Work, Laugh, and Pray

Philip Yancey:

The human species is distinctive in at least three ways, said poet W.H. Auden. We are the only animals that work, laugh, and pray. I have found that Auden's list provides a neat framework for self-reflection.

W.H. Auden ends his reflection with this warning: "A satisfactory human life, individually or collectively, is possible only if proper respect is paid to all three worlds. Without Prayer and Work, the Carnival laughter turns ugly, the comic obscenities grubby and pornographic, the mock aggression into real hatred and cruelty. Without Laughter and Work, Prayer turns Gnostic, cranky, Pharisaic, while those who try to live by Work alone, without Laughter or Prayer, turn into insane lovers of power, tyrants who would enslave Nature to their immediate desire--an attempt which can only end in utter catastrophe, shipwreck on the Isle of the Sirens."

Finding God in Unexpected Places
Pages 245 & 249