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October 4 – Addition by Subtraction · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Good morning, everybody.
• 0:05
  This is Steffani and MacKenzie for the Daily Ripples, October 4th, addition by subtraction.
• 0:12
  The Stone.
• 0:13
  God lovingly removes what hinders my growth so that I can become the person he created me to be.
• 0:19
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:21
  Today, I will not resist every uncomfortable change.
• 0:24
  Some habits, attitudes and attachments must be cut away before healthier ones can grow.
• 0:30
  What feels like loss today may become tomorrow's strength.
• 0:34
  Ripple 2, spiritual.
• 0:36
  As I remain connected to Christ, the Holy Spirit gently prunes what no longer belongs in my life, making room for healthier growth.
• 0:44
  The father's loving hand never removes something without preparing something better in its place.
• 0:51
  So for me, this is very true in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, because I came into it, a broken person, someone who knew they needed to change, but didn't know how to make that change happen.
• 1:07
  Um, wanting to have a different life, but um, not even comfortable in my own skin.
• 1:13
  So, you know, getting in touch with a sponsor, going to meetings, walking through the steps, all of it was brand new.
• 1:21
  And doing something like that, um, requires a lot of faith that, uh, things are going to work out, and it requires being uncomfortable, um, in many avenues, um, uncomfortable with a god of mine, understanding, uncomfortable with, um, making a list of all of the, the people that I had harmed and uh, talking to another human being about those things.
• 1:46
  It's all very uncomfortable.
• 1:48
  Um, But in order to get the growth, I had to see those things through, I had to walk through those steps, um, be able to eliminate some of these things from my life in order to make room for the good.
• 2:03
  Um, For those of you who do or do not know, um, I have a love for gardening.
• 2:10
  And I planted an apple tree about 3 years ago.
• 2:15
  It's about, um, 7 foot tall.
• 2:18
  And I was very concerned about my beautiful apple tree because it was huge and lush, had lots of green, but no apples.
• 2:29
  And when I started doing a bit of digging, I realized that in order for the tree to produce fruit, you actually have to prune the tree.
• 2:38
  You have to cut off some of the extra growth, some of the extra green, some of the limbs that aren't really needed in order for the tree to put all of its energy and its life into creating the fruit.
• 2:52
  And so last fall, I went out there.
• 2:56
  Or winter about February with my pruners and my instructions that I gotten online and started hacking at the tree.
• 3:04
  And when I was done, the tree was not very pretty.
• 3:08
  Um, actually, I was very, very sad that I had cut all the limbs off that I did.
• 3:14
  This spring though, the entire tree was covered in beautiful blooms.
• 3:20
  And I had a basket full of green apples that we got to enjoy throughout the summer.
• 3:25
  So I do know that this is true in life.
• 3:29
  For me, um, you know, as a metaphor for AA of sometimes it's, it's, letting go of things that don't serve me anymore in order to be able to give God the possibility to grow new things in me.
• 3:45
  I'm reminded of this.
• 3:47
  Um, I'm reading from John 15, one, and 2 where it says, I am the true vine.
• 3:56
  And my father is the vine dresser.
• 4:00
  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
• 4:11
  So that apple tree, for me, is a real life, a version of this reading, um, and it, it actually works.
• 4:21
  I'm having to trim those pieces away.
• 4:23
  Having to trim away the hurts of my past and the wreckage that I cause, having to make amends and to work with other alcoholics.
• 4:33
  Um, gives me the opportunity to bear fruit.
• 4:37
  Um, I'm curious what you think from just life in general, how that works for you, Mac.
• 4:44
  So, in Ripple One, practical, says today I will not resist every uncomfortable change.
• 4:51
  Some habits, attitudes, and attachments must be cut away before healthier ones can grow.
• 4:56
  And practically speaking.
• 4:59
  I recently, I say recently, in the last 4 so months, got the opportunity to work at a men's clinic and I have only ever been a server.
• 5:12
  I worked at Chick-fil-A, I did personal training at Crunch.
• 5:16
  So I'm not super familiar with a lot of the clinical jargon that they use at that clinic, but it was a really awesome opportunity to work in, uh, a semi-adjacent field to what I'm studying and just have the opportunity to make connections and and do that kind of stuff.
• 5:38
  But my 1st day on the job, I go in and I am by far the youngest person there.
• 5:45
  I want to say the next oldest, next youngest person is in their 30s.
• 5:49
  And these are all people who have worked in different levels of healthcare and who are very familiar with the job.
• 5:57
  And so coming in there, um, even just to work front desk, they pay you to know, all of the things that they do at the clinic.
• 6:07
  And so I have to be able to inform someone of procedures and medications and how they work and what they do biologically.
• 6:17
  And, you know, so I go in in the 1st day.
• 6:20
  I'm kind of taken aback at how much I'm going to have to learn.
• 6:24
  And it's a little bit of imposter syndrome because I'm just not familiar.
• 6:31
  However, one of the biggest things for me is having confidence in my learning capabilities.
• 6:39
  And so I knew that being uncomfortable and even unsure, even intimidated, that I was going to be able to do the job and do it well because I'm confident that I could learn the material and do a good job of telling people what it is and how it works and encouraging them to come in.
• 6:57
  And so it wasn't as scary because I had not only faith in God, but faith in the abilities that he gave me.
• 7:06
  So, You talk about faith in God and faith in your ability.
• 7:11
  So it's not that you could just sit on the couch and say, hey, God, I want to make sure I know all of this stuff.
• 7:17
  Can you just go ahead and fill my head full of this?
• 7:21
  It required you to do what?
• 7:22
  Take an action.
• 7:23
  Yes, for sure.
• 7:24
  And the scripture that I, uh, associate with that is Matthew 530.
• 7:33
  It says, and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, or it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
• 7:45
  Now, while this isn't exactly adjacent, I think it's relatable in the sense that sometimes it's uncomfortable to cut your hand off.
• 7:54
  Right.
• 7:55
  And not that we're going to be cutting our hands off.
• 7:58
  But I think the greater theme is, If you are being led to sin, if you're being led in an uncomfortable space or something you are familiar with that isn't healthy, You cut it out and you heal the wound so that you can grow new things and develop as a healthier individual, and that's only possible through taking the scalpel to that affected area.
• 8:27
  Something else I attribute to this is being in the relationship that I am in now.
• 8:34
  Um, has given me a lot of opportunity to have a 3rd party look at the areas that I fall short in because I guess when you're comparing yourself, maybe when you're outside of faith and you're comparing yourself to the people around you.
• 8:53
  It can be easy to say, you know, I'm not doing so bad.
• 8:57
  But when you're in a relationship with someone who compares himself to Christ, the humility you see from other people who are, I guess, morally on a much higher standing than you, and they still consider themselves the skull of the earth.
• 9:13
  You take a step back and it gives you a chance to look yourself and go, I've been comparing myself.
• 9:19
  to an improper standard, an inaccurate standard.
• 9:25
  And A lot of the time, at least in this relationship, I've also seen the loss of a lot of friends.
• 9:33
  I think it's, I think it's better or I think it's good for you to get in a relationship, to find that person and to grow with that person, and to cut out a lot of those relationships.
• 9:46
  I don't know if it is healthy to be in close relationship with other men if you're in a relationship that's Christ seeking, face centered, and developing towards marriage because what does that provide to you?
• 10:02
  So we do the same thing within AA.
• 10:06
  You know, they talk about change your people places and things, which can be uncomfortable and is not easy to do because, you know, if you have lived a certain way your entire life, you've built a group of friendships, maybe.
• 10:20
  It could be those drinking buddies that once you've gone down the path.
• 10:25
  They're not really friends anyway.
• 10:26
  Um, you know, you turn a direction and you realize that that, that uncomfortableness of having to give up those people or those places or things.
• 10:36
  Um, they don't serve you anymore.
• 10:38
  You know, and it takes an action to learn something new.
• 10:43
  Try something different, work the steps.
• 10:47
  Um, you know, take the courage to, like you were talking about with work, learning all of the different aspects of a new job, um, you know, having hard conversations.
• 11:00
  Being uncomfortable.
• 11:02
  I want to add to that too.
• 11:03
  You said, um, to have to cut out, like, let's say you have old drinking buddies and you're having to cut that out.
• 11:09
  I think that there's also some level of defensiveness we feel to have to explain why we need to cut that person off or why we don't want to cut that person off because just as much as we may need to.
• 11:23
  It's important to analyze why we feel rebellious toward that action, right?
• 11:30
  To look at the reasons why we want to keep those people in our lives.
• 11:33
  What are you trying to hold onto that isn't suitable for the life that you're trying to build?
• 11:38
  And we talk about holding on to our old ideas until the result is nothing.
• 11:43
  We have to let go absolutely, and we have to bring God into the picture, asking God for his will, and the courage to carry that out.
• 11:53
  So, one more.
• 11:55
  One more.
• 11:56
  Go ahead.
• 11:56
  Furthermore, on that, I think that even in Christ, when we're saved, we're created into a new creature.
• 12:02
  And so old ideations, old belief systems that no longer are suitable for new creatures need to perish.
• 12:09
  Otherwise, you're still putting faith in yourself.
• 12:13
  not in God.
• 12:14
  Good point.
• 12:16
  Prayer for today.
• 12:18
  Father God, give me the courage to trust your pruning work in my life.
• 12:22
  Through your Holy Spirit, help me let go of whatever keeps me from growing.
• 12:27
  Shape me through the example of Jesus.
• 12:29
  Amen.