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I read an article not to long ago about a book written about humor. It originally began as an undergraduate paper, but the author's hypothesis was just so intriguing the student's professors and mentors encouraged him first to turn it into a thesis and then, finally, a book. 

Undergrads: not everything you write ends up in the recycling bin! 

Here's the link to the article: http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2011/11/20/why-our-brains-make-laugh/l0OWxVcnRpzfyIheFgab5N/story.html

I mention it here because author's idea is indeed compelling. I'll let the article do the explaining: 

"Hurley [the student] and his coauthors begin from the idea that our brains make sense of our daily lives via a never ending series of assumptions, based on sparse, incomplete information. All these best guesses simplify our world, give us critical insights into the minds of others, and streamline our decisions. But mistakes are inevitable, and even a small faulty assumption can open the door to bigger and costlier mistakes.

Enter mirth, a little pulse of reward the brain gives itself for seeking out and correcting our mistaken assumptions. A sense of humor is the lure that keeps our brains alert for the gaps between our quick-fire assumptions and reality. As “Inside Jokes” argues, much of what we consider comedy takes advantage of this cognitive reflex, much as McDonald’s taps our evolved taste for high-energy food." 

Later in the article, the author himself explains what he means: "The basic, most simple humor is first-person humor. It’s when you catch yourself in an error, like looking for the glasses that happen to be on the top of your head. You’ve made an assumption about the state of the world, and you’re behaving based on that assumption, but that assumption doesn’t hold at all, and you get a little chuckle."  

In other words, Hurley's idea is that when we laugh or our brains tell us, "hey, that's funny" it's due to a "cognitive reflex" that kicks in when something shows us that our assumptions were mistaken. 

I'm still thinking through this idea, and would love to hear whether you think this holds true for you or not. In the meantime, if Hurley's right, this tells us something important about us and God. Let me use the Pharisees as an example. If you read the gospels, you get the impression that the Pharisees were a pretty angry bunch, at least around Jesus. The thing is, what Jesus was always saying to them were things that defied their expectations, things that put their assumptions into question. Here's one example: 

"Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entagle him in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, 'Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?' 

Jesus, aware of their malice, said, 'Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.' 

And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?' 

They said, 'Caesar's.' 

Then he said to them, 'Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.'" (Matthew 22:15-21)

In this interaction, as in many others throughout the gospels, Jesus masterfully flips their expectations on their heads. Yet instead of laughing, they looked for a way to get rid of Jesus (Matthew 26:4). Why would they be this way? 

As is always the case, Jesus' "humor" walked along a dangerous border. The more tightly held the assumption, the less likely we are to laugh when we're found to be wrong. And here Jesus is going right at some of the deepest assumptions of all: the Pharisees' beliefs about God. And as Jesus showed them that they didn't really know God, instead of humbly hearing him, they looked for a way to get rid of him. 

I think we are not so unlike the Pharisees. 

Far too often I see believers who don't really want to hear what God has to say to them. We rarely fight back openly against God, rather we do it passive aggresively. We have an expectation in our mind already of what he's going to say, so we tune him out instead of listening quietly at his feet. We're like children who know that they're supposed to do this or that chore, but because we don't want to do it we avoid our parents altogether because we think we know that they're going to nag us. 

But what if God had something surprising to say to you? What if he wanted to flip your expectations upside down? 

Here's the truth: the problem for most of us isn't that we know enough and we're not doing it, it's that we think we know God but we really don't...or we're doing our best to shut him out. 

With this in mind, let me close with a simple suggestion: clear out 10 minutes to listen to God. And once the phone is shut off and you've gotten away from your laptop, ask him to show you something about yourself that you never realized. Ask him to show you something true that flips your assumptions upside down.

To put it more simply: ask God to make you laugh today.