By Diana Chandler
NASHVILLE (BP) — Christian comedian Chonda Pierce likes to borrow a line from Lucille Ball, who proclaimed “I’m not funny; I’m brave.” Pierce considers herself brave enough to share the savory and unsavory aspects of her life in humor that heals the heart.
The touring comedy artist continues her transparency during the one-night-only documentary “Enough” on April 25 in 850 theaters in the U.S.
“I think that the feeding ground for Satan to grow into the mind of a woman is that you’re never going to measure up, when you and I both know that the great, beautiful, merciful side of Jesus is that we are now heirs to the King,” Pierce said.
“We are still in a culture where thousands of women are trying to identify themselves with something, either to have a man, or to get the job they want, to be the size that culture is telling them they have to be,” Pierce told Baptist Press. “So women are bombarded with this thought that I am not enough. I am less than.”
Pierce has only turned the corner in the last few months herself, she told BP, on her journey to thrive after the 2014 death of her husband David, who battled alcohol addiction during their 31-year marriage and died during surgery to treat a stroke.
You realize “that you’re breathing again and laughing again,” she said two weeks before the film’s release. “You just have to walk the road. There’s no easy way around it,” said 
Pierce, who has suffered abuse, depression, rejection and loss in her journey of 57 years.
“God is always faithful, and you have to stay faithful to Him, and you start breathing again.”
Pierce hopes the 90-minute film, continuing her story after the 2015 “Laughing in the Dark” documentary on her depression and other struggles, will help women see they are enough to live the life God has for them.
“I think that the feeding ground for Satan to grow into the mind of a woman is that you’re never going to measure up, when you and I both know that the great, beautiful, merciful side of Jesus is that we are now heirs to the King,” Pierce said. “We are a princess in His eyes. Our Daddy is the Big Daddy, the Mac Daddy.”
The film includes commentary from a circle of Pierce’s closest friends, her struggles and joys as a “widow” — a word used for “spiders and old ladies” — and a pre-recorded question-and-answer segment led by fellow comedian Mark Lowry.
Pierce’s struggles have taught her the source of her strength, whether she’s single, married or widowed.
“It has empowered me as a woman to know where my strength comes from when my lonely nights are here,” Pierce said. “He’s capable of being a comfort, and in that, it has taught me that I am enough to traverse life with someone, or without someone.”
Pierce, who has toured successfully for nearly 20 years of her 25-year career, finds it hard to believe that she was named in 2013 by the Recording Industry Association of America as the top-selling female comedian in history, including Christian and secular artists.
“We comedians, if we do our jobs well, we make it look like it’s so easy that anybody could do it,” she said. “But the truth of the matter is, it can sometimes be a difficult task. Clean comics and Christian comics, we don’t run to the well of bad words to shock our audience.
“We truly have to come up with a great storyline and a punchline and do it to the best of our ability. It takes some work,” she said. “And my hat’s off to anybody who’s been brave enough to especially make the body of Christ laugh.”
Tickets to Enough are available across the U.S. at chondamovie.com, with tickets to shows at the 115 former Carmike family of theaters in the South expected to be available closer to the viewing date, according to chondamovie.com.
Reprinted from Baptist Press (www.baptistpress.com), news service of the Southern Baptist Convention. The original story can be found at: http://www.baptistpress.com/48693/chonda-pierces-enough-in-theaters-april-25-only
