To get to the laughs, you have to go along with the joke. When improv comedians perform together, it doesn't work if one performer attempts to control the story and force it to produce his or her own punchlines. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell gives an example from a rehearsal of the comedy group Mother. A woman says to her partner, "We need to amputate your leg!" He replies, "You can't do that. I'm very attached to it!" She gave him an opening, but he closed it. He gets in a mildly funny joke, and then the scene comes screeching to a halt. They try it again, and this time he accepts her invitation into the story. She says, "We need to amputate your leg!" He replies, "Well, I think you'd better go ahead and take both of them!" The exchange isn't especially comic by itself, but it gets them moving into new and ever more ridiculous scenarios until they find some very funny material.
In our relationships with other humans, we are constantly negotiating. We have limited time and energy, resources and talent. So as we grow up and get to know people, we learn when to say yes and when to say no. We only accept a few invitations.
Our relationship with God is different. Here we dance with an entirely unlimited partner, an infinite beloved with literally all the time and energy in the world. When God invites us into something new - or we invite God deeper into our lives - the answer is always Yes.
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