readers To Persians, the poems of Hafiz are not “classical literature” from a remote past but cherished wisdom from a dear and intimate friend that continues to be quoted in daily life. With uncanny insight, Hafiz captures the many forms and stages of love. His poetry outlines the stages of the mystic's “path of love”—a journey in which love dissolves personal boundaries and limitations to join larger processes of growth and transformation. With this stunning collection, Ladinsky has succeeded brilliantly in capturing the essence of one of Islam’s greatest poetic and spiritual voices. “If you haven’t yet had the delight of dining with Daniel Ladinsky’s sweet, playful renderings of the musings of the great saints, I Heard God Laughing is a perfect appetizer. . . . This newly released edition of his first playful foray into Hafiz’s divinely inspired poetry is essential reading. . . . Ladinsky is a master who will be remembered for finally bringing Hafiz alive in the West.” —Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor
Download or read book Hum If You Don t Know the Words written by Bianca Marais and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Brothers K written by David James Duncan and published by Dial Press. This book was released on 2010-07-28 with total page 654 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK Once in a great while a writer comes along who can truly capture the drama and passion of the life of a family. David James Duncan, author of the novel The River Why and the collection River Teeth, is just such a writer. And in The Brothers K he tells a story both striking and in its originality and poignant in its universality. This touching, uplifting novel spans decades of loyalty, anger, regret, and love in the lives of the Chance family. A father whose dreams of glory on a baseball field are shattered by a mill accident. A mother who clings obsessively to religion as a ward against the darkest hour of her past. Four brothers who come of age during the seismic upheavals of the sixties and who each choose their own way to deal with what the world has become. By turns uproariously funny and deeply moving, and beautifully written throughout, The Brothers K is one of the finest chronicles of our lives in many years. Praise for The Brothers K “The pages of The Brothers K sparkle.”—The New York Times Book Review “Duncan is a wonderfully engaging writer.”—Los Angeles Times “This ambitious book succeeds on almost every level and every page.”—USA Today “Duncan’s prose is a blend of lyrical rhapsody, sassy hyperbole and all-American vernacular.”—San Francisco Chronicle “The Brothers K affords the . . . deep pleasures of novels that exhaustively create, and alter, complex worlds. . . . One always senses an enthusiastic and abundantly talented and versatile writer at work.”—The Washington Post Book World “Duncan . . . tells the larger story of an entire popular culture struggling to redefine itself—something he does with the comic excitement and depth of feeling one expects from Tom Robbins.”—Chicago Tribune
Download or read book The Day God Laughed written by Derek A. Rimson and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-11-03 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The content of this book has the intent to somehow expose the nature of God and his unparalleled ability to laugh. God's initial purpose and the most visible reason for God laughing in contrast to scripture is really only displayed for one reason, and that is when he makes fun and laughs at the calamity of the unrighteous because he sees that their day is coming for recompense and retribution. However, in conjunction with God laughing at the wicked in regards to their sinister plots to eradicate God's choice people, God also displays a sense of humor when he deals divinely and sovereignly with his children even though his sense of humor is oftentimes dry. It's God's unique humor nonetheless. However, it is this godly sense of humor that periodically leaves us, his children, chuckling at his ideologies, his peculiar way of doing things.
Download or read book Laughing at the Gods written by Allan C. Hutchinson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-20 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book showcases eight judges that exemplify judicial greatness and looks at what role they play in law and society.
Download or read book Laugh Lines written by Eric Lane and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This one-of-a-kind anthology features thirty-six hilarious short plays by major American playwrights and emerging new voices, all guaranteed to send readers and audiences into peals of laughter. From the surrealistic wit of Steve Martin's "The Zig-Zag Woman" to the biting political satire of Steven Dietz's "The Spot," from Christopher Durang's wonderfully loopy "Wanda's Visit" to Shel Silverstein's supremely twisted "The Best Daddy," there's something in here to make everyone laugh. There are plays for casts of all sizes, from monologues to large ensembles, with diverse and challenging roles for actors of every age and type. Even the titles are funny: Mark O'Donnell's "There Shall Be No Bottom (a bad play for worse actors)," Elaine May's "The Way of All Fish," and Alan Ball's "Your Mother's Butt." A bonanza for theatergoers, performers, and comedy fans, Laugh Lines will bring down the house. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Download or read book God Laughs written by Elmer L. Towns and published by Gospel Light Publications. This book was released on 2011-02-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that God sings? There are many things God does that you may not have thought about ever before—and the more we know, the better we can respond to Him. God sees. God winks. God hears. He cries, He waits and He runs. He is jealous and gets angry. He smiles, frowns and laughs! Reflecting on the attributes and activities of God is the best way to become like Him. In God Laughs, Elmer Towns and Charles Billingsley invite the reader to deeply consider God’s character and qualities. They contend that it’s only as we get to know Him that we can become more like Him, and it’s only when we glimpse God for who He is that we can worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Readers are challenged to dig deeply into Scripture, where God reveals that He has a heart . . . and a nose . . . and that He whistles!
Download or read book Christian Plays written by Reverend Jeanette Collins and published by Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-11-13 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Christians, we sometimes fail to realize we can have clean spiritual fun. God does not want us to walk around with sad faces and heavy hearts all the time. These plays will make you laugh to see how Satan tries to trick us into doing what He wants us to do. He will mess with your mind, make you think you are doing right when all the time you are doing wrong. These plays will make you laugh, I really do believe Jesus even laughed at these plays because they proved, as believers, we can defeat Satan and God will get the glory out of it. If you are going through a depressed time in your life and feels like a good laugh, read "Clap For The Preacher." If you think the devil can't dress in his red suit and look like he's worth a million dollar and feel like he can get any lady he wants, read "Jesus I'm Not Ready Yet." If you think God sleeps with one eye open and the other one shut and you can get by with small, small sins, read "Just in Time." If you had a long day at church and feels like a good laugh to relax yourself, read these Christian plays. These Christians plays will make you laugh, laugh, and laugh. Make sure you have a box of Kleenex beside you. It's laughing time.
Download or read book Crushing written by T. D. Jakes and published by FaithWords. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow God's process for growth and find hope in life's darkest moments with Bishop T.D. Jakes' uplifting stories and advice from his own faith journey. In this insightful book, #1 New York Times bestselling author T.D. Jakes wrestles with age-old questions: Why do the righteous suffer? Where is God in all the injustice? In his most personal offering yet, Bishop Jakes tells crushing stories from his own journey -- the painful experience of learning his young teenage daughter was pregnant, the agony of watching his mother succumb to Alzheimer's, and the shock and helplessness he felt when his son had a heart attack. Bishop Jakes wants to show you how God uses difficult, crushing experiences to prepare you for unexpected blessings. If you are faithful through suffering, you will be surprised by God's joy, comforted by His peace, and fulfilled with His purpose. Crushing will inspire you to have hope, even in your most difficult moments. If you trust in God and lean on Him during setbacks, He will lead you through.
