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May 24 - Joy Is God's Desire · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Welcome back to the Daily Ripples podcast.
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  Today is May the 24th, and it says, Joy is God's Desire, is the title of our Daily Ripple
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  for today.
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  And Corey, get ready, because I'm going to let you know right now that after I read this
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  Ripple, I'm going to ask you a question.
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  And that question is, how is it with your soul?
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  And so be thinking about your answer to that as I read this.
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  So just to give you fair warning.
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  And for those listening today, we are back with Corey and I have my wife Cristi with us.
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  So we've got a three-person episode, but we'll jump right in with the Daily Ripple, the stone.
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  Misery is often self-made.
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  When I cling to old patterns, pride, or control, I create the very weight I carry.
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  God's desire is not to burden me, but to lead me into life.
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  Ripple One is practical.
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  Today, I will examine where I'm holding on to habits or thoughts that create unnecessary struggle.
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  I'll release what I can and choose a healthier response.
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  When difficulty comes, I will look for what it can teach rather than resisting it.
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  Ripple Two is spiritual.
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  Jesus said He came that we might have life abundantly.
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  As I trust the Father and walk in the way of Christ, the Holy Spirit reshapes my outlook.
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  Joy is not found in perfect circumstances, but in surrender.
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  Over time, I learn to receive life as a gift rather than fight against it.
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  And we'll save our prayer for the end.
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  But, Corey, we were just talking about early in the Methodist tradition, when they would
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  meet in small groups, they would ask each other, how is it with your soul?
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  And so what do you think of when I ask you that question, Corey?
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  Well, when he asked me that, I was thinking about it because I was just talking to somebody
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  on the phone about this and, you know, freedom.
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  Or is my soul being brought down?
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  I've talked about this before, and I was thinking about this.
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  There was this place where I was in, this bad place,
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  and I had to get over this thing that God was going to take care of me going through that.
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  But then there was this other hump of the road that I had to be okay God taking care of my family
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  if that was going to be my plan.
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  The plan was prison.
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  But, you know, what I'm getting at is like, you know, I can be, I think that's a hump, right?
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  It's my soul is okay with where I'm at.
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  And then I have to get this other place is like, hey, you know, God, maybe this is just something I got going on too.
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  But God, you know, I want God, you know, I got to trust in God to be able to take care of everybody else just like God takes care of me.
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  And so, but when both of those are completely in the open and I'm like, you know, in this
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  full spiritual Corey, my soul's good.
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  But in the mix of that sometimes, I find like it's, you know, I can be held back a little
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  bit, if that makes sense.
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  Yeah.
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  But how is your soul today in this moment as opposed to, yeah, are you in the place of
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  joy that we're talking about with the Daily Ripple or are you trying to get there?
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  No, I'm in the joy right now.
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  That's awesome.
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  Well, we're always in a place of joy when we get to gather together and talk.
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  I mean, you know, as you know, Cristi, Corey and I both like to talk quite a bit.
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  Had no idea.
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  Oh, what a revelation.
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  It took three minutes just to get to an answer.
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  Well, you know, that happens.
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  I'm just as guilty of that, too, Corey.
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  Yeah, absolutely.
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  Well, let's see how she does.
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  How is it with your soul today?
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  It is well with my soul.
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  Well, see, you can't just quote a hymn and expect that.
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  But, you know, as Corey was talking and he was talking about family, I think about, you know, I have two young black male sons.
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  And so what the world is today, it's easy for me to sit and worry about them.
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  But every night when I lay my head to pillow, I say a prayer for them.
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  And I truly let it go.
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  Because there is nothing I can do.
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  There is nothing I can say.
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  I have done my part as their mother.
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  The rest is in God's hands.
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  So it truly is well with my soul.
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  We talk about, you know, success not being an outward thing, but even those tangible things,
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  I'm good.
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  And inside, my mental health has not always been the best, but I am in a great place mentally
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  now.
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  So again, it is well with my soul.
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  And I haven't always been able to say that.
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  So the fact that I can say that now, that's a good feeling.
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  Yeah, and I say amen because both of us have struggled over these past nine years that we've
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  been together with mental health ups and downs.
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  And as we were talking about yesterday, having each other there with us through that has definitely
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  been a help.
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  You know, this, where it says that, you know, in the first line of the spiritual ripple that
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  Jesus said he came that we might have life abundantly.
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  That obviously comes from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 10.
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  But whenever you think about that, either, Corey, I'll turn it back over to you,
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  but does your daily experience, like, is that joy kind of your baseline,
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  or does it feel like sometimes you're surviving more than thriving in terms of abundant life and joy?
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  You know, I don't really survive.
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  you know, I have different situations, right? And, you know, right now, I got a situation that,
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  you know, as a family, you know, we're going through. But, you know, it doesn't feel like
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  surviving through it either. You know, that's the weird thing. You know, today, like, we talked a
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  little bit about this, but, you know, I don't have problems. I have situations. Situations come up,
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  And, you know, so I don't really feel like I'm the surviving.
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  And, you know, it's really quick for me to say,
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  thy will be done or a little small prayer,
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  and I'm back in line, right?
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  I can get, and up here where it says,
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  misery is often self-made.
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  And I think, but so when I read that,
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  I think, you know, well, our book,
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  Alcoholics Anonymous says,
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  selfish and self-centeredness,
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  that's the root of my troubles.
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  driven by a hundred forms of fear and self-pity and self-delusion. And sometimes I'll get into that,
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  right? I'll go, you know, woe is me, you know, start thinking about these different things.
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  And then I come back to center. But I think overall, like when I do cling to that too far,
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  I'm scared to go too far today. I don't know about you guys, but like I've been too far before.
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  And I know what that feeling feels like of just tension and stress.
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  And, you know, I'm grateful today that God's given me a different, you know, plate.
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  I'm at a different place today than that.
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  So I don't try to get too far off the bean because if I do, I'll feel like a chicken with its head cut off.
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  Right.
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  And I think it's also important that one thing that I've learned, and again, through the recovery rooms has taught me this a lot, is that if I do find myself going too far, as you mentioned, too far down the misery and the fear spiral, I know how to get out of it, too.
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  You know, you mentioned it, number one, is that, you know, say a quick prayer.
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  And for me, that's usually the serenity prayer.
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  You know, I talk about that all the time.
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  But then the other is to get out and be of service and do something for somebody else.
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  Because I can always find somebody that's having a harder time than I am, you know, that I can be of service to.
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  And if nothing else, I just have to go to a meeting and find somebody that's new.
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  Because new people in recovery are always in that kind of struggle mindset until they get a little bit of, you know, the program and a few days behind them.
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  I saw in our one thing, in the practical, since you brought up the serenity prayer.
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  Yeah.
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  It says, I will release what I can and choose a healthier response.
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  When I read that, I immediately thought about the serenity prayer where it says,
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  have the courage to accept the things I cannot change and the wisdom to know the difference.
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  Is that part of it?
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  The serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things that I can,
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  and the wisdom to know the difference.
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  She had all the words in there.
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  She knows what it means, Michael.
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  She knows what it means, I know.
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  Well, I would not have said that if she didn't ask, was it right?
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  Because I know better than to correct her without an invitation.
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  But yeah, that really spoke to me when it said I was going to release what I can, because that is part of having joy.
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  even if you find yourself stuck in a situation or in your mind in something,
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  trying to resolve yourself, realizing that you can't control everything, everyone,
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  and being able and finding a way to release it.
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  And sometimes that is encouraging yourself, having self-talks,
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  you know, and just trying to get yourself out of the rut.
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  And yes, Jesus came that we might have abundant life,
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  But he didn't say that it would always be a sunny day.
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  We need to have some rainy days so we can appreciate the sunshine.
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  Because they also said weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning.
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  Now, when is morning?
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  That may come after a couple days or so.
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  But morning will come.
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  The sun will shine again.
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  on page 133 of the big book.
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  And, you know, man, when I was,
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  when I've really gone through some different things,
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  I take that third step prayer and it talks about,
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  now that's not what the page of the third step prayer is on,
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  but it's, you know, so I can bear witness of those I could help.
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  And on page 133, it says,
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  but it is clear that we,
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  but it is clear that we made our own misery.
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  God didn't do it.
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  Avoid then the deliberate manufacture of misery, but if trouble comes, cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate his omnipotence.
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  And so, and I think, you know, with the service end of it, right?
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  So, when I'm going through something, if I can put myself in a demonstration of, hey, maybe I can be of service to another person when I go through this.
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  And, you know, we talk about that, and you probably heard, I don't really talk about the things that I got going on usually when they're going on.
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  Right.
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  And because I would rather be a demonstration after the fact.
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  And that's not coming from me.
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  That's like, you know, I saw my sponsor doing that, and I saw that's the way he lived.
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  And, you know, that was a demonstration to me of how I should probably live, too.
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  And when it back up to where misery is often self-made, man, we were getting into it one night, me and my significant other.
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  And, you know, I was going to go have to sleep in the Lowe's parking lot.
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  At least you didn't have to travel too far.
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  Well, I mean, I didn't have to go there, but that was my plan of action.
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  Right.
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  And, you know, I remember calling him.
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  And there were some things that were said that were very big to me at that time.
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  And I remember calling him, and I told him, I was like, you're not going to believe what she said.
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  And I said, she's kicking me out.
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  Or no, she wasn't kicking me out.
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  He said, you better leave.
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  That was more of the...
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  Yeah, yeah.
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  And sometimes that is the right call.
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  Yeah.
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  Right.
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  And then he made sure to tell me after I got in my car, he said, did you get your books for your morning meditation in the morning?
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  And so then I had to go back inside and go get my books.
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  But, you know, after we had talked about what had happened, and it was serious stuff at that time, what was being said, the next day I called him.
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  And I said, hey, he said, we already talked about this because I wanted to talk about it some more.
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  I want to dwell on that, right?
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  Because I like the feeling and I don't like the feeling, but it's a different feeling that I'm feeling right now.
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  And I want you to agree with me.
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  I want you to say, yeah, whatever.
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  Like, you know, and but if I, so I think, you know, when my misery is often self-made, I keep going through that cycle and cycles.
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  I don't know, but that's what I was kind of...
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  You want that misery to be validated.
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  Right.
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  And then I worked up with it.
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  But our book, Michael says, you know, for the dubious luxury, you're talking about anger, right?
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  For normal...
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  Right, right.
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  ...anger.
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  I can't live in that.
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  And probably for other people as well.
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  I think that's kind of single-sided just to out call it.
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  I think other normal people don't want to live in that either.
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  Right, yeah. If you're in the middle of some form of misery or suffering or what have you, then it's easy to start to imagine or dream about being basically anybody other than myself, you know, because I don't want to be in the middle of what I'm going through.
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  And, you know, one of the things that you mentioned ahead on was about you not talking about things in the middle of while you're going through it, but then talking about it, you know, after the fact.
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  And that's also very similar to what, you know, Cristi and I were just talking about in yesterday's episode as well.
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  Whenever I went through the job loss thing with the city of Lakeland, you know, at the time, I'd go to meetings.
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  But if I was really struggling, I would just say, you know, glad to be here.
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  I wouldn't really talk, you know, or share or anything.
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  But then after the fact, you know, there are people that have made comments as recently as today that, you know, were saying, yeah, you seemed like you handled all of that really well.
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  And that means, great, I did my job of not, you know, not focusing on the misery and focusing on the blessings and the things that I had even during all that time.
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  Pushing forward.
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  Yeah, keep moving forward, you know, one day at a time, as we say in the program.
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  Having those self-talks and knowing that life is bigger than this and can get better than this moment.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  And talking about mental health and mental health struggles, one good thing with, you know,
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  Cristi and I, at least, is that we don't usually have the same mental health struggles at the same time.
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  So there's always one of us to hold the other one up, you know.
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  We balance each other.
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  Yeah.
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  It's your turn.
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  Well, Corey, you have anything else on this daily ripple today?
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  No, I don't think so.
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  Well, I know I definitely appreciate, Cristi, you being here with us again today.
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  Do you have any closing or final thoughts before we close out with the prayer?
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  The only thing I want to say is joy comes from the inside out, not the outside in.
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  Absolutely.
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  So it starts on the inside.
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  It's like the song says, I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy.
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  Down in my heart.
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  Where?
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  Down in my heart.
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  That's a church song for kids, Corey.
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  Yes.
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  And on that lovely note, we will close today with our prayer for today.
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  Our prayer.
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  Father, lead me into the life You desire for me.
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  Through Your Spirit, free me from self-made burdens and teach me to walk in the joy and freedom found in Your Son.
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  Amen.
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  Amen.
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  Amen.