The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Smiling, the Exercise of Happiness

Episode Date: May 19, 2017

Jeff has a PSA for you: one of our most amazing God-given abilities is our ability to smile, and the more we smile, the happier we'll be. In this episode, Jeff shows how Scripture and science support each other when it comes to this amazing God-given ability, and he challenges you to give everyone you meet today a genuine smile!

You're listening to the Jeff Kavin's show. Episode 16, Smiling, the Exercise of Happiness. Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven show.

And I want to welcome you to welcome you to. to the show this week. It's always good to have you and we're going to have a great show today. Have you ever started laughing and you can't stop? I'm into the point where you think you're going to lose it. You're going to die. Something is seriously wrong. I have had probably 10 experiences like that in my life and doctors say it's actually good for you. Well, we're going to talk today about smiling and we're going to talk about the biblical aspects of smiling and joy and we call this smiling the exercise of happiness. I think you're going to like it. I think you're going to smile at some point during this show. I really do. Hey, before we get going,

I want to remind you that all of our show notes are online and my producer, the wonderful Marisa, does a fantastic job of putting all the scriptures together, all of the examples, pictures, everything that we refer to on the show notes. And you can go to ascensionpresents.com forward slash podcasts. Go into my show. You get all of the show notes. And I say that because so many of you are driving. We don't want you writing down notes during your drive. And if you want to contact me with show ideas or comments on some of the past shows, you can send an email right to me at the Jeff Kaven Show at ascensionpress.com. Well, I've been looking forward to this episode.

I actually have been thinking an awful lot about smiling, and I've been thinking an awful lot about laughing and the benefits of it. And I want to give you kind of a PSA announcement about smiling. P is for the physical aspects of smiling and the benefits that we gain. S is for the scriptural examples of smiling and the joy of the face and how you can influence other people. And A is for the effect, effect, the effect that you have on people. So that's our PSA announcement. Now, I got to tell you, when I get laughing and joyful, a lot of times it's addictive and I cannot stop it. And maybe you are like that as well. I'll give you a couple of examples

of the laughter part, at least. There were a number of years ago, Tom Wilson, who place Biff on Back to the Future, good friend of mine. We did a joint conference together in Phoenix, Arizona, a number of years ago. I did the Bible timeline during the day, and at night, we all went out to eat at a huge restaurant, and he did a stand-up routine, which his stand-up routines will knock you down to the floor. I mean, it should be called a knock-you-down-to-the-floor routine because he was so funny and clean. He was so funny in that routine that I had the biggest smile on my face and I started laughing so hard that I literally couldn't breathe. And then that was one of the first times in my life where I thought, I'm in trouble. I'm going to die laughing if I

stay in here. So I thought, I got to get out of here. And so I got up and I started to leave the restaurant and I got outside the just the door to the actual restaurant and I could still hear his voice and I kept laughing. I had to go clear across on the other side of the parking lot so that I wouldn't hear his voice anymore so I could live another day to do a podcast. And I remember that so much. It has such a big impact on me to laugh my head off. And there's been a number of other times where I've seen things that they made me laugh so hard. And you're going to ask my wife, I'll end up going to bed at night and I'm laying there. And about 20 minutes after we go to bed, all of a sudden, I start laughing. And my stomach is bouncing up and down off the bed. And I cannot

stop laughing. And I got to go downstairs and get some water or something. And I remember, you know, every time that happens, my wife says, oh, no, here we go. And she knows that I'm, I can't stop laughing. Now, laughter is really a good thing. And I'm going to do a show in the future, even on tears. I think all of this is really, really important. But I'll tell you the way this show really got started was a memory that I had years ago when I went into a hospital. I used to be a pastor of a Protestant church before I came back to the Catholic Church. And I would regularly go to hospitals and visit people and so forth. I remember one day I was going to a hospital in Minneapolis and I was tired, maybe a little discouraged, you know, if I remember right, and I left one of the

floors, got into the elevator, and as I got out of the elevator, a young lady was coming into the elevator, and she was what they would call, they used to call, I don't know if they still do, candy strippers, that is volunteers, young ladies who are volunteers in hospitals and they serve people and do an absolutely wonderful job. Well, anyway, I looked at her. She looked at me and she smiled. And she said, are you having a good day? And I said, I am.

And she got in the elevator, took off, I got out of the elevator. And it walked about 15, 20 feet. And I thought to myself, wow, that smile that she gave me, which was such an innocent, pure, beautiful smile, really changed my day. And all of a sudden I became like cheerful, you know, happy. And I thought, I got to go back and find her and tell her, thank you for smiling at me. And I did.

I actually went up, I looked for her. I couldn't find her, never did. But I remember her. And her joy in her face, her joy in her eyes had a profound impact on me. And I want to talk to you about that. I want to talk to you about the smile. And I don't know if you realize it or not, but your. your ability to smile and to allow your face to reflect the joy and the happiness in your life

is a powerful witness to people and a lot of people would probably say after seeing you smile I needed that I needed someone to smile to let me know there is hope in this world there is joy in this world now a woman with perhaps the most beautiful smile in the world in the world had a lot to say on this topic. Let me tell you what this woman said about smiling. And then I'll tell you who she is. She said, every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. She also said, let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love. She went on and said, peace begins with a smile.

And then finally, she said, we shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do. And that's true of that young Candy Striper volunteer at the hospital and the impact she had on me. But who do you think that was that said those four statements? Who do you think it was? Well, I'll tell you, it was Sister Teresa of Calcutta, Mother Teresa of California, of Calcutta is the one who recognize that if you smile at people, it'll have a major impact on their life. Now, I think there's one thing that we can agree on, and that is this. A smile is universal. It crosses all cultural and communication barriers. It is the universal sign of what? It's the

universal sign of happiness. And that's what we're all seeking. A smile is something we are born with, you know, the ability to smile is something that babies do. Babies live. learn a lot of behaviors and sounds from watching the people around them. But scientists believe that all babies are born with the ability since even blind babies smile. They're born with that ability. Now, some people will poo-poo that and they'll say, well, you know, the baby is smiling because it has gas. I personally think that's absurd. I mean, who smiles when they have gas. Do you? Every time you have gas at the mall, do you start smiling, walking around? Or, you know, you go to a, you go to the dance and all of a sudden you have gas and you start smiling?

I don't think so. The only ones that smile when they have gas are 14-year-old people with Y chromosomes. In other words, those boys. A smile is contagious. Contagious laughs. I love them. Absolutely love them. Well, let's look at some of the physical aspects of smiling. Number one, when we have a positive experience or react to another smile, listen to this, our brain sends a signal to the smiling muscles in our face, telling them to contract. Now, once the smiling muscles in our face contract, there is a positive feedback loop that now goes back to the brain and reinforces our feeling of joy. Simply put, our brain feels good. tells us to smile. We smile and tell our brain that it feels good. But what about that social

smile? We all have one. It's a smile that you give out socially that, you know, the funny joke, the comment on the radio, the, you know, the comment at work, whatever it might be, the good idea in the board meeting. You have this social smile. It's not sincere, but you smile. I often find that this social smile takes place at Christmas when you have 20 different gifts to open up and you open gift number six and it's from a relative that you know that it's probably not going to be something that you're going to wear.

You get it, it's that shirt. And you look at it and you know very well that shirt is going to the goodwill. That shirt is going on eBay. There's no way that I'm going to wear that shirt and you look at that person with a smile and say, thank you. How did you know that I needed that? That's what we call the social smile.

And when we smile, there are two potential muscles that we activate. Listen to this. This is so cool. The first one is the zygomaticus major. Are you impressed? I think so. And it controls the corners of your mouth. Whenever this muscle only is activated, it's not actually a genuine smile.

Yep, it's a social smile, just like Christmas. Thanks for that shirt. Your eyes didn't smile, your face didn't smile, the corners of your mouth smiled. But what about a true Mother Teresa smile? What makes a smile a true smile? One that has our brains and our facial muscles doing that happy dance. Well, that involves a sexual. muscle and using that muscle shows sincerity. It is the abucularis aculi. Impressed? Again, you probably are.

And it encircles where? Our eye socket. I hope I got that pronounced right. Abuculars aculi. Now don't give me a bunch of notes on you didn't pronounce it right because I probably didn't but when you do that it insert this muscle encircles the eye socket you smile with your eyes and you know what that looks like right you've been with people who give you that genuine authentic real smile their eyes are involved that is the smile that we're looking for not just the social smile with the corners of the mouth now smiles have another wonderful physical aspect of benefit, and that is that they boost your immune system. Your body is more relaxed when you smile. And your immune system has a better chance of helping you get healthy.

It's easier to smile than to frown. That's another thing we've many of us have heard is that it's easier to smile than frown. Scientists have discovered that your body has to work harder and use more muscles to frown than it does to smile. Now, there's some other benefits, too, and you can look this up on your own, but I'll give you just a few of these. Number one, it lowers your blood pressure. Smiling has been shown to lower blood pressure. It will boost your mood, number two. It relieves stress, number three.

As I said earlier, number four, it strengthens your immune system. But get this, it lessens pain. You know that when you smile and laugh, it lessens pain? it's like a natural dopamine you know in your system and it is contagious you can have an influence on people through laughter and through your smile now there's a science actually behind what we call a fake smile and even if you're not actually happy now this is kind of interesting even if you're not actually happy activating the muscles associated with smiling can fool your your brain into thinking you are. A lead researcher, a Sarah Pressman, Ph.D. at University of Kansas,

she explains that it's not just that our brains are happy and makes a smile. It can also be the opposite. We feel the smile and become happy. In a separate study at the University of Kansas, researchers had subjects use chopsticks to, chopsticks to shape their mouths into smiles or frowns and then induce a stressful situation. The results were surprising. Those stimulating smiles had lower heart rates and stress levels than those faking frowns. Amazing. Now, let's look at the scriptural aspects of smiling for a moment because that's probably what you're a little bit more interested in. What does the Bible have to say about the face and smiling? One of the marquee text for this is Numbers, Numbers Chapter 6, verses 24 through 26. I'll read it to you real quickly here.

It's a prayer called the Aronic Blessing. And this is a prayer that I actually did for my children every day when they were growing up before they would leave to go to school. I would lay my hands on them and I would pray this. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Now, that's the scripture I want to comment. And I've got some other scriptures I'm going to share with you about smiling as well. I'm going to take a break right now. And when we come back, we're going to get into the scriptural aspects of smiling. So don't go away. Keep that smile. We'll be right back.

Hey, guys, this is Shayna from Ascension. I don't know if you've heard, but with Ascension's new digital delivery platform, you can start a study with anyone anywhere. Here's how to do it. First, go to ascensionpress.com and create a free online account. Once you're there, preview any of our study programs for free, and choose the one you'd like to leave. Then, find at least three friends, family members, or co-workers who want to do the study with you. Once you have your group, make sure everyone registers to receive their study materials. Then, you're ready to go. Meet with your group and present. person online or both it's that simple are you still smiling welcome back we're talking about the

scriptural aspects of smiling and prior to the break we were talking about the the physical benefits of smiling and we all want to smile and there's something about looking at a person smiling that brings you joy. And I really think this comes from the Lord, to be honest with you. We left off by quoting Numbers, Chapter 6, verses 24 through 26, which says, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.

Or in Hebrew you would say, shalom. Now the priests were solemnly to bless. the people in the name of the Lord and to literally be under the the the protection of God is to literally enjoy his favor as the smile of a of a loving father now maybe you remember growing up and you remember your father being pleased with you and smiling and that gave you a sense of of well-being and that you were in favor you were you were being protected and that's what is being conveyed is being conveyed here in Numbers chapter 6 versus 24 through 26 now the one part that I want to focus on for a moment is this it says may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you

upon thee now this this clause seems to repeat the last in a somewhat stronger form as implying more personal and individual attention from the Lord His face is shining upon all that he loves, and that is you. Just as the sun shines wherever no clouds intervene. But his face is lifted up to that soul, for which he has a more special regard, and that is you. And so the blessing of the Lord is like the Lord's face shining on you as a father, accepting you, embracing you and totally, totally loving you. Now, everything that we can learn about theology, everything that we can learn about scripture, everything that philosophers will talk about

when it comes to happiness comes really down to this. Your approval, your acceptance, you are embraced as a lovely person. And that's what the blessing of the Lord, is the blessing of the lord in numbers chapter six is the lord's countenance meeting your face and the joy of the lord is our strength he gives peace to us with that beautiful gaze now that peace you know in english we have the word peace some people might think well that's sitting by a lake and there's no problems Others might think, well, it's the lack of fighting during wartime, whatever it might be. But in Hebrew, the word shalom is very hard to translate into one word into English. You have to actually pile words and phrases on top of each other in English to come up with this idea of shalom.

That when God says, and he wants to give you shalom, as a result of the Lord lifting up his countenance, on you, his smile toward you, you have to come up with phrases like well-being, peace, a sense of calm in your spirit and physical well-being. It's a complete composite of well-being. That's what this word shalom means, and that's what God wants to give to us. Now, how do we experience the smile of God? We experience the smile of God by walking according to His word as sons and daughters. And if we will continue to do that, we will enjoy the countenance of the Lord and the blessing of the Lord on a daily basis.

In other words, as I was saying earlier, I experienced the joy of that candy striper at the hospital. What if you could enjoy the countenance of the Lord in your life every day? Wouldn't that be amazing? that's Numbers chapter 6 versus 24 through 26 don't grab the pencil in the car as I said earlier we've got everything on the show notes for you now scripture seems to back up science because a true smile is good for the whole body proverbs chapter 15 in verse 30 says the light of the eyes rejoices the heart and good news refreshes the bones I like what it says and there's three scriptures here, and I'll put them in the show notes for you. Psalm 119 and verse 135, Psalm 31 in

verse 16, and Psalm 4 in verse 6. They all talk about how God will make your face shine. God's face will shine. Your face shines when you smile, a true smile, when your eyes light up. Make thy face shine upon thy servant and teach me. thy statutes. Wow. I mean, that's kind of hitting me right now, to be honest with you, is that if everything in life, everything we could buy, everything we could experience, all the reading we could do, all the video we could watch, all of the vacations we could take, is there really, is there really anything that could compare to God's faith? shining upon you. Really? I don't think so. I would trade everything I've ever done and

everything I've ever made to know that God's face is shining upon me, his son. That's really what we're after. And listen to this. The beatific vision is to be with God forever and ever. A few other scriptures, let me give you this. Proverbs chapter 15 and verse 30. Proverbs 15 in verse 30. A cheerful look brings joy to the heart. Good news makes for good health.

I like that. Here's another translation kind of mixed in with it. A cheerful look. Another translation says, bright eyes. Brings joy to the heart. Another translation, gladdens the heart. Good news makes for good health. Proverbs 17 in verse 22,

A joyful heart is good medicine. Ooh, that's good. A joyful heart is good medicine, but depression drains one's strength. It's the New American Standard Bible on that one. Proverbs 15, verses 13 through 15, a glad heart makes a happy face. Isn't that true?

Oh, that's golden right there. A glad heart makes a happy face. face. Let me ask you this. Do you have a happy face? When people see you at work, they see you in the neighborhood, your relatives, Thanksgiving, whatever it might be, do they see a happy face? Because a glad heart makes a happy face. And what makes a glad heart? Obedience to the Lord, walking his sons and daughters, not walking in sin, but walking in righteousness. That makes for a glad heart. And a glad heart makes a happy face. And if you see someone smiling, you might just go up to them and say, you must have a glad heart. Tell me about yourself. You want to get to know them. So Proverbs 15

versus 13 through 15, a glad heart makes a happy face. A broken heart crushes the spirit. A wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash. For the despondent, every day brings trouble. But for the happy heart life is a continual feast you know what I guess I'm saying to you my friends here today on this on this show is that I know you want to smile I know you want to be happy I know you want to laugh we all do but it starts in our relationship with God in walking in righteousness walking in obedience because that's really the only place where we're going to find that joy and

that wholeness and that purpose that we are looking for oh we can put on our social smiles and we do oh we can put on the fake smile and it might have some scientific you know physiological benefit and it does but there is nothing nothing like genuine gladness of heart expressed through the face now there was an article that I read about this that was really interesting from a scientific perspective that it said that smiling is the exercise of happiness are you exercising happiness does your face know that you're happy let's exercise happiness and here's here's what I want to encourage you to do and this is the last of the PSA announcement you know the the physical aspects of it and the scriptural aspects

of it and how it affects our life and other people. I want to encourage you this week to be cognizant of your resting face expression. There's a resting facial expression that everybody has. And it's when nobody's looking and it's your resting face. Now, some people will say your resting face is somber. Others would say, you have a great resting face. face. You seem to be content. But what I'm going to challenge you to do this week is this, is to be very aware of the smile in your daily activity. Whether you're at the gas station,

the grocery store, or you're with your own family, and to be cognizant of the fact that you can smile and you can exude joy to other people. I'd be curious what happens in your life when you do that. In fact, you can write me at the Jeffcaven show at ascensionpress.com, and I'd like to hear from you. Or I'd like to hear any story that you have that demonstrates what we've been talking about during this show, whether it's the physical aspect of smiling and how it affected you physiologically, or the smile that you gave someone and it ended up in a wonderful godly relationship or an opportunity to witness to see. somebody else.

I'd be curious about that. But I just wanted to encourage you today that the Lord is blessing you and he is keeping you and the Lord is making his face shine on you. Be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you shalom. Receive the peace and the blessing of the Lord. And then let the world know that you're blessed through the exercise of happiness, which is smiling. I really do look forward to hearing from you. By the way, we have

been receiving an awful lot of email about the shows in the past. We really appreciate it and we read all of it. And when we say that, we mean it. We're reading all of the email and there's going to be some shows coming up where we're going to be mentioning quite a bit of the email and getting some of the feedback and answering some questions that that you have. But if you have any ideas for shows that you would like me to talk about, I would love to hear from you. And all of the information for contacting me is in the show notes. You can always go there. But I would like to know your thoughts and also your thoughts on this particular show.

Well, I want to conclude by just encouraging you to go deeper into the scriptures and to study God's amazing plan for our lives. and as you study his word remember two things according to paragraph 236 of the catechism get to know his heart get to know God's heart and get to know his plan and as you know his heart and his plan you'll have a platform and a basis you will have a foundation to trust him in daily life and you know what when you get to know his heart and you get to know his ways then you will trust him and it's going to produce a smile on your face. Don't worry. Be happy. Keep smiling. God bless you. We look forward to being with you on the next show.