← Focus on the Family with Jim Daly
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Your church comes to you each week to fill their cup. But when the crowd leaves, who's filling yours? That's exactly what I'm here to do with my new podcast from Focus on the Family. It's called Pastor to Pastor with Dave Stone. I'm so excited to help you navigate the unique challenges that pastors face in their ministry journey, both personally and professionally.
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So I invite you to listen and.
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Subscribe to Pastor to Pastor wherever you get your podcasts.
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Today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, comedian John Branion shares some pretty unique insights on a variety of topics, including why we do the jobs we do.
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But you know what? We don't really get paid according to how difficult the job is. We don't, we don't get paid by how hard a job is. If we did, trapeze artists would be the highest paid people on the planet, wouldn't they? They swing upside down and have to catch other people. That has to be harder than your John.
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Well, we're so glad you could tune in for a lighter episode of the show here on New Year's Day. Thanks for joining us. I'm John Fuller.
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Another year, it's hard to believe. What a great way to start 2026. John Branion is one of our more popular comedians on Focus on the Family. And I'm sure you will get a kick out of what he has to share today, especially his closing story of about the unique value of every human life. In fact, this was one of our most popular shows of 2025. John has been in the entertainment business for over 25 years and has also written some humorous books. John and his wife Lori have four adult children and 11 grandchildren. And he says there's a lot of laughter and joy in their home.
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I'm sure there is. And without any further ado, here's John Branion on today's episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
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All right, I will tell you, I don't tell you, but I'm taping this in Indiana. I'm taping this in Hoosier land because I'm a Hoosier, I'm a native. Yep. And I like living in the Midwest. And I will tell you why. Because I think in the Midwest we have heart, we have spirit, we have sensibilities that are different from the rest of the country. Now, the rest of the country, particularly the coast, either coast, pick one, east coast, west coast, doesn't matter, are a little bit uppity about where they're from and they find out that I'm from Indiana, which they refer to as flyover country, by the way. Flyover country. They find out that I'm from Indiana, they say stuff to me like, oh, you're from Indiana. Why, out here on the west coast, we've got everything. We've got the sunshine, we've got the sand. We've got surf, we've got Hollywood. What have you got? Well, we have all of your food. See you eat that sand, surfer boy. I actually got a brochure. I got a brochure in the mail from Napa Valley, California. And Napa Valley is famous for wine. We all got the same brochure. And they wanted me to come to Napa Valley and get this, spend my entire vacation touring the vineyards. That's what the whole brochure was about. Come to Napa Valley and tour. Come to Napa Valley and tour the vineyards. Walk the path where Ernest and Julio Gallo have walked. See the wine presses in operation. Vineyard is just a fancy word for a grape farm. That's it. I've seen lots of farms where I'm from. I think we should send them brochures out on the west coast, huh? Hey, why don't you all come to Indiana? Look at our maze yards. Yeah. Walk the path where Orville and Gary Redenbacher have walked. Watch the natives detassle. Just a little bit bitter. I love living in the Midwest, and here's my general philosophy about life. It's pretty simple. I think that anything that is important to us, God surrounds us with, I think the most important things that we're supposed to have in life, God builds in right around us, like air. It's pretty important to most of us. You gotta breathe a couple, three times a day. God knows that you need air. So he surrounds us with air so we can get it. Because, let's face it, come on, if he didn't, if we had to go out and look for air when we needed it, you know, we'd procrastinate. Gosh, I could really use a breath of air. But next commercial. So he surrounds us with it. And I think the same is true of laughter. I think laughter is important enough to the human condition that God has built it into creation. All you have to do is open up your eyes, open up your eyes, and you'll find stuff to laugh about. He has made it. He's made funny stuff everywhere. There's funny stuff everywhere. Open your eyes and don't take yourself too seriously. It's pretty simple. Pretty simple message. Don't take yourself all that seriously. You know, we try to. We try to let our jobs define us. You know, some of us do. Maybe you do. I certainly do. I've thought about other things that I would like to do, jobs that I think I could do. That's the primary thing for me is jobs that I could do. Here's a job I don't think I could do. Dentist. I don't know. Evidently, we're in agreement on that one. Over here. Dentists. Dentists have got it really difficult because, you know, dentists are the only people who can't move away from bad breath. The rest of us all get to. Dentists also are. People are afraid of them. People don't like to visit them. I think, okay, we're in agreement on that. Because really. And I think I've narrowed it down. I think I know what it is. It's the waiting room at the dentist office. Because you go into the waiting room, right? And you're sitting there trying to read a magazine. And they've always got really interesting magazines at the waiting room, too, to take your mind off of stuff, you know, like dentist magazines. You just flip through that and figure out how to do a root canal that takes your mind right off of it. So you're flipping through the magazine, but you. The thing is, you can hear stuff, right? You can hear what's going on back there in the other room. And just the drill, that drill. So you're sitting there listening to the music and radio. So I have a solution. Rather than spending all of this technology money on how to make the Internet faster, I think we should spend money on dental equipment. Figure out how to make. Figure out how to make the dental drill sound like a circus calliope. Then you'd be sitting in the waiting room and hear. Here's an even better idea. If you can imagine one. Hard as it is to believe. Get away from the dental waiting room altogether. Eliminate appointments. Because that's what freaks you out, right? When you know you got a dental appointment coming, it ruins your whole year. Every six months, you gotta go in there. It just ruins it because you know it's coming. You're counting the day. Oh, here it comes. Here it comes. So get rid of the appointments. You don't have to make dental appointments anymore. All you have to do is tell the dentist that you need some dental work done. And all dentists across the United States take ninja training. So you don't need an appointment. Because dentistry can strike like the craw of the dragon. You'd never know when it was going to happen, you'd be going through a train tunnel, the lights go out. What was that? I don't know, but I got braces. So it doesn't matter what your job is. Everybody's important. Everybody's job is a dead end job. And it doesn't matter because we transcend our jobs. Our intrinsic value is not based on what we do for a living. And everybody's important. Everybody's important. Every job in some way is important. Don't take yourselves too seriously. So many things. So many things. I was reading in a newspaper recently and there was a guy in Australia, so he wasn't a Hoosier, guy over in Australia had a little bit too much to drink, decided to go swimming. Decided to go swimming. So he wades out into this pond and then dives headfirst into a crocodile's mouth. Yeah, that's not the funny part. The guy's okay, all right, so he survived the whole incident. He climbed out and went to get some stitches. But they were interviewing, they were interviewing this guy and he said, he said at first it felt a lot like diving into a pile of rocks. So he's got a frame of reference for. This is not the first lousy dive he's ever made. First it felt like a pile of rocks. And then. But my favorite quote from the whole story came from the game warden. The game warden who was on the scene doing his job. He was saying something. He was trying to teach a lesson, Trying to say something that would be helpful and wise in the newspaper. And so his quote was, yeah, alcohol, swimming and crocodiles are a dangerous mix. Pretty much anytime you add crocodiles to the mix, you know, pillows, baby ducklings, and crocodiles. Are a dangerous thing. We're thinking about putting crocodiles in the church nursery this week. It's fine. Just check the toys for lead content. Got no problem with the crocodiles. All right, I. I get to do a lot of traveling because as difficult as it may be to believe, I can't make a living in Westfield, Indiana. So I travel. And it again, airports, airports, planes. Traveling is another. It's another sense that I get the feeling that God is smiling down on me and giving me things to laugh about. Because. Because there are funny things that happen all the time. At the airport. At the airport, if you go through, you'll notice that there are no very few signs anymore telling people what to do. Instead, they've been replaced by pre recorded electronic voices. Right. That just announce everything you have to know at the airport. All the important vital information like don't leave your bag. Don't leave your bag unattended. Do not turn your back on your bag for a second. Look around. Can you see your bag? Can you. You better find it, because if we find your bag, we're going to blow your bag to pieces. Have a nice flight. And they tell you don't to give your bag. Don't. Don't give your bag to strangers. Don't accept bags from people you don't know to get. Who does that? Nobody does it. Here, take this with you to Denver. Go, go, go.
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Worry.
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You'll be fine. I'll meet you there. Just go. Here's his diaper bag in case he fusses. The stuff they say at airports, the stuff they say, you know, when you actually get on the plane, they make announcements. The first thing they tell you when you get on the plane is they tell you where the bathrooms are. Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to point out that the bathrooms are located at the front and the rear of the airplane. No kidding. It's pretty much a hallway. Where else are they going to be on the plane? Are there people going through the overhead bins during flight? And they tell you. They tell you. This is my favorite announcement that they make. The captain usually makes it just before they land. They'll come on the speaker and they'll say, ladies and gentlemen, we've been cleared for landing. And they always say it like they're a little bit surprised that that happened. You know, we didn't know what to expect when we took off. But good news, we get to land in Denver. Like, sometime they're gonna come over and say, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry, we've not been cleared for landing. Evidently, the pilot and the tower guy had a fight over a woman a few years ago. We're just gonna have to veer out over Lake Michigan until we run out of gas. But your seat cushion floats. Little voices. Little voices tell anything, you know, and they've got. That little voice at the airport is everywhere. It's on the. It's on the end of the moving sidewalk. Have you been on that ride at the airport? At the end of the moving sidewalk, the voice comes over and says, the moving sidewalk is coming to an end, so you better get off the moving sidewalk. Who is this for? Who gets on at the other end and goes, you know what? I'm taking this to Nashville. But they don't put it everywhere where they. Or I think that they would put it if they think we're that stupid. They don't put it on the. They don't put it on the revolving door out front of the airport. There's no voice. Hey, you're going in a circle. Everything looks familiar because you've been here before. Public restrooms. Public restrooms are. There's a source of laughter in public restrooms. Have you noticed that they don't put handles on the toilets anymore in public restrooms there's no handles anymore. They don't think us capable of operating that complicated mechanism on our now they have the electric eye that just watches you. And just flushes whenever it feels like. It's. It's pretty loud, isn't it? Do we need that much suction in a toilet? What are people putting in there? And the cat died. What should I do with him? Take him to the airport. Flush him. They got the same device, they got the same electric eye on the faucets, on the sink. But you cannot get water to come out of those no matter how hard you try. Got to stand in front of it doing the water come forth dance. I just dipped my hands in the toilet. Electric hand dryers. They got those electric hand dryers now in the restrooms. Those are for your convenience and they're also for your protection because they're more sanitary than paper towels. That's what it says right there. More sanitary. It's for your protection. You ever been in a hotel and they've got that paper ring around the toilet seat that says the same thing. For your protection. Doesn't that make you feel a lot more secure? Sometimes I see that I don't even lock the door to the room. The paper towels there. So after you wash your hands. Because it's way more sanitary to do this after you wash your hands. That's how surgeons scrub up. Competition. People take themselves too seriously with competition. Competitiveness. And that's just no fun, you know, it's no fun to play with a really hyper competitive person. At least that's what my family tells me. I just can't help it. I get the it. I want to win. You know, like the day after, the day after I beat my wife and my 8 year old daughter at UNO. Like ESPN is going to show up. It's like, John, you won an UNO last night. What are your plans now? Scouts were impressed, huh? You know, bragging rights, it doesn't matter. Bragging rights, they don't even last 24 hours. You can't, can't sit next to the guy on the plane the next day and say, hey, I destroyed my son at candy Land last night blew him right out of the molasses swamp. When I learned this lesson, I was in elementary school. I learned a lesson that you shouldn't take yourself too seriously about the wrong things, but about the right things. You need to understand just how important and vital and crucial you are. I learned that in elementary school from King Tut. When I was in elementary school, we went, we took a field trip to the Field Museum to see King Tut. And I don't know if any of you guys are know him. King T was an Egyptian pharaoh who, who they discovered his tomb a few years ago and they put these articles from the tomb on display. And when they, when they did that, they allowed people to come in and look at it. Now when you're a pharaoh and you die, they bury you with treasure. They bury you with all kinds of artifacts and things that they think you're going to need in the afterlife. So to put you in all these things. And they found King's Tut's tomb and they took all these artifacts out of his tomb and they put them on display in the Field Museum. Now they allowed our little group to go in and see it. So we're on our way in to see the King Tut Museum, and I'm little fifth grader and it's pretty exciting because my whole class is lined up in front of me. We're on our way in and it's cavernous. It's this huge door that's pitch black inside and we're lined up and we're pretty excited because we're going to go and see King Tut's treasures. So we're on our way in and as we get closer to the door, I notice that there's guards. There's two armed guards on each side of the door standing there with their, with their guns and they're guarding these treasures. And so now we're really excited. It's like, wow, they got guards guarding the treasures of King Tut. This is going to be so cool. So we're on our way in and we're making our way back and forth in the little maze of ropes. You know, they put the ropes up and you got to walk back and forth because it's a security thing. We're making our way back and forth in ropes and I'm trying to see in there, and I notice that there's a sign next to the exhibit hall that says no flash photography, no lights, no video of any kind. Because these articles are so precious and so delicate that even light Will cause them to decompose and to break apart. So you can't even take pictures of this stuff. It's so precious. So now we're really excited. We're on our way in, and I'm just to the doorway and I look in and I can see in front of my classmates the first display case. It's this Plexiglas case that's lit with red lights because there can't be any lights in there. And there's another armed guard standing right there next to that first case. So I can't wait. And I'm getting closer and closer, and I'm standing right next to the box, right next to the case, and I look in and I still get goose. I was thinking about it. I look in, and there underneath the red lights with two armed guards at the door was a broken piece of pottery. I know. And here's what occurred to me since then. It didn't occur to me on that day. It was kind of a disappointment on that day. But what occurred to me since then is that me and you are like that pottery. We're all cracked pots. And that's the good news. Here's what I mean. Here's what I mean. You've looked in the mirror before, most of you. And looking back, sometimes you're not very impressed with what you see, are you? And sometimes you don't have to look in the mirror. Sometimes you're just not impressed with you ever. You're not as smart, you're not as pretty, you don't have as much money. You don't have. There's all kinds of things you know. You know what you're not. You know what's wrong with you. You know where the cracks are in your vessel. We're all broken pieces of pottery. Broken pieces of pottery. But that particular piece of pottery was guarded by three armed guards. They wouldn't even let light hit it. It was underneath, plexiglass protected. Why? Two things. Because it was unique. There was only one of a kind like it in the entire world. And because of who it belonged to, who owned it, by nature of those two criterion, you are infinitely priceless. Because a, there is only one of you. In the history of mankind, there has only been one of you. And there is only going to be one of you from this day forward and from the beginning of time till now, one out of all of the people who've existed and all the people who are going to exist. You are the only you that there will ever be. And you are owned by a creator. The person who made you was a master artisan. So by the nature of those two criterion, you should be under plexiglass. Under plexiglass. Lighten up. Don't take things too seriously. Don't get so worked up about things because you are unique. If you don't sing the song you're supposed to sing, it never gets sung. If you don't do the task that you're supposed to do, it never gets done. How's that for important? How's that for crucial? It'll never get done if you don't do it because you're the only one capable of doing it. You are priceless.
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What great insights from John Branion on this New Year's Day edition of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly.
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Wow.
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I love that admonition that we are all unique individuals and that each of us has something special to contribute to society. How encouraging that is. And here at Focus on the Family, we want to be a big source of encouragement for your family. So we've put together a digital collection of our top comedy programs for you to enjoy. And it's all free. We'll include today's episode from John Branion, plus his hilarious look at marriage that we aired last year. This collection totals almost four hours and also features comedy from Ken Davis, Jeremy Nunes, Ken Kington, and Shonda Pierce. And if that's not enough, you can also get the best of 2025 audio collection, which Cont. 20 shows get you free access to both collections when you visit us online.
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Yeah, these are great messages that you can download and listen to, especially while you're on a road trip, perhaps looking for some clean entertainment. Just look for the Comedy Collection and the best of 2025 collection when you follow the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. Please take a moment and rate us in your podcast app and share this episode with a friend who might need a smile. I'm John Fuller inviting you back next time as we once more help you and your family thrive in Christ.
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Hey mom, Rebecca St. James here. I'm always looking for entertainment my daughters can enjoy without a screen and if it can build her face, even better. Brio Magazine from Focus on the Family does both. Brio Magazine is full of posters, tips on beauty and fashion, fun activities, and teen girl articles, all written from a biblical worldview to help her grow closer to Jesus. Subscribe today@briomagazine.com shop that's B R I-O magazine.com shop.