What Makes Us Laugh

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Get away from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for. Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the Masculine Journey. The Masculine Journey starts here now. Oh, we're on a quest. We are on a quest today, a laugh quest. Oh, to quote Chevy Chase, a quest for fun. And it's all because of you, Kenny.

You came up with today's topic, and so here you go. And part of our quest for fun, I should mention before we go too far, is that Sam is not here. It was fun. Sam had to go.

You can either have Sam or you can have fun. Well, when the cat's away, let me just say. You're going to play whether you're here or not, you know. That's one thing, you know, I came to this subject last week because, you know, I've been out a while with some medical issues and different things. And when I came back, I missed the laughter of this group and the heart and the fellowship. And it was just refreshing.

It was. So y'all asked me and I said, well, what makes us laugh? And this is the good laughter because we're laughing together and it spurned each other on into the right territory. You know, really enjoying life because so much of this world is trying to pull it out of you, you know, or beat you down or put you down or put you in the mold instead of letting God grow.

Right. You know, and we really see the beauty. Like last week, we was talking about the beauty and our connection to the beautiful things of this world. I know I'll do it again. I'm talking in and out of the mic.

I'll try to lock down here. Well, the joy of the Lord is our strength, right? And in his presence is fullness of joy.

And so usually you're going to find if people are having a really good time, Jesus is there in the midst, right? Yes. Yeah. And so, Danny, we know of all the people in the area that have a tendency to enjoy some laughter. Shenanigans. You are on the Danny cam, so go for it. Yeah.

We've already discussed my shiny side of my head here. It's a full moon on this side of the camera, you know. Yeah, a merry heart is good medicine, is what Scripture says. And I do love to laugh. I love to see people laugh. I mean, just real laughter. And that's part of this whole journey, I think, because hang out with this group a little while. You will laugh.

Either that or they're going to do last rites pretty quick. But, you know, as Kenny said, the flip side of that is there's a seriousness as to who we are and what we do. Yes. You know, because along with that laughter, along with that medicine that comes with that, is the fact that I know that if I'm going through something or one of my brothers is going through something, I'm going to get a phone call or a text or something or somebody's coming to see me.

And that's the beauty of the whole, what I think we're talking about, the fellowship. Yes. But there is tons of shenanigans and laughter that goes on around here. I can assure you that.

There is. Yes. And I love the idea of, you know, when I'm at war, you're at war.

You know, if you're at war, you know, that whole thing, locking arms. And you can feel that and the experience is a part of being essentially, you know, I guess included is a good word. Like rather than being like set aside, you're an intricate part of everything if you're in the group. And that's because we all are an intricate part of that.

But a big part of that here is laughter. And so the person you wouldn't think, you know, when you just came up with a subject, like who would have the first clip in this particular show? And so I thought, you know, just to get to the punch line. The joke's on me.

Because Sam's not here. I just I said, let's go with Jim. I think it was the turn of millennium. The last time I was the first clip. Oh, yeah.

And the first show. Sometimes I get. Jim has all the sense of humors that are represented here. And everybody, I don't know, you just like, you know, everybody has their own idea of the Trinity and all those kind of things.

They have some certain theology that they own. Jim has his own, you know, certainly sense of humor. Yes. Very unique. Yeah. Very unique. Very unique. Yeah.

Yeah. And Princess Bright-ish is the best way I know to put it. I thought that's where we would go.

Best movie ever. And so I was shocked and amazed that our first clip did not have Princess Bright in it. But since he didn't, I thought he should win the coveted first clip. So go for it, Jim.

Mercy clip. Well, it was kind of funny because I thought of at least one of the ones that somebody else used. I said, now everybody's going to use that movie. And I said, let's – what else do I like? And I went to an oldie but a goodie.

Oh, God. And in my clip here, we're in a Pacer. An AMC Pacer, I would point out. AMC Pacer.

Some people – it was the first spaceship ever created as a car. But the Pacer has two occupants. One of them is John Denver playing somebody. And the other is God who does sound an awful lot like George Burns. Did I get that right? Burns. Yes. Okay.

A senility is a terrible thing. Yeah. George Burns. I don't think you said birds. I think you said Burns. Burns. Yeah. That movie was very clever at a time when God was – Hollywood took God very seriously.

And this is a light time and a drive in a Pacer with God. Let her in. You don't want to set up the parliament now? No.

Well, if you can't tell from listening to it, he's in a car and he opens the door on the policeman and soaks his shoes and socks towards the end. I don't – nothing else needs setting up, does it? It needs – You'll correct me if it does. Oh, go for it. I see you know a lot of things, and you've been making a lot of things happen, but none of it seems – God-like? Yeah, God-like.

And what to you would be God-like? Uh, change the weather. Ah, special effects, huh? Why would you like a little, a little earthquake? A small hurricane? Well, no, no.

I wouldn't want anybody hurt. I was just thinking maybe, uh, what about a little rain? A little rain? Yeah, a small shower.

One small shower, you got it. Hey. Hey, it's raining. You made it rain. You didn't even bat an eye. You didn't have to lift a finger. Rain's not that hot.

It's unbelievable. Would you like it to rain a little hotter? No, no, this is fine.

How about bigger drops? No, this is fine, fine. Would you care for a little snow? I don't believe it. Hey, hey, it's not raining outside. Yeah, it's just in here.

Why should I spoil everybody today? This is fantastic. Thank you. It's just like Noah's Arch.

Same thing, without the smell. What's the problem, officer? I was about to ask you. Uh, my radiator must be leaking. I'm sorry about that. A radiator doesn't hold that much water.

It was something of a bodysuit inside. What makes me laugh is when I heard that, my initial response was God. Hence, going to, oh God. But it is a way that God often speaks to me. And I do sort of miss Sam, because he gets a lot of humor from God, too. But there have been times in my life when he has shown me a divine sense of humor.

And I've said more than once that if I ever write a book, which almost certainly won't happen, because I'm too lazy for that kind of torture, it's going to be on God's infinite sense of humor. But one of the things that happened to me when I was in Divinity School, I took a semester off and they, well, one person in particular said, I needed to re-interview to make sure that I would come back. And during that process, she basically said that she wanted to be sure that I would not be an embarrassment to the cause of Christ. And that, since the serious nature of that encounter was there, it hit me pretty hard. And on the way home, I basically spoke a little prayer to God, said, you know, if I'm going to embarrass you, Lord, just take me out now.

And he didn't say a thing at that point. They did let me back into school. And a couple months later, driving by exactly the same place I'd said that prayer, I heard very clearly, did I say prayer or prayer? You figure it out.

You're on the radio. But right at that same place that I had prayed that little prayer, I got my answer. And it was clearly God's voice in my head saying, Jim, you embarrass me every day, but I love you. And I think I laughed and cried all the way home. And I have found the closer I am to God, the more I laugh and the more I cry.

Yeah, and that's a significant, you know, kind of opportunity. You know, you're fully made with all these emotions. And so many other religions, when you think about it, they try to get you to suppress, you know, your emotions or whatever. But in Christianity, it's like, wow, let's see how far the rabbit hole goes. And to quote my buddy Danny, who was really quite funny, what did you say you went way down there yesterday? Way down the rabbit hole and slapped a mad hatter.

That's Jason's little laughter right there. You know, when you go down those rabbit holes, and Jim's been known to go down. In fact, I think you slapped Alice once or twice.

I'll set Andy up with this one. I don't know how many months ago, it was six or eight months ago, after saying I married a South Carolina girl. And I said, and I'm a North Carolina girl. I didn't even realize I'd said it. We did. But yes, I was wondering why everybody was laughing. But today, what is today?

Oh, it was yesterday. I identified with a 13-year-old girl. Our exercise class, which is probably more octogenarians than... Dr. Wyant. 80-year-olds. I'm 70, and I'm one of the young'uns. We're doing exercises, and three teenage girls came in, and they couldn't keep up with the class.

So I said, okay, and I was struggling yesterday, so I couldn't keep up with the class either. I'm sure that's funny somewhere. Hey, we all think we have a sense of humor, whether we do or not.

We're chasing laughter today. You can go to massandjourney.org and register for the boot camp. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger, and it gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I got away from Christ and suffered an overdose, and he took my memory. At that time, I didn't know where I was, who was who, what I was doing. So he showed me a little bit of his power there, letting me know that without him, I'm nothing.

I don't got nothing, and I will be nothing. So I decided to come back, and just right now for the first time, I've been through a lot of things, like as you see me, tattoos all over and everything, I've been through a war. So for the first time in my life on this camp, I've been able to feel that peace in my heart. I haven't seen my family in over eight years now, but I actually can say today that I'm okay with it. God is with me, and he's been dealing with my heart in a way that I never experienced it before, and I'm just thankful and grateful.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. I love to laugh loud and long and clear. I love to laugh. It's getting worse every year. The more I laugh, the more I fill with glee.

You're no help at all. The more I'm a Mary of me. Yes, we are chasing laughter today. That is my first bump I have done in years, but that is from the movie Mary Poppins and Ed Wynn. You don't get to hear Ed Wynn sing just every day, and you can tell it wasn't his gift, but laughing was his gift, and certainly I love the imagery. If you're familiar with the story, he's stuck on the ceiling because he's gotten to laugh again so hard that it just keeps getting lighter and lighter and lighter, and as Jim made the wonderful point that the closer we get to God, the more we laugh, the more we cry, but in this case, physically, you're closer to God because you're on the roof. I love personally when Dick Van Dyke goes into the, some people laugh through their noses.

Some people fizzle like snakes. It's just a great song, but meanwhile, Chasing Laughter, again, really think about what a diverse sense of humor group we have here because you've got Sam who would say, you know, Haiti isn't here for the show because he can crack on everybody faster than anybody I could ever imagine in my life, and Harold's not here, and Harold has a very, very, very unique sense of humor, but Harold's blessed to have some family in, and Sam's doing some family duty, but we do have Danny, and so we have the Danny cam going. We wanted to make sure right here in the first show where we got plenty of Danny, and Danny is going to go on full Danny. On full Danny.

He's going full Danny. Buckle in. Buckle in because it's going to get deep. Get in your AMC Pacer and buckle up. I couldn't help but think with the AMC Pacer that if you were going to ride very far in that, you didn't need God in the car.

That was pretty. That was a 258 six-cylinder for your information. A very reliable unit, not great resale value. Traded for a Pinto. My father was the AMC dealer in Albuquerque, and we sold many a Pacer. A Pacer. Kept pace with the world. Yeah, we did, but man, they were ugly.

Yeah, not a pretty car. I love this topic. Obviously, I love to laugh. I love to make people laugh, and Kenny brought it up last week, and I couldn't help but think because I've quoted the scripture a bunch of times, you know, a merry heart is good medicine, and I had to go look that up, and there are some things that I found this thing. You know, laughter is good for pain relief. Laughter can trigger the release of endorphins in the body's natural painkillers, which can reduce pain and discomfort. Laughter therapy can also promote relaxation, decrease muscle tension, and improve blood flow, which can help relieve pain, and it can obviously affect your mood. It can increase dopamine and serotonin levels, which are neurotransmitters that can make people feel good. It can also boost mood and reduce stress, and it also helps your immune system, so it's good to laugh. And it strengthens your abdomen.

Yeah, we found that out. It's like doing a crunch. It's better than doing a crunch or a setup. That's why I told him I have a big muscle right here in front of me. I've been building that thing, so... He's been laughing a lot. Yeah, I laugh a lot.

But growing up, and still, I love stand-up comedy, and, you know, especially storytellers that make you laugh and will go see different people, but one of my favorites growing up was Jerry Clower, and so I had to go with a Jerry Clower clip, and, you know, he was just a great storyteller, had an accent a lot like mine, so, you know, I understand him better than most folks, I guess, but you can play the clip when we talk about it afterwards. But I'm afraid that you may be like New Gene Ledbetter, what his papa hooped him all the time for lying so much. New Gene is the biggest liar in Amite County, Mississippi, just always lying, and one day he was standing on the front porch, and he come running in the house, hollering, oh, there's a lion in the yard, lion in the yard. He's going to eat us up.

Well, what it was was a collie dog that de-clipped every summer and just left a big tassel on the end of his tail. And New Gene running the house said, lion in the yard, lion in the yard. Uncle Percy said, you get upstairs, you get out on your knees, and you ask God to forgive you for lying. You stay up there 30 minutes, and you get it worked out with the Lord. New Gene come walking down, he said, you get it worked out with the Lord, everything all right? Said, yes, sir. You think you got peace with God now about lying so much? Said, yes, sir. Said, in fact, the Lord spoke to me.

He said, New Gene, the first time I ever saw him, I thought he was a lion too. I could tell those stories almost word for word. I've heard them so many times, and they're still funny. And, you know, some of the things that I thought about is, you know, when we get together as a family, especially with Michelle's family, and some of you all have met some of Michelle's family, we get to laughing and cutting up just because in reality, the truth and the things that go on in life and people are funnier than fiction, and just the stories and the things that happen. But if you don't learn to laugh, then it's a sad state of affairs. It really is, because I think about my own life, and, you know, it's been tragedy as with everybody. But the great thing about God is he takes you through healing, and sometimes you can learn to laugh at the things that really used to make you cry. And there are tons of stuff in my own story with that, and, you know, to make other people laugh, you know, where they are, and, you know, because everybody needs a good laugh sometimes. So what are one of those stories? Well, I was thinking about the, and I don't know when I told this.

It seemed like I told it the other week, whatever. We have a new dog, and her name is Presley, and we were trying to decide between two names. And we were going to meet these people, and we had to change our meeting spot. So we were deciding, okay, Lord, what do we need to name this dog? Was it Presley, or we had another name, and I can't remember. Elvis. No, Priscilla.

Female, Priscilla. But they told us to meet them at Circle K on Exit 100 coming out of Virginia there. And so we pull up, and as we turn onto the road, the name of the road was Graceland Road. So it sealed the deal, and we just laughed with it. That's God's sense of humor right there just telling us, I'm going to send you to pick up his dog on Graceland Lane.

It has to be Presley, so. All right, and I love what Jim had talked about earlier, and I know for Sam it's very much that way that, you know, God can make you laugh, and when he does, you know it's him, right? In other words, if you miss that Graceland, it just, how else would you know it's funny? Yeah. You know, you just do, and then you're just like, oh, oh, oh, you know, here we are again. Andy, you're smiling like you know something. No, no, no, I'm just, I'm listening to you.

I have nothing. Don't put me on the spot like that. One of the things about that is a lot of times people say, oh, that's such a weird coincidence. No, that's a God incidence. There are no coincidences, and it can be almost falling on the floor rolling when you get enough of those things in sequence that are pointing you a direction, and you know that's the way you're going, but they're little confirmations from God that do make it amusing. No, there's no doubt in my mind he's got this unbelievable sense of humor, and it's interesting to me how many people recognize it, you know. And it's sad to me how few people recognize it. Well, yeah, but I would not have had any idea, you know, 40 years ago or something before it came to Christ his sense of humor, but I'm trying to think of the name of the song exactly. I think it's called Hugging You, and one of the lines in that song is you're the funniest person I ever knew, and they're talking about God and their relationship with and hugging him and this is constant laugh track essentially going back and forth in order to get that confirmation that I'm actually dealing with somebody, not this judgmental thing. And the part of the relationship is that sense of humor.

Go ahead, Jim. I think it's possibly the first time my wife has ever been in the studio with us. I'm pretty sure it is. Anybody that doesn't believe God has a sense of humor, if you are married, look at who he puts you with. It's rare. That is hilarious.

That brings up a great question I really have been begging to ask. Can anybody imagine, you know, they always talk about Vince being on Lombardi time. Have you ever heard that? You know, you've got to be 15 minutes early in order to be on time. Vince Lombardi time. Don't you wonder about Mrs. Lombardi? I mean... You mean St. Mrs. Lombardi? Yeah, St. Mrs. Lombardi, but my guess is that she was Stu Epperson.

I'm going to be there in seven minutes. That was the... Right. Set your watch on that one.

It'll be a while. But that's just part of the joy of, you know, certain people is that they just have a different thing, but it's part of their... You know, it's the same thing with people that you work with. You know, they're going to... The place that you're, you know, fanatical about, they're going to be just to try to show you that, you know, it's really not that big a deal, Robby.

It's just not that big a deal. So I have my wife and I have Stu. Well, we were talking about stories in the Bible that reflect God's humor, and me and Andy were talking about it coming down the hall, is, you know, Balaam on his donkey is hilarious to me because, you know, Balaam's determined. He's going this direction. Finally, the donkey turns around and says, hey, what are we doing here? You know, how often do you see a talking donkey other than my wife may tell you she sees one daily? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that's part of the deal, right? So, you know, Kenny, as we, you know, finish up show one, here's your, you know, again, for you personally, how do you experience God's laughter to put you on the spot completely? Well, it's... Do I look for what puts a smile on God's face? And what puts a smile on my face is when I see, like sometimes I see it in my puppies, it seems like he's laughing about things. He's just happy being that puppy. He's happy with what God's made of him.

Are we happy with what God's made of him? What puts a smile on our face? What brings that laughter to our heart? What brings us alive? It's just like when you're a parent looking at that child, right? You're trying to get him to smile and trying to get him to laugh.

When God's looking at us doing that, it's a wonderful thing to do. Again, MastinJourneyRadio.org, we've got a boot camp coming up right before Thanksgiving, if I'm not mistaken. It's May 24th through the something or other. November. November, let's do it. November. That's way before Thanksgiving. We're taking a fall off. No, we're not. It's May... November 21st to the 24th. This is the Truth Network.