Comedian Brad Stine stirs up laughter and a desire to pursue God

Liberty University students enjoyed a lighthearted Convocation on Monday, as comedian and author Brad Stine utilized play and perspective to encourage them in their faith.

Stine is known as the most media-covered Christian comedian in the country. In an eight-page profile, The New Yorker called him “God’s Comic.” He has been featured in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today and has appeared on several TV programs, including “NBC Nightly News,” “ABC Nightline,” “The Glenn Beck Show,” and “Hannity & Colmes.” Stine also starred on Comedy Central. His articles have been published in Readers Digest and Family Magazine.

Stine said he was excited to return to campus, which he has visited many times, and is constantly surprised by the growth.

“Liberty is where I want to be today. I have been coming to this school for many years, and I have seen it become an amazing institution with Christ at the center,” he said.

In Monday’s message, which included snippets of comedy mixed with advice and application, he explained that the most powerful three-letter word in human history is God.

“I make a living communicating in ways that make people have to deal with truth,” he said. “God is crucial because you get to choose whether or not you want to believe in Him.”

According to Stine, whether or not we want to believe in God will affect everything we believe for the rest of our lives.

“If you believe in God, you have to figure out what He wants because He is the rule maker, but if you do not believe in God, you get to make your own rules,” he said. “When man rules, you can be destroyed, but when God can rule, people unite.”

He added that people often tell him they do not believe in God because they do not understand why He allows bad things to happen to good people.

“I tell them I do not want a God that I can understand. The very fact that you cannot fathom God is why He gets to be called God, and He is so big that He gives us clues to show us who He is and what He wants from us,” he said.

Stine said one clue God gives us is laughter.

“There is no reason or purpose for laughter, but when we laugh, we experience joy that God wants us to have, and we remember that He has made us special and unique.”

Stine told students that they have an opportunity like he has to take their faith, integrate it into their work, and share it on the “big stage” of life.

“In the end, it is OK to laugh if you are not being mean. It is OK to laugh at differences because it is better to laugh about them than to fight about them,” he said. “Do not be the new generation that is so sensitive by new thought that even the Christian, who is supposed to live by truth, is unable to laugh.”