Stephen Colbert and His Joy Machine

For some reason, we began receiving Rolling Stone magazine about a year ago. I've enjoyed looking through it and reading it each month. It helps me keep up with what's going on in the music industry as well as reading what those on the left-side of the political spectrum are thinking. RS is unapologetically a liberal thinking magazine. Each month features several jabs and punches at conservative Americans.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I read this month's cover story about Stephen Colbert. Colbert, the host of The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 11:30 EST), grew up in Charleston, SC. He is a faithful attender of his Catholic Church and unafraid to say that he not only believes in God but loves Him and His Church. To be honest, I was shocked to read not just that Colbert was a God-fearing, church attending man, but also that Rolling Stone didn't attack or seem to mind his beliefs. For that, I am grateful to the writers and editors of RS.

Colbert's father and two older brothers were killed in a plane crash in Charlotte, NC, when he was a child. Obviously, this is a tough way for a young man to grow up. He admits that he struggled with his belief in God and his faith when he was in college. It wasn't until a Gideon gave him a copy of the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs after he graduated college when he regained his faith. Colbert says, "I took one (New Testament) and opened it right away to Matthew, Chapter 5, which is the opening of the Sermon on the Mount. That whole chapter is essentially about not worrying. I didn't read it - it spoke to me, and it was an effortless absorption of the idea. Nothing came to me in a thunderbolt, but I thought to myself, 'I'd be dumb not to re-examine this.'"

Colbert continues to talk a little about suffering and how we should be grateful for our suffering. He also includes a nice thought on having fun at work. He calls his show "The Joy Machine." He strives to have fun with his show because, if not, it just becomes a machine. And if he's not careful, he will soon get caught up in the gears of the machine. (The Church can be like that. We can sometimes get caught up in the machinery of the Church and lose our joy.)

It's quite a remarkable piece.

If you've never watched his show, he is pretty funny and really silly. The Colbert you see on TV is nothing but an act. In fact, he said that he makes sure that his guests understand that he is playing a character that is an idiot and willfully ignorant about them and their causes.

If you find yourself at a magazine stand, you may want to pick up this copy of RS. With people like Kanye West and others on a constant ego trip on TV, it's refreshing to me to read about someone who understands that life is about more than themselves.