Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, is used to reduce the pain of surgery. Because it produces an insensitivity to physical suffering, its effects are usually pleasurable. Patients under its influence have been known to sing and laugh hysterically before losing consciousness.

A person's deceitful heart can also anesthetize him to the effects of sin, giving him the delusion of well-being. Although giving the impression of strength and exhilaration, his lightheartedness represents only a brief evasion of tragedy.

Such a condition was described by the author of Ecclesiastes, who explained that just as the crackling of thorns in a fire is a sign of their destruction, so the gaiety of the sinner's conduct reflects his shallowness and the certainty of his doom (7:1-6). He is not aware of the sacredness of life nor of the inevitability of God's judgment upon his wrongdoing.

Have you been unwilling to admit your guilt before God, laughing away your time by seeking the immediate pleasures of life? If so, you need to visit the "house of mourning" (vv.2,4) and acknowledge your desperate, sinful condition. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation. Then your foolish laughter can be turned into true joy.  — Mart De Haan