My wife’s sister, Miriam, suffers from Huntington’s disease, a rare genetic disorder that causes rapid mental and physical deterioration. Doctors who treat thousands Huntington’s patients are amazed at how slowly this awful disease is growing in Miriam’s body. The reasons are numerous-a loving husband and family, a positive attitude that never ceases to amaze us, and perhaps most noticeably, an easy laugh. Those who have every reason to cry and yet – choose to laugh seem to have a jump start on life. “Miriam’s – attitude,” a doctor told her husband, Jim, “has reduced the symptoms of Huntington’s by 50 percent.”

“It seems that your belief in a higher power has helped you,” a psychologist said to Miriam and her husband one day. Miriam smiled. “That would be God,” she said.

Hers is the laughter of one who has discovered the fine art of living: enjoying what we can see and not complaining about what remains in the dark. Life may be falling apart at the edges, but not at the core. At the very center, Miriam knows that she is loved by God, held in His arms, and that He has promised to her the eternal joys of heaven. She has learned that God gives us enough light for the next step, so she rejoices in the little light she’s given, not asking for a great spotlight to take all the shadows away.

For Miriam, laughter has plugged the springs of bitterness, put a permanent cork on tension, and soothed the crippling pain of disappointment.

Callaway, Phil. Who Put My Life on Fast-Forward? Eugene: Harvest House Publishers, 2002, p.160. Www.philcallaway.com