Dad told me it's dryer than the "dirty thirties."  Irrigated cornfields belie the fact that the area is in a severe
drought. "I don't know how these farmers will hold on.  I suppose some of them won't," Dad said.

Sitting on my parents' porch last week, I started feeling sorry for the farmers and for myself and for everyone in the
world without hope.  Mom handed me a book by Barbara Johnson, and asked, "Have you ever read Johnson?
She's really good, one of my favorites."

Barbara Johnson has been a popular speaker at conferences for Christian women and written about a dozen
best-selling books.

The book that brought Johnson notoriety is called "Pain is inevitable but Misery is Optional -- So, Stick a Geranium
in Your Hat and Be Happy."  That book, like all the others by Johnson, features a cartoon drawing of a woman
wearing a hat with a geranium sticking out of the top.

            I have noticed many of Johnson's best-selling books sitting on bookstore shelves, but I never have read any
of them.  I assumed that her books are full of weak theology, fluffy ideas and easy answers.  Johnson's books are
peppered with cartoons and jokes, and I decided, rather smugly, that her books had nothing to teach me.

            Boy was I wrong.  Mom gave me Johnson's latest book titled, "Plant a Geranium in your Cranium --
Sprouting Seeds of Joy in the Manure of Life (Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2002).  One morning I read it entirely.

I discovered that Johnson is a woman who has had a life with plenty of pain. Years ago her husband was nearly
killed in a car accident.  One son was killed in Vietnam.  Another son was hit and killed by a drunk driver.  A third
son is gay.  At one point, he changed his name, disowned his parents and disappeared for 11 years.

            Johnson latest book chronicles her current battle with brain cancer.  Her writing style is quirky.  The
narrative is interspersed with cartoons and poems, but it's obvious that Johnson is no fake.  She's a woman who has
faced life straight on and still has hope.  I confess that I found the book terrific.  I read the 150-page book without
stopping, often laughing out loud.  Her philosophy is simple:  "Life is out of control.  God is in control.  You may as
well keep laughing."

            In all her books, Johnson has a tradition to share a smattering of inspiring stories, funny jokes and cartoons
at the end of each chapter.    Here are some of my favorites from her recent book.

      Q: How do you make God laugh?  A: Tell Him your plans.

      Don't count your chickens before they cross the road.

      Errors have been made.  Others will be blamed.

      If you want to be the picture of health, you're gonna need a happy frame of mind to put it in.

      It's pretty hard to say what does bring happiness.  Poverty and wealth have both failed.

      We are most open to Jesus in the tough times of life.  The fertilizer of good soil never smells good.

In the chapter titled, "Give me ambiguity … or give me something else -- What do you mean, it's not all about me?,"
Johnson says, "No matter what tragedies you've encountered or mistakes you've committed in your life, God can
use you to create something beautiful, broken though you may be."

Broken people need to laugh, and Barbara Johnson's book filled this skeptic with hope and joy.

Don Follis is an Urbana minister.  Reprinted with permission from the
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, copyright 2002.