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July 24 – WAVE One - Working with Others - A Life Turned Outward · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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Welcome back to the Daily Ripples podcast. As promised on our episode yesterday,
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we're going to turn it over to Corey, who's going to work us through our daily
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devotional today and then into the chapter, Working With Others.
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It's good stuff. We're glad you're here.
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Today's topic is a life turned outward. My life changes when I shift my focus from myself to others.
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Today, I'll look for ways to help without expecting anything in return.
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I will listen, serve, and show up when I need it. Even small acts of care break
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the cycle of self-centered thinking.
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Ripple 2 Spiritually The Father leads me into a life that is outward, not inward.
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Jesus lived for others, not for himself. The Holy Spirit redirects my focus,
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freeing me from self-obsession and filling me with purpose. As I serve with
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humility, I find peace and steady sense of meaning.
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And, you know, I've been wanting to talk about this stuff and I don't know,
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you know, it's out all throughout this book.
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It's not talking about how I can get better and it's talking about how I can help you.
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And that's interesting because I thought when I went through the work of the
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12 steps that it was for me, but I had no idea it was really for you and for
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me to be of service to you.
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And it kind of points at that on page 19 of the big book. It says.
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Not page 20, it says our very lives as ex-problem drinkers depend upon our constant
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thought of others and how we may help their needs.
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So my life depends upon this. So I think that's really important.
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And back on page 89 of the big book, where it starts talking in the chapter,
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Working with Others, it says, Practical experience, that means real-life experience,
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shows nothing will so much ensure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.
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It works when other activities fail. So what's interesting in a couple lines
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now, it says you can help when no one else can.
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So that gives me a purpose too.
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I can help somebody when no one else can because back in the book it says one
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alcohol working with another is vital for permanent recovery.
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And it tells me where to look and find these people at the time.
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They didn't have meetings and all that. They had doctors.
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And it says you can easily find some by asking a few doctors,
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ministers, priests, or hospitals.
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You know, today we have a little bit different approach. We have 12-step calls,
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we have meetings, we have treatment centers to go to.
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But there's nowhere in this book.
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Well, it's in the name right here. Carry this message to other alcoholics.
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So I'm carrying the message. I'm not going to wait for them to find me on the
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Instagram or the Facebook or any of that. I'm going and finding them.
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And that's important because, you know, it's about in this chapter talks about how I make the approach.
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So it goes on to say on the next page, when you discover a prospect for Alcoholics
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Anonymous, find out all you can about them.
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So like, you know, when I'm engaging in conversation, you know,
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I'm asking them, you know, about their life.
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You know, I don't think it's just important how they got here because how everybody
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got here is just a different couple of different scenarios, right?
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You know, a couple of different charges here, a couple of fights with the wife,
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a couple this, this, this. You know, it's all just separated,
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and it doesn't have to be any of that, right?
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It can be someone that can't stop drinking, and that's it.
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It doesn't have to be all the extracurricular activities involved.
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And it tells me I need that information.
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It says you need this information to put yourself in his place to see how you
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would like him to approach you if the tables were turned.
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And so we're on page 90, and I don't know if anybody's following along,
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but that's okay, because I'm going to read a little bit from it,
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and I'm going to talk about my experience in this. So on page 90,
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it says, don't deal with him when he is very drunk.
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So I don't have to wait until he's just completely sober to talk to somebody.
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You know, and that's, so when I was drinking, I didn't have a lot of sober moments, right?
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So like, there was, and man, I would go into DTs.
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I would, you know, get sweats. I would get shaky. I'd go through all that stuff.
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So like, you know, asking a dude that drinks every day, you need to be completely
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sober before I talk to you or be completely sober before you be in this meeting.
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You know, that's interesting. And, you know, I think these meetings and these
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recovery rooms kind of look at people weird when they're, you know,
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drunk and like, what else were they supposed to do? How are they supposed to be?
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So, like, when I approach a man, right, like it needs to be me coming up with,
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and me having an idea of who I am.
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Because if I don't know who I am, like, how am I going to be able to talk to
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this dude who barely knows who he is anyways?
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It goes on to say on the next page, it says, see your man alone if possible.
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At first engage in general conversation after a while turn the talk to some
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phase of drinking and that's easy for someone like me,
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and that tells you know in this book a little bit further in the book it tells me on page one 135.
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I think it is man put me on the spot i'll put myself on the spot, but whatever.
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Says Henry, on page 124, I'm sorry.
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Henry Ford once made a wise remark in the fact that experience is a thing of supreme value in life.
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That is truly only if one is willing to turn the past to good account.
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We grow by our willingness to face and rectify the errors and convert them into
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assets. Well, my asset today is this right here.
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Talking about the big book of Valcox Anonymous and maybe helping someone else
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understand what it says and how to be in here.
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So, after I'm talking to this dude, and on page 92, it says,
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if you are satisfied that he is a real alcoholic, what if I'm not satisfied?
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Well, imagine that, like, I'm probably going to be able to talk to this man
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and understand if he's a real alcoholic or not, because a lot of people are
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just coming in to get their sheet signed, right? And I was one of those at one point in my life.
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But I wasn't desperate enough to sit with another man and go through this work.
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Or, you know, someone's got a DUI or their wife's mad at them or whatever the
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case is, it doesn't matter. It's not my responsibility.
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But what is my responsibility is to show them what an alcoholic is and to talk
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to them about the physical aspect of alcoholism.
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When I take a drink, do you want more?
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My sponsor did a really good test with me and, you know, it made me uncomfortable.
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So what I did, what he did with me is we sat down in his living room and he
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said, hey, Corey, pour a drink. of your favorite drink.
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And man, I'm not racist or prejudiced against alcohol, so I drink anything with a percent sign.
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But like, you know, I prefer whiskey, but I also prefer vodka.
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I prefer anything, so it doesn't matter, but I poured a glass of whiskey.
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I can't remember what he's acting like he was pouring, but he said,
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well, take a couple of sips of that. And it's all pretend, right?
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I took a couple of sips, and he said, well, sit it now, and then act like all
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the alcohol in the world is gone.
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And we did that. And he said, how does that make you feel? And I told him very uncomfortably.
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Because when I got started, you know, if you told me I had to stop,
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man, I thought it was a problem with me being not good with being to take directions.
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And I thought I was just, you know, rebellious and this and this.
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But really, you know, when I take a drink and don't have another,
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that makes me uncomfortable and not feel like I'm in this world at all.
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It makes me not like it any bit.
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So, you know, that's the physical factor. And, you know, some people might not have that.
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Well, but in Alcoholics Anonymous, in the doctor opinion, that separates us, right?
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So in the doctor's opinion, it says,
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we believe and so suggested a few years ago that the action of alcohol in these
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chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy, that the phenomenon of
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crating is limited to this class and never occurs in the average tempered drinker.
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So it never occurs. And I can, I can agree with that because my mother,
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she'll take a sip of alcohol and not one another or push her glass away.
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She's had the same double shot of fireball in her freezer for the last four or five years.
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So, you know, for me, someone like that, that's crazy. That doesn't even make sense to me.
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And then I ask him, you know, after a certain amount of period of time,
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right, do you still drink regardless of the consequences, regardless of whatever's going on?
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And that's who I am. It doesn't matter where you're from, what your background
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is, if you're a criminal, if you're on the streets.
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It doesn't matter if you have a great job. None of that matters.
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That's what separates me from.
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From a normal person, a normal drinker. When you take a drink,
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do you want more? And when you get an institution, get in a breakup,
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lose job, whatever the case is, do you drink again? Because I do.
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When I was locked up in Hot Springs, and I knew I was an alcoholic then,
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and I had the serenity prayer. It was carved into my bed, under my bunk, above my bed, and.
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Man, I thought it was a God thing. I was on the phone with my mom.
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I was like, mom, it's going to be different this time. It's,
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this is a God thing. I'm going to get sober.
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And then, you know, it's a three hour drive back from hot springs to Memphis.
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And I was sitting at a bar within an hour and a half because there I was again,
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right? You know, cause that's what I do.
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And I don't, I've lost the decision making and being able to tell you if I,
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you know, So if it's a good idea for me to say, whatever it is,
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like, I've lost that decision.
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In my book, in this book of Alcoholics Anonymous, it says that we are without
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defense against the first drink.
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And I found that to be true in my life. And I was told, you know,
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from another guy, he was like, you know, look at all the times that you chose
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to drink and you didn't end up where you wanted to be.
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How many times did that happen?
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Because I think most people, you know, when they go out to have a couple of
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drinks, they go out to have a couple of drinks.
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But for some reason, when I go out to have a couple of drinks,
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I'll tell you this, when I started drinking after a stint of being sober for a good bit of time,
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when I first started drinking, I would try to be a good boy and behave like a good boy.
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And, you know, so in the beginning, you know, then like after a couple weeks,
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three or four weeks of letting everybody kind of cool down about Corey's back
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drinking again, I was back to the races, back to doing, because alcohol does
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what I want it to do and it works.
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And I like how this book tells me liquor's but a symptom, because the real problem
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was me, because that's who I'm running from.
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On the other page, you know, well, on this same, on page 92,
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it says, continue to speak about causes and illness, a fatal malady.
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It is. It's life and death for me. And maybe it's not for you, but it is for me.
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It says, talk about the condition of the body and mind. And we just went over that.
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And then it goes on to say, explain that many are doomed who never realize their predicament.
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And, you know, that's another thing. You know, I wish, you know,
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I mean, I remember I was sitting in a treatment center and I was talking to these guys.
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And, you know, these guys had never heard of treatment centers,
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but they've been in and out of jails their whole life.
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And I was thinking, man, that's crazy because, you know, that was the first
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place I always went because I just told him I needed help.
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And I remember my friend, he works in one. And I remember him saying something
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to the effect. He was like, you know, if you're a real gangster, you got to get your time.
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But y'all come in here.
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And I thought it was funny. But anyways, then it talks about all this,
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you know, religious thing. And I think it's, you know, an interesting thing
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when I'm taking a dude through the book.
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Because it's usually one or the other. Or it's sometimes in the middle.
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But, you know, very big agnostic or very heavily in religion. Or in the middle.
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But it doesn't matter. But sometimes it's easier when, you know,
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they aren't very religious because all this is kind of new.
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And it says on page 93, it says, your prospect may belong to a religious denomination.
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His religious education and training may be far superior to yours.
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And I find that to be true with a lot of people I know.
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My religious education is not that high. Thankful to Pastor Mike and some dudes
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around me. You know, they've pushed literature of the Bible and these things
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my way. I'm starting to, you know,
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I've started to absorb a lot of that, and I'm really enjoying it.
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But, you know, I'm not, you know, I haven't read the whole Bible and, you know, but anyways.
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He goes on to say, In that case, he is going to wonder how you can add anything
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to what he already knows.
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That says, But he will be curious to learn why his own convictions have not
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worked and why yours seem to work so well.
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He may be an example of the truth.
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That faith alone is insufficient. And, you know, that's probably the case with
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a lot of people, right? You know, I have a good friend of mine,
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you know, he talks about how he got two DUIs and got locked up in prison.
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You know, as he, you know, in this small church group was sending in,
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you know, things in the mail.
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And it's, you know, how does, so like for me, you know, for an alcoholic and,
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you know, there's nothing against the church, but there's one thing that separates
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me from just going to church and that being this, maybe that could be the saving grace for someone.
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And that's great, but it's the one thing, it's the thing that I have a common
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problem, and that common problem is I'm alcoholic, alcoholic.
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And the only thing I've ever found is through this literature,
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and if you have another way, I think that's great.
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Then it goes on to say, to be vital, and that's life and death.
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Faith must be accompanied by self-sacrifice and unselfish constructive action.
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So that's what we're doing here, right? Like, we're not, I'm not doing this
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for me. I'm not doing this because, like, it sounds cool.
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Tell you what, I would not, I don't like reading all the time.
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I mean, I do like reading quite a bit. But, you know, doing this is,
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like, what gets me out of me.
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This is what keeps me sober. It tells me immunity.
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And, man, the joy I get out of it today, too, is, you know, indescribable.
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And then it says, let him see that you are not there to instruct him in religion.
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I'm not there to instruct anybody on that. My book specifically tells me that
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I don't know how many ways.
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It's not about what I believe in. It's about you finding your own relationship
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with God or a higher power.
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And the group, you know, the traditions are supposed to protect that as well.
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And maybe sometimes I think some of these groups and meetings kind of fall short on them.
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Admit that he probably knows more about it than you do, but call to his attention
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the fact that however deep his
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faith and knowledge, he could not have applied it or he would not drink.
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Then it tells me some things on the next page, and it says outline the program of action,
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explaining how you made a self, and it's pretty much going through the steps
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right here, and down below it says maybe you disturbed him about the question
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of alcoholism if he doesn't want to do this program of action, right?
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And that's a weird thing because on page 25 of the big book.
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And I kind of felt this when I was out there doing this thing because I knew
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I was an alcoholic. I conceded to it. I've even had got some freedoms at this program.
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And God, you know, have given me, right? And it's kind of a weird way to put
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it, but whatever. But, you know, I felt this presence of God,
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and I felt what, you know, helping you felt like.
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And that was amazing. So on page 25, it says, if you're as seriously alcoholic
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as we were, we believe there's no middle-of-the-road solution.
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And also in how it works, it says, half measures availed us nothing.
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And I think nothing means nothing. so half measures equal nothing.
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We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed
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into the region from which there is no return through human aid, and human aid's like.
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I would imagine anything human like kids, like wives, like jobs,
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like meetings, like people, like anything human.
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Mine was institutions, right? You know, judges, lawyers.
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None of that stuff. Stop. And then it says we had but two alternatives.
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One was to go into the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable
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situation. What's my intolerable situation?
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That I can't stop drinking when I start.
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That after a period of time, I keep drinking after hurting these people and
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doing this, but I'm blotting it out as I'm going along, right?
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Because I don't really think about it. And I drink past that.
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Now, if you're ever in that position, man, I'll tell you, you can drink past that.
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Says bonding out the intolerable situation as best we could and the other and
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the other is to accept spiritual help so give you an option at least.
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He goes on to say, on your first visit, tell him about the Fellowship of Alcoholics
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Anonymous. If he shows interest, let him your copy of this book.
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Well, I don't know. I got quite a few books, and I got books that aren't scribbled
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in like a kid's coloring book, too.
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And I tend to just get him another, get him a book. And, you know,
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it tells me some things like, you know, never talk down to an alcohol from a
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moral, spiritual hilltop.
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And I maybe I don't know I try not to and I don't really some days man I'm I
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don't know how where I'm coming from but I know that like,
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the more and more I sit with new people the more and more I sit with myself
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the more and more I just get more I don't know you know I guess ingrained on
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my first step decision and it keeps getting deeper for me.
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I hear a lot of times in a lot of these meetings and, you know,
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it's like people saying like, well, you know, you come in here even though you
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don't get sober, you know, helps me.
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And I was, you know, that's crazy though. When you really think about that,
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people like gaining off someone else's demise.
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And I don't really agree with that. I think, you know, me going through this
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word, you know, because I don't just not go through this stuff during periods
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of time. And when I go through this book, it kind of takes me there.
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I don't need jeer failures to bring me up in life and make me feel better.
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But it tells me to lend this copy of this book, and I, you know,
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maybe I give them this book, I don't know.
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But it says, never talk down to an alcoholic from a moral spiritual high top.
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Simply lay out the kit of spiritual tools for his inspection.
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Show him how they worked with you.
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Offer him friendship and fellowship and tell him that if he wants to get well,
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you'll do anything to help, and that is true. Oh.
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It tells me what to do, like not to be his banker. I have in little writing,
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carry the message, not the alcoholic.
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Now, I like how it put in this page on 95, if he has to find God,
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the desire must come from within.
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The one thing that's important to me is that nobody can ever take the experience
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of what it felt like when I came into the rooms of those recovery beings, right?
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Nobody can take that because I wouldn't want anybody to take that.
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It was the worst I mean but so
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everybody's you know everybody's experience is different so on page 96 I.
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It says, we find a waste of time to keep chasing a man who cannot or will not,
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work with you. And I think that's important, the canots and the will nots.
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And it talks about that and how it works.
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It says, rarely have we seen a person fail who cannot or will not completely
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give themselves this simple program.
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The thing is, when I'm coming in, and I like to, my sponsor says this a lot,
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he's like, you know, nobody came into these rooms by scratching off the lottery.
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And, you know, I did, but, you know, I guess I did, you know,
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somehow or the other, you know, from complete helplessness to come to a place
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today, you know, of complete joy and happiness.
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I have family today, right? Like, you know, I have a purpose today,
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you know, so I think that's an interesting thing because like,
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you know, from nobody can take that away, right?
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From helpless to full of this is, you know, completely two different things and it's amazing.
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So then it goes on to say, suppose now you're making your second visit.
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So all of that was in the first visit.
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And there's so much more information. I'm just kind of skimming through this
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because I think it's very important.
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And it is because it has a whole chapter on it, right?
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All the other steps are broken into this chapter, this chapter,
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besides the first one, but it's kind of giving you an overview of what we're doing anyways.
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But this is working with others. There's a whole chapter on it, page 89-103.
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So it says, suppose you're now making your second visit to a man. He has read this volume.
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So, because I gave him a book, I tell him to read the book.
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I'm going to tell you, 164 pages is not that much reading.
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And I could all care to argue that, you know, just preface to 103,
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but the book says read the book. So I would suggest reading the book because
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nobody's going to look at this book and analyze every other line like I do anyways.
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Just going to read it as a flimsy read. And that's okay, because that's all
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we're just trying to do. We're just doing what it says, and for some reason,
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if you do what it says, I can stay out of the results.
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Because if I go my own way and tell him, do this and do this,
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then I have some sense of ownership.
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But this program has worked for millions of others.
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Millions. So if I just stick to the lines and the words, I don't have as much
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of a chance of messing anything up.
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And on page 84, it says, we grow in understanding and effectiveness.
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And I find myself growing in understanding and effectiveness of this work.
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Says he's read this volume and says he is prepared to go through with the 12
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steps of the program of Covery.
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Having had the experience yourself, you can give him much of practical advice.
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Let him know if you are available if he wishes to make a decision.
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Make a decision, I would imagine, is the third step decision, right?
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So on the third step on page 64, it says, though this step, this decision was
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a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent effect.
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Do I want it to be permanent and less at once? So that's quickly at once,
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followed by strenuous after the face to be rid of the things in ourselves,
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which have been blocking us.
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That's the personal house cleaning. And so I've said this one here before,
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but I really like the way this is connected because this decision,
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I made a lot of decisions not to cheat on this girl, not to lie,
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not to be late for work, not to put my hands on women, not to do count, drink, and drive,
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not to wake up late.
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So these are just decisions. But a decision without action, you know,
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I always just described it with...
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Chicken and the pig, right? So the chicken and the pig are walking down the road.
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And the chicken sees a sign that says, help feed the poor. He says,
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we should help them to the pig. And the pig says, how are we going to do that?
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The chicken says, we'll feed it eggs and ham.
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And the pig looks back over at the chicken and said, well, that's just a decision
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for you, but that's a commitment for me.
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And I find through this work and more and more four through nine is the commitment.
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And the more I'm committed into this thing, the more and more I'm touching,
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I'm touching. I feel the presence of this, my higher power.
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I'm connected and I'm in this thing today. But there's no, and that's an interesting
25:04
thing because everybody, I hear people talking about all the time,
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like just surrender. Like, what does that look like?
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Because when I'm swinging off
25:11
a rope and I just surrender, I want to know what I'm jumping down into.
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And so when I go through this personal house cleaning on the four through nine,
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you know, that's what the work is.
25:23
Then it says to tell his story. So tell his story. That's the fifth step.
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But do not insist upon if he prefers to consult someone else.
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And I think that's great because there's a lot of dudes in these programs and
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there's a lot of people to help.
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You know, there's a lot of people with a lot more than I have to offer.
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What I have to offer is going to the big book.
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I don't know what other people have to offer, but some people want something different than that.
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And, you know, I think that's great. Some people just want someone to talk to
25:53
you, but I know how to go through this book in a way. And I mean,
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I think that's pretty simple. You just got to read from left to right and go from page to page.
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And so that gives me the first and second thing I'm doing with this dude.
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On page 98, it says, it's not a matter of giving, that is in the question, but when and how to give.
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That often makes the difference between failure and success. And.
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People like me, failure and success to me means life and death.
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Or, I mean, I don't even like to think the word death because,
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you know, it might not be that quick for me.
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Right it could be a it could be something on the lines of you know being on
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the side of the road collecting twenty dollars well i need i probably need to
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do it correctly i probably need thirty dollars a day because cigarettes have
26:48
gone up a little bit but i need a handle,
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or more a day because that's when i got done drinking you know that's i was
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a little bit over a handle and i'm gonna need some cigarettes to smoke too,
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i remember i was at this doing some uh wiring on this bridge one day and this
27:05
dude was on the corner and you know because i can understand this dude today and he's
27:10
i asked him how much money he got today and he said enough for a handle and
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enough for a pack of cigarettes or something to put something on my belly,
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and i get that and that's not death and in a physical form and that's not in
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a prison and a place where i get to eat three meals a day and be around people
27:28
that's a lonely place and,
27:31
So it goes on to say.
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The minute we put our work on a service plane, the alcohol commences to rely
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upon our assistance rather than upon God.
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I think my sponsor does a really great job at this, and I don't really tell
27:47
him that much, but he never directs me to him. I mean, my sponsor's really cocky,
27:52
though, but he never directs me to him.
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He directs me to literature, either in this or the Bible or something.
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And we talk about prayer, but he never directs me to human.
28:08
He directs me to God. He never directs me to me.
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I mean, sometimes he'll say, well, Corey, you know, he makes me take,
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you know, I would say, I don't get to have excuses to be a bad person, people.
28:24
And then he goes on to say, we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place,
28:28
dependence upon other people ahead of the dependence on God,
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burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone.
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And I think that means anyone. That means husband, wife, brother,
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sister, job, no job, whatever the case is.
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The only condition, and I have only circled and underlined, the only condition
28:55
is that he trusts in God and clean house. um.
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On through this book, it tells me time and time again, you know,
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it tells me I can give them a little bit of, which I can, right?
29:08
You know, on the next page, on the next page is a big promise though.
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It says, both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.
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We're on page 100, by the way, I'm just skipping around, but if you're still
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with me, man, on here, that's great. If you're not, I understand too.
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Both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.
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If you persist, remarkable things will happen. That's true.
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When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves
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in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned.
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Follow the dictates of a higher power, and you will presently live in a new
29:47
and wonderful world no matter what your present circumstances.
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And I come to that, and I can agree with that today today in my life,
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you know, if you were to tell me where I would be today in my life today,
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what that would look like.
30:06
Me and my significant other, we were talking about some things going on,
30:09
and I told her, I said, you know, we've been through so much,
30:14
you know, and she was saying, you know, does it get any better?
30:18
Become great and I said yeah it always gets better but the problems become different
30:22
and better too right so the problems become different and we still have problems,
30:28
you know it tells me some things in here it tells me where I can go if I'm to be of service but,
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I like kind of going back a little bit it says on 97 it says it's talking about
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helping others it says never avoid these responsibilities but be sure you are
30:46
doing the right thing if you assume them,
30:49
helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery not just mine right,
30:55
a kindly act once in a while isn't enough,
30:58
you have to act a good samaritan every day if need be it main and like so,
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every day and then it goes on to tell me uh every little thing that i could
31:10
run into like counseling frantic-wise.
31:14
Telephone may jangle at times of the day or night.
31:18
Your wife may say sometimes she is neglected. My significant other has definitely said that.
31:24
You may have a fight with him if he is violent, and so on, right?
31:29
Then it says occasionally you will have to meet such conditions.
31:33
I've moved dudes in, tried to doze them off of it.
31:38
I've tried all sorts of things. But the one thing that I've found to be true is this literature.
31:45
Since for the type of out, like, and, you know, I remember I had this guy I
31:49
sponsored a long time ago and he, uh, he ran off,
31:54
I gave him some money and, you know, cause I thought we were doing the thing
31:58
and, you know, he had a good story and I, I used to have good stories. Yeah.
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He came over and borrowed like $250 and, you know, this guy disappeared.
32:09
And I called my sponsor at the time, Doug, and I said, hey, man,
32:12
you know, what do I do about this?
32:15
Now I'm mad at this guy. And he said, well, you know, next time,
32:18
Corey, just tell him that all your AA money is gone.
32:23
And when you get some back, that's when you can start lending money out again.
32:26
And, you know, so that's been true. I mean, I've helped guys out.
32:31
But I think, you know, when I read and see what this literature tells me,
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on page 102, it says your job now is to be at a place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others.
32:46
So that tells me that's my job.
32:49
So then it tells me, so never hesitate to go anywhere. And it says anywhere.
32:53
I think that means anywhere. if you can be helpful.
32:55
You should not hesitate to visit the most sordid spot on earth or such an area,
33:00
keeping on the firing line of life with these motives and God will help you keep you unharmed.
33:08
You know, the dudes that came before me, and I have a lot of respect for them,
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and I have a lot of love for them, and, you know, I'm grateful.
33:18
So it's so cool because, like, my sponsor was sponsored from my old sponsor.
33:25
And now today, which is cool about that is he's passed away now,
33:30
but then his son, you know, I'm really good friends with his son.
33:34
And his son's flying, not flying, he's driving in, out of town to come speak
33:39
at me and some other people's sobriety birthdays this weekend coming up.
33:44
And that's really cool, because for someone to do that, something for me, it means a ton.
33:50
And I know it's not just for me, I know he's doing that to be of service,
33:54
to do this. But I'm really grateful for things like that, and the people that
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are in my life today, these lifelong friends.
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It says right here on page 103 I figure we can just make try to hit all the pages in some way.
34:08
It says, we are careful never to show intolerance or hatred of drinking as an institution.
34:15
You know, because drinking really, you know, alcohol wasn't the problem I was.
34:19
Other people can drink. Most people can drink successfully.
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Oh, most people do not have to go through the things I do to even know that there's a problem.
34:31
My mother, you know, if she had done 10 of the worst things I've ever done in
34:35
my life, She would never take a sip of alcohol and never think about it.
34:39
I had to do other means by that, but, you know, I don't think about it today.
34:44
And I'm really grateful for the God and everybody around me.
34:47
And it says, after all our problems were of our own making, bottles were only a symptom, symbol.
34:53
Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We have to.
34:59
But if you stayed with me this far, that's really cool. Really grateful.
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I'm in it with a prayer. Father God, turn my focus outward today.
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Through your Holy Spirit, help me see the needs around me and respond with love and service.
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Shape my life through the example
35:15
of Jesus and lead me into peace and purpose. Amen. Thank you again.