God Loves Laughter Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
This is the hilarious story of a poor boy from the Middle West who became one of America's topflight TV stars. But he was bothered with a boyhood dream and eventually left the big time. He made his home in three continents and became a much-loved world traveller.Through all the laughter - as it's uproarious at times - there is an underlying serious note, and the fact that his dream came true and brought him long-sought spiritual assurance is a considerable satisfaction to the reader.
Paperback: 182 pages
Publisher: George Ronald, London (October 1960)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0853980195
ISBN-13: 978-0853980193
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #246,815 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #21 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts > Baha'i #8008 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Memoirs
Born in Minnesota in 1911 of an Irish father, Sears made his father nervous from the time he spoke at six months. At 18 months he knew words that his father didn't know and had his first dream. By the time he was five he was making his father's life a misery with his inordinate interest in God so he was sent to Sunday school. "Let the boy worry Father Hogan for a while. I pay my pew-rent regularly and hardly ever use it. Let him earn the money." But this only opened up an abundance of new questions for Sears to ask his father. We follow Sears through his childhood with a laugh on every page. Much of the time he is bounced between mother, father, priest and grandfather as each give their interpretation of God, his dreams and his conviction that he would travel the world telling people about God. He started his writing career one summer before graduating from grade-school after reading a poem while having his hair cut. He sold his masterpiece for $7.50 and skyrocketed to fame.After marrying and having two sons Sears entered a bleak period in his life when his wife died and his youngest child had to be placed in a sanatorium. He had been pushed further from his dream and more into a world that cared very little about the things of the spirit when he was offered the first of many jobs at a radio station. One day a vision of loveliness walked into studio A and five drooling men watched her through the big studio window during the interview. "It was the most wonderful lunch I ever ate. I have no recollection of the food, but her voice was Pablo Casal's cello." They went for a drive and Marguerite told him about Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith. At this point the one subject Sears never cared to discuss was religion, having investigated every religion, sect, cult and belief he could find in East and West. For three years Sears had not mentioned his dream to anyone and he only told Marguerite because he wanted her to know all about him before asking her to marry him. She gave him a book - a record of the public talks given by `Abdu'l-Baha during his visit to America from the Holy Land before the First World War. Inside the fly-leaf there was a tribute to Baha'u'llah by Leo Tolstoy, who had written: "The whole world is seeking the solution to its problems. There is a prisoner in `Akka, Baha'u'llah, who has the key." "I began to read. It was about two o'clock when I found out why Marguerite had become so excited when I mentioned my boyhood dream. I felt a stab-like thrill myself as I turned one of the pages and saw the date: September 20, 1912. It was the very day and year of my first dream."At their first Christmas, with sons now reunited, Marguerite read the words of Baha'u'llah about Christ to show that as a Baha'i she believed in Jesus: "When Christ came into the world, He shed the splendor of his glory upon all created things. Jesus it was who purified the World. Blessed is the man who, with a face beaming with light, hath turned towards Him." They stopped at Lookout Point above Salt Lake City. "A premonition of what I was about to see began to grow on me. I stepped to the ledge, and there lying below me was the magic city I had seen so clearly in my dream." When they got home, Marguerite showed him a photograph. "I looked into those same haunting, tender eyes. I saw the white beard, soft as silk, the flowing white robes, the smile of eternal kindness. I was deeply moved. This is the man." She said, "That is Abdu'l-Baha."Sears could no longer ignore what was happening to him; he read extensively and traveled widely to discover the truth for himself. He has written the detailed story of his discoveries and the steps that led up to it in `Thief in the Night.' The title is taken from Christ's quotation about the hour of His return when, "Catching mankind unprepared and uninterested, `He shall come like a thief in the night.'" Originally he called the book `The Case of the Missing Millenium' for it turned out to be one of the most absorbing and exciting mysteries imaginable. No one had been able to solve the mystery for over a hundred years, when suddenly the answer fell into his lap. Professor Edward Granville Browne of Pembroke College, Cambridge University had written about the rise of the Bahai Faith: "I feel it is my duty, as well as pleasure, to bring the matter to the notice of my countrymen. In my eyes, the whole story seems one of the most interesting and important events that have occurred since the rise of Christianity." Professor Benjamin Jowett of Balliol College, Oxford, wrote in similar vein: "It is the greatest thing to come to the earth since the days of Jesus, the Christ. It is too great for the present to understand it, but the future will understand it." Sears had found the meaning of his dream at last and declared himself a Baha'i. He put aside a well paid television job and fulfilled his promise that "if ever I found out the truth about my dream I'd go all over the world and share the news of my discovery." But that is the story in another book "Black Sunlight."
I love William Sears as a human being without ever having met him. Although he has passed, when I read any of his books I feel he is speaking to me as if he were in the room. God Loves Laughter was the first of his books that I read. It started me on a journey of appreciating all of the simplicity and beauty life has to offer and I will always be grateful to Mr. Sears for giving me that.Thank you, Mana
I received this book as a present. While my grandmother lay dying in the hospital I read this book to her. We laughed so much I cried. It was insightful, funny and moving. The last few weeks of my grandmothers life was filled with laughter and I would buy every book Mr. Sear writes.
This is a fun book, easy to read and very amusing. It is the story of William Sears, at one time a presenter of American TV sports and children's programs. His story is full of humour as the title of the book suggests. First published in 1960 it is as popular today as it was then, having been reprinted many times.Bill Sears was an inquisitive child, growing up in a time when adults did not like to be questioned about most subjects, especially the existence (or not) of God! He sought out his grandfather and much of this book is about the special relationship and love he shared with him. He could and did talk with his grandfather about everything and was able to ask questions and receive answers which stimulated and encouraged him to pursue a boyhood dream.Grandfather had a farm and a horse and buggy and young Bill Sears delighted in these surroundings and in his grandfather's company. Sears recounts how as a mischievous child he frequently got on the wrong side of his father! His curiosity about the Bible and his desire to read it by torchlight under the bed covers cannot but make you laugh! Grandfather was a rebel. He had time for God but not the churches. Sears grew up in the Depression in Milwaukee and struggled to make a living. He became a successful writer eventually but, as he says, he became like everyone else: get up, go to work, go to bed, die!He felt there had to be something more to life. He had married and had two sons but his first wife died. Then he met and married Marguerite who helped him in his search for the meaning of life and the meaning of a boyhood dream in which he saw a man, bathed in light, who beckoned him to follow him. Weird or what?!He read about the Baha'i faith and was convinced that he wanted to be part of it with his family. He had become very successful and earned a lot of money in America but life was a rush and he wanted to get off the treadmill. He did. He and his family went to live in Africa. His life changed, he found happiness, travelled all over the world and wrote this book!I had read this book more than once and love it!
"God Loves Laughter" is, all at the same time, delightfully humorous and spiritually profound! It is not one of William Sears most thought provoking books, eg, "The Wine of Astonishment," or "Thief in the Night," but it a book deserving a a place on the shelf where the reader is able to reach in easily in order to read and re-read timeless passages. From beginning to end, it is a book easily read in one fascinating sitting!
I love this book and I will likely read it a few more times. I have been recommending it to all of my friends who like the type of book. My wife and I read this book together and we often fell into uncontrollable laughter.
God Loves Laughter Children's Book: Jesus Loves Me ( Bedtime Story / Picture Book / Preschool Book / Ages 3-5 ): God Loves You When Mommy Loves Bama and Daddy Loves Auburn Loves Music, Loves to Dance [UNABRIDGED] (Audiobook) God Loves You!: A Read-Aloud Coloring Book about God's Plan for Salvation (Coloring Books) The Berenstain Bears: God Loves You! (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights) God Loves Single Moms: Practical Help for Finding Confidence, Strength, and Hope Beer is Proof that God Loves Us: Reaching for the Soul of Beer and Brewing God Loves You Very Much (Big Idea Books / VeggieTales) Bible Coloring Pages: God Loves You Coloring Book God Loves You (Little Blessings) X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox Funny!: Twenty-Five Years of Laughter from the Pixar Story Room (The Art of...) This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection Lincoln Tells a Joke: How Laughter Saved the President (and the Country) Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul: 101 Stories of Courage, Hope and Laughter (Chicken Soup for the Soul) Laughter Is Sacred Space: The Not-so-Typical Journey of a Mennonite Actor Front Porch Tales: Warm Hearted Stories of Family, Faith, Laughter and Love The Notebook of Elbert Hubbard: Mottos, epigrams, short essays, passages, orphic sayings and preachments : coined from a life of love, laughter and work
