In this clip from Day1 Episode #4206, Rev. Susan Sparks, senior pastor of Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York City, shares how humor became a holy act of resilience in her own journey through suffering and recovery.

Rev. Sparks reflects on one of her most formative experiences — a call she took while volunteering with the Red Cross on September 12, 2001. Through that moment, and through her later battle with breast cancer, she discovered that laughter can be a sacred act of survival — what she beautifully calls “a lifeboat for people.”

Transcript

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime

Susan, you've walked through some deeply personal journeys, as well as hitting the humor and the high notes, including your journey with breast cancer. I had my own journey like that as well.

How has humor not just been a tool for your ministry, but helped you with healing? Or maybe humor wasn't necessarily a part of it, but how has that been part of your faith journey too?

Rev. Susan Sparks

No, it's been absolutely key to it.

I'll tell a quick story that illustrates it. I was here on 9/11 when the planes hit. The next day, I was working for the Red Cross taking inbound calls for search and rescue. At that point, a woman called in, and she started telling me about her husband.

He was on one of the top floors of one of the towers. Then she just burst out laughing. She was like, "Oh my gosh, I forgot to tell you. He left with the worst tie on."

It was like these elephants with little palm trees. It was so awful. It didn't match his suit. I couldn't believe he wore it." Katie, I didn't know what to say.

She was laughing and telling this, and I just was very silent. Finally, she says, "I'm sorry if laughter seems inappropriate right now, but it's all my family and I have left."

It was in that moment that I realized, and this was before the breast cancer hit for me, I realized that laughter is a lifeboat for people. It's not a place where people escape, but a place where it's almost like God just takes the burden up for a split second, and you can breathe, and then it comes back down, but you're empowered with a little bit more strength. It's like you can look at that issue, that breast cancer, or whatever thing you're going through, and go, you know what, you may defeat me, but you're not going to define me.

Humor is what did that for me. The ability to laugh in a place of pain is empowering and strength building beyond belief.

Susan's story reflects what theologians like Reinhold Niebuhr and Anne Lamott have often observed: humor is a vessel for grace. It’s a sacred act of defiance that says, “You may defeat me, but you won’t define me.”

For pastors and faith leaders, this idea can be a powerful reminder that preaching, teaching, and even counseling can include levity without losing reverence. Humor becomes a ministry of healing, a breath of divine Spirit when the weight of the world feels too much.

When has laughter served as a source of grace or strength in your life?

Explore Rev. Susan Sparks’ full sermon from Episode 4206 >>>