Humor & Joyfulness, A Daily Experience

by: Mr. Nathaniel A. Saquiban

As the Christmas season is closely approaching, everyone can feel the spirit of joy in the air. There is a sense of excitement in every heart to welcome the happiest season of the year. Happiest because it is known as the holiday season where family members from different parts of the Philippines and abroad take their holidays, gather together, and get to see each other over some food preparations. It is also a time when relatives and friends fellowship with one another. There is a festivity everywhere. Town plazas, gardens, and tourist destinations are arrayed with Christmas decorations and lights where residents and tourists congregate and enjoy the surroundings.

It is a joyful time of the year, a time of celebration, a time of gift-giving. It is a traditional practice that was handed down from generation to generation since the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world to which even the non-Christians subscribed and celebrate the same. We rejoice because salvation has come to the world at last. No longer that the world will be doomed to destruction as redemption has finally arrived to all mankind. This brings joy to all of us more than anything in this world. It is a gladness from God that the world cannot give because of the feeling of a glorious hope for a better future. That hope is the hope for eternal life as people are reconciled back to God. Christmas season, thus, is commonly considered a time of reconciliation, a time to love and forgive one another.

Joyfulness, however, should not be seasonal and neither should only be during Christmas season. Joyfulness should be an everyday disposition. It should not even be inspired or impelled by outside factors but rather by internal factors. It is sustained by the work of God resulting to inner gladness rather than the effects of earthly entertainment. It is viewed as lasting in nature rather than temporary. Humor, on the other hand, is normally an attitude, behavior, or personality. It is the ability to be comical or funny or the ability to create a joyful atmosphere. It is the ability to generate laughter or smiles to other people. It is conveyed by actions, reactions, facial expressions, or words such as funny stories or verbal responses.
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Humor and joyfulness, compounded as one, is not only a character or personality. It is a value which is very vital for teamwork and unity. It is an essential ingredient to boost the morale of employees in a working environment. It gives a light atmosphere conducive for labor. It subdues all forms of heaviness caused by challenges in life. It is the ability to become resilient over negative circumstances, thereby, producing excellence in the workplace, both in the conduct of personnel and their corresponding outputs. The ability to be humorous and joyful signifies the fact that the person concerned is unaffected by adverse situations. That person is above and not beneath, head and not the tail, over and not under his or her present problems. Let us therefore nurture the value of humor and joyfulness because it is instrumental for efficient and effective performance of duties and responsibilities in any fields of endeavor.