Laughter reduces muscle tension, exercises the lungs, strengthens the immune system and draws friends according to Jack Hinson, pastor and 14-year chaplain who used the balm of humor to help patients heal at Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva.

Hinson has published a book of stories about healing humor called “Laughter Was God’s Idea.”

“It was His intention from the beginning to provide us with a mechanism to address the tension of existence,” Hinson said.

Hinson admits he discovered the healing balm of laughter only after 18 months as the hospital’s first chaplain. He did not feel effective and the burden of patients’ problems and pain weighed on him.

Then he took his annual week at the Pastor’s School of Furman University and heard a series of lectures by Conrad Hyers that reframed his perception of the healing power of humor.

“The fall into sin is the fall into seriousness,” Hyers said. “When you take yourself too seriously, you don’t take God seriously enough.”

Having a less serious view of ourselves makes us less judgmental and more open to accepting God’s grace, Hinson learned. That’s when he discovered he was taking himself too seriously and his ministry among sick and dying patients took on a new dimension.

“I believed the hospital deserved a joyful chaplain,” he writes. “My prayer was, ‘God, if you will furnish the joy, I will spread it all over the hospital – in every room, in the halls, in the cafeteria, in the chapel, in the lobby, on the grounds. I will deliver a joyful, cheerful spirit.’”

His 150-page book, published by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia, Inc., in Sylva, is filled with anecdotes of his ministry in the healing halls of the hospital. For pastors and chaplains and laymen involved in hospital ministry, the stories can help you understand the dynamics between the patient and visitor, and how a well placed, humorous word can provide not only a light moment, but a bridge to talking about something more serious on the patient’s mind.

Talking with a patient facing gall bladder surgery, Hinson learned that several family members also had the same surgery. The patient wondered if gall bladder diseases are hereditary.

He said he didn’t know if gall bladder disease was hereditary, but insanity is: “Parents get it from their children.” That comment opened the gates for the patient and her husband to share their sorrows over the wayward lives of their children.

Hinson talks about the cartoon ties he wears, that he calls “bridge ties” because they open conversation with patients who are strangers and have no real reason to share their feelings with a man who walks into their room and offers to pray with them.

He closes his book with a few bulletin bloopers to leave you with a smile.

“Don’t let worry kill you…let the church help.”

“The ladies of the church have cast off clothing of every kind and they may be seen in the church basement Friday.”

“At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be ‘What is Hell?’ Come early and listen to the choir practice.”