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June 26 - A Life That Deepens · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Welcome back to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:06
  Today is June the 26th, and today closes out my run of sitting down with Jason from the
• 0:13
  recovery rooms here in the Memphis area.
• 0:15
  And Jason, I'm truly thankful to have had you with us on the show for the past few days.
• 0:21
  I know we'll probably have you on here again in the future, and I'm going to turn it over
• 0:25
  to you and let you read our devotional for the day and kick off our discussion.
• 0:29
  Thanks, Pastor Mike.
• 0:31
  All right, guys, this is the Daily Ripples for June 26th, a life that deepens.
• 0:36
  The stone.
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  What is pursued in the wrong way often slips further away.
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  What is built slowly and rightly grows stronger over time.
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  Ripple one, practical.
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  Today, I will be patient with the process of growth.
• 0:49
  I will not chase quick satisfaction or expect instant results.
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  The life I am building will deepen through steady, consistent choices.
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  Ripple two, the spiritual.
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  Jesus spoke of abiding, not rushing. As I remain grounded in the Father, the Holy Spirit grows within me what I once tried to force.
• 1:08
  Joy, peace, and the connection take root and expand over time. What begins small becomes something rich and lasting.
• 1:16
  And as usual, we will wait till the very end to say the prayer.
• 1:21
  Pastor Mike, what I get out of this one is what we have talked about in previous episodes is the fact that this is my third attempt at sobriety.
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  I've relapsed twice and been in treatment a total of three times.
• 1:35
  But in the stone, what is pursued in the wrong way often slips further away.
• 1:41
  Absolutely describes my first two attempts at sobriety.
• 1:45
  The first time when I came in here, I was fresh out of rehab, came in the next day and started the process.
• 1:55
  And I really liked what I was hearing.
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  I started trying to do my 90 and 90.
• 2:03
  I was in here two, three times a day sometimes.
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  I wasn't working at that point.
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  But again, I never got a sponsor.
• 2:11
  I never actually worked the steps.
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  I would just read them and it was just, you know, part of, all I did was come to meetings.
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  I was part of the fellowship of the program, not the program of the program.
• 2:23
  Yeah.
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  You're hearing things in one ear and out the other, as we say.
• 2:26
  Correct.
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  And so this time around, I told myself that something, you know, the definition of insanity,
• 2:36
  correct?
• 2:37
  You know, I tried the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
• 2:39
  Right.
• 2:40
  Again, I'm very aware of that. And I knew from the get go that this time I had to do something different. And it started with my treatment instead of just going into a five or six day detox place. I actually went to a month long treatment rehab facility and got, you know, not just detox, but got help and got things of that nature.
• 3:02
  So that was different than the first time.
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  But immediately when I got back out and got back in these rooms, I raised my hand and said, I need a sponsor.
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  And that's when I met Bill F.
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  And he wasn't even supposed to be.
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  He doesn't come to our group.
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  He wasn't supposed to.
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  He was part of a different group.
• 3:20
  Right.
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  He was just here coincidentally helping watch somebody's kid or whatever.
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  And I raised my hand and he walked over to me.
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  He didn't say I'm going to be your sponsor.
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  He told me where to be and when to be there.
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  And that was it.
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  And I showed up at his home group.
• 3:35
  Yeah.
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  And he's been my sponsor ever since.
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  And I have recently completed my fifth step and sixth and seventh.
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  I'm now working on my eighth.
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  And again, never came anywhere close to getting that far in the first two times.
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  And like you said, now I'm chairing meetings.
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  I'm going to speak at facilities.
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  I've done that with Corey.
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  That was amazing.
• 3:57
  And I'm fixing to look into sponsor somebody at this point, which is crazy to me that I would be a sponsor to somebody.
• 4:06
  Well, and there was a guy in our meeting just the other day who was fairly new who was looking for a sponsor.
• 4:11
  So there's definitely opportunities that abound.
• 4:13
  Yep, for sure.
• 4:14
  But yeah, that's when it says, you know, and that to me goes with anything, man.
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  And if you're doing something with ill intentions, unfortunately, it doesn't always happen.
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  But if you're going at things from ill intention, it normally doesn't work out right.
• 4:34
  You know what I mean?
• 4:35
  Well, not only that, but another one of the phrases that we say a lot or that people say a lot in recovery rooms.
• 4:42
  And again, we keep this podcast clean and PG, but I'm sure you've heard that you can't BS a BSer.
• 4:50
  Yeah, we say that in the rooms of recovery a lot.
• 4:55
  And that's exactly what it's talking about, about what's pursued the wrong way slips further away.
• 5:01
  If somebody comes into the rooms of recovery and they start spewing a lot of, you know, half-truths and excuses and falsehoods,
• 5:07
  and they're trying to manipulate the situation, we as, you know, recovering alcoholics, we can spot that a mile away.
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  And, you know, we'll kind of laugh and chuckle and tell them, you know, kind of keep coming back.
• 5:18
  But the real power is actually having the courage to try to redirect them, you know, to point out, you know, hold people accountable for what they're doing and try to point out the things that they're doing that are just not going to work in the rooms of recovery.
• 5:31
  I had that experience recently, you know, with, you know, newcomers, you know, coming into recovery, you know, our home group or what have you.
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  Because I've, too, been to, you know, speak to people at the, you know, the rehabilitation facility here, you know, locally.
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  I'd gone on a Monday evening, you know, with some others and with Memphis and some other people, you know, here that have been here, you know, on the pod.
• 6:00
  And there was some guys in there, one guy in particular, you know, he started coming around to, you know, the meetings.
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  and he started coming around. And as soon as he got out of that, as you mentioned, that short-term
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  kind of rehab stint, more the detox style, you know, the kind of the 10-day, 7 to 10-day stay.
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  And he got out and he started coming around to the meetings. And immediately it became clear that
• 6:23
  he was using the group and the meetings to try to get some, you know, financial assistance,
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  you know. And people were telling him no, you know, and then some people were helping him a little bit.
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  And I'm the type that, you know, somebody needs some gas money and things like that.
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  You know, I don't mind, you know, helping out a little bit.
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  But about, you know, the third or fourth time that I was asked, you know, I have to kind of stop and pull back and say,
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  that's not really how we do things in recovery because it creates a barrier, you know, the financial side of that.
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  And as soon as that kind of accountability factor came in, then you start to see more distance and less communication.
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  And so it becomes clear, you know, that that person was pursuing things the wrong way.
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  And, you know, I contrast that to, you know, what I've seen with you and with others who come into the rooms and they really want to get it.
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  You know, they're here like their life depends on it because it actually does.
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  And all that they want is to get and stay sober, you know.
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  And along the way, what I found, because when I came into recovery, I didn't have my financial house in order either, you know.
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  but I wasn't here for that. I was here to get this, you know, alcohol problem taken care of.
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  And what I found is that the more that I have worked this program, my life has deepened, you
• 7:44
  know, as the title of this thing today says, because if I'm trying to do God's will, you know,
• 7:49
  for my life, then I don't think that it creates the blessings per se. You know, I don't think that
• 7:57
  God is actively rewarding me for doing the right thing. I think that I definitely escaped the
• 8:01
  of my own actions of doing the wrong things, you know, when I'm trying to live life the
• 8:06
  right way.
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  But those, you know, financial blessings just naturally come because I'm acting with honesty
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  and integrity.
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  Those relationships with people around me deepen and get stronger because I'm actually there
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  for them and I have a listening ear that can empathize with other people.
• 8:21
  You know, I can, and that is God working through me because left to my own devices, you know,
• 8:27
  you mentioned, you know, working through steps, you know, six and seven, you know, currently
• 8:30
  or recently, and those are the ones about our character defaults and our shortcomings. And for
• 8:34
  me, one of my biggest character defaults and shortcomings was, man, I was just a selfish SOB.
• 8:39
  You know, I didn't want to help anybody with anything because that just inconvenienced me.
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  And now my whole life has become about, you know, being of service to other people,
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  about being a vessel, you know, of the light of God's love, you know, shining in a world of darkness
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  kind of thing. That's my goal anyway. I'm not saying I do that perfectly. I'm not saying that
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  I show up even every day, you know, with that mentality.
• 9:00
  But when I'm at my best and when God is working through me the best, that's the type of person that I am and that I want to be today.
• 9:06
  And this ripple today really reminds me and encourages me to keep trying to do that.
• 9:11
  And, man, that part about the practical ripple about being patient with the process of growth, I am not patient with that process.
• 9:18
  And it goes all the way back to I've told this story in the rooms of recovery at times,
• 9:24
  But I wasn't even patient when I first came in here of letting the recovery program work on me the right way.
• 9:30
  They told me I had to come to 90 meetings in 90 days.
• 9:32
  And I thought, well, I don't have the time for that, you know.
• 9:35
  But I did.
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  You know, when I first started, I went to about three meetings in a row and then I skipped a meeting.
• 9:40
  And instead of going to a meeting, I was at a Starbucks, you know, out on the patio smoking cigars.
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  And another guy was out there and he started smoking cigars.
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  We started talking and it turned out that he was a recovering alcoholic as well.
• 9:53
  And I'm like, well, that's strange. I just started this program. Here's this guy. So I went to the,
• 9:58
  you know, but I was, I was too impatient, you know, I wasn't getting it quick enough. So I was
• 10:01
  ready to give up after three days. And so, but I, you know, after talking to him, I thought, well,
• 10:06
  maybe I need to keep trying. So I kept trying. And a few days later, I got lazy and impatient
• 10:12
  again, skipped another meeting. I was at a different Starbucks and I was at that one on the patio,
• 10:16
  smoking my cigar at the time. Now this was before I was a pastor, obviously, so nobody freak out.
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  And then it's about 930 at night.
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  It was on a Tuesday.
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  And these motorcycles come rumbling up.
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  One of the guys, you know, hopped off the motorcycle, takes off his helmet.
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  And it was the man who eventually became one of my first sponsors, a man named Steve Davis.
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  He got off the motorcycle.
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  He's like, hey, Michael, how are you doing?
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  And they had just come from an AA meeting.
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  And at that point, I was like, okay, God, I get it.
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  I need to be doing this.
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  I've tried to skip twice now in the first week.
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  And you're sending people after me.
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  Maybe this is where I actually need to be.
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  That's a strong God wink right there.
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  Then, man, I tell you, you were talking about God winks the other day.
• 10:55
  Yeah, that's a God grab.
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  One thing I'd like to add, too, is you were talking about the gentleman or the kid who last week had come in,
• 11:09
  and he raised his hand saying he needed a sponsor, and it was his second meeting.
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  In contrast to the story you were telling about the other guy with the financial and coming about it the wrong way, we can kind of see it from a mile away.
• 11:27
  On the flip side of that, we also have a good understanding that this guy might get it.
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  Because one of the things he said in sharing, and you can tell he's very new at sharing and very new at this, he used the phrase, I want what you have.
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  And that, to me, that to me is it.
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  He wants what we have.
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  And now if he's willing to go to any length to get it, we have an answer for him.
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  We have a program of recovery.
• 12:00
  And I feel like just from hearing him say that phrase, I feel like he should succeed.
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  I feel he has a better chance of succeeding than somebody who comes in with the other intentions,
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  you know, not so great intentions.
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  And I believe I was, because I was chairing that day and I told him, I said, man, you know,
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  don't worry about all the, all the noise that's going to be coming around it because you're
• 12:25
  so new.
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  Just keep coming back and just keep listening and keep sharing.
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  And that's all you need to do and be patient.
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  And that is my word of the day for anyone who is a member of a church, a synagogue, a mosque,
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  whatever your faith may be. I know most of the people listening to this particular podcast are
• 12:48
  likely either in recovery or they're Christian. So my Christian church people that are listening to
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  this, my question is, are you living your life in such a way that people want what you have?
• 12:58
  Yes. Because if not, then you're not shining the light of God's love in the world around you. And
• 13:05
  that can be a convicting thing, but it's more than that. It's an opportunity for growth and for a
• 13:11
  deeper and more full life. And on that note, thanks again, Jason, for being with us for these past few
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  days. Thank you for having me. It's been great. Yeah. And like I said, this has been a great
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  experience. This will not be the last time you're on here, but if you would do us the honor of closing
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  us out with our prayer for today. Absolutely. Father, teach me to be patient with the life you
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  are building in me. Through your Spirit, help me grow steady in joy, peace, and love as I follow
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  your Son. Amen. Amen.