Living With Empty Pockets

Have you played that new game with the kids? I spy with mine in a live tone?

Thanks for joining us today. You're listening to laugh again with Phil Calloway.

What does a truly rich life look like? I think it includes the ability to go easy on the peptobismo,

because we slow down enough to live life in wonder.

I think it's a life blessed by good relationships and characterized by the amazing talent to hit curveballs.

Say what? Well, the richest people I know are not those who live easy lives.

But they've learned to stand in the batter's box and take a good swing when tough times come.

This describes some of the world's funniest people too.

One of my favorite fridge magnets says,

Lord, if you can't make me thin, make my friends look fat.

Do you know who wrote it?

She was nine when her father died, leaving her and her mother flat broke.

Working as a copy girl at a newspaper, she earned enough to attend college where her dream of becoming a writer fell apart.

A guidance counselor advised her to stay away from writing.

Still, she landed a job writing obituaries.

Her mother told her that the only thing she accomplished was getting people to die in alphabetical order.

At 20, she was diagnosed with a kidney disorder, which two of her children would later inherit.

Rather than give up, she began writing humorous articles about life as a stay-at-home mum.

It became one of the most widely syndicated columns of all time.

On the exercise craze, she wrote this,

I've exercised with women so thin that buzzards followed them to their cars.

On marriage, people shop for a bathing suit with more care than they do a husband or wife.

The rules are the same. Look for something you'll feel comfortable wearing.

Allow for room to grow.

Amen.

In one column, she amused about how God selected the mothers whose kids would have special needs.

She imagined him passing a name to an angel and smiling.

Give her a child with diabetes.

The angel would say, why this one, God? She's so happy.

Exactly, smiles God.

Could I give a child with diabetes to a mother who does not know laughter?

That would be cruel.

Besides, she will never be alone.

I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life,

because she's doing my work as surely as if she is here by my side.

Soon after, she contracted breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy, both kidneys shut down,

so she began four times a day dialysis.

Refusing preferential treatment she went on a list for a kidney transplant,

of suffering she said, if you can't make it better, you can laugh at it.

In one column, she told of her recurring dream.

She was standing before God and he said to her, so empty your pockets.

What have you got left of your life?

Any unfulfilled dreams? Any unused talent that I gave you that you still have left?

Any unsaid compliments or bits of love that you haven't spread around?

And she answered, I have nothing to return.

I spent everything you gave me.

I'm as naked as the day I was born.

One day, she was rushed to hospital for a kidney transplant.

Complication set in, and on the morning of April 22nd,

Irma Bomback died of heart failure.

She was 69.

Every time I see that funny fridge magnet, I'm reminded of Irma's spunk and wit in the midst of difficulty.

It was rooted in Thanksgiving.

She often told readers to think about what God has blessed us with,

that those who choose joy not only enrich their lives, they enrich the world.

The richness of our lives is determined not by what life brings us,

but by what we bring it, not by what happens to us,

but by how we respond to what happens.

Would you do something for me?

Take a few minutes and name three blessings in your life right now.

Then tell someone else about them today.

When life squeezes you empty and you don't know where to turn,

prayer is where hope begins.

That's why laugh again is offering, praying with the saints.

A small book of thirty prayers gathered from across the centuries.

These were ordinary people just like you and me.

They struggled, they believed, they prayed.

Let their words become yours.

Request your free copy today at laughagain.ca.

Laugh again, true bringing laughter to life.