If You Want to Make God Laugh …

Reflection

by

Perspectives

A United Methodist Insight Special | Aug. 11, 2026

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him/her/them your plans.”

This familiar saying probably began as a Jewish proverb, “we plan, God laughs.” We Christians find a reflection of it in Jesus’s parable about the rich fool (Luke 12: 16-21) who thinks only of building new barns to store his abundant crop when God tells him he’s about to die.

In other words, life happens. And so it has for the Astle household.

We were planning for an orderly transition of United Methodist Insight to a new publisher, Market Square Publishing, to take place on Oct 1. Then in the first week of August, while my husband John was still recovering from bladder cancer surgery July 1, we got devastating news: John’s lung cancer has spread to his brain. One lesion is on the right side of the brain that governs motor control on the left side of the body, and another is on the left side of his frontal lobe. Between the two, his mobility is severely impaired, he’s deeply fatigued and he’s having cognition problems.

Furthermore, we don’t know what’s going to happen with his cancer treatment from here on out. This uncertainty has sped up the need to transfer Insight to its new publisher so that my full-time job can be taking care of my husband.

Beginning in September, Market Square publisher Kevin Slimp and a great team of folks will assume limited production of Insight’s website and email newsletter. I’m in the process now of transcribing data on how to produce Insight so that it will continue with the same quality independent journalism that began it. I’m already assured that’s Kevin’s aim as well, based on our cordial online conversations about the transition since January.

This sudden departure isn’t the way I intended to pass along Insight, nor to end my 53-year career as a professional journalist. I planned, God laughed – but in sympathy, not derision. I know that God sympathizes with our plight because of the dozens of friends and readers who have sent us notes of compassion and encouragement as we move forward.

I’ll be a “shadow partner” as Kevin & Crew take over, available for consultation and possibly some writing. The Market Square team has been looking to November 2026 to roll out the “new” Insight, and that timetable probably is still valid. The interim will be unsettled, and we beg your indulgence as the new administration progresses.

As I reflect on this life passage, I’m content to know that I’ve done well by two of the three great loves of my life – my husband and my vocation. How well I’ve done by my first love – God – is for God to decide. Meanwhile, we’ll be keeping everyone updated on John’s cancer journey via Facebook and CaringBridge posts.

A final story: My mother told me that I learned to read at age three by reading a “Little Golden Book” (remember those, fellow Boomers?) about Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, and Dale Evans, Queen of the Golden West. In keeping with that first inspiration, I bid you “Happy Trails, until we meet again.”

-- Cynthia B. Astle, Editor