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August 24 – Trusting What I Cannot Explain · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Well, welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:08
  Today's Monday, August the 24th.
• 0:10
  I'm Pastor Mike.
• 0:11
  We have with us Corey.
• 0:12
  You want to say hi, Corey?
• 0:13
  Hi guys.
• 0:14
  And we also have with us as a guest for this week, and she will be here all week.
• 0:19
  That's right, I says she, and it is not my wife, Cristi, this time.
• 0:22
  It is Steffani.
• 0:24
  You want to say a word?
• 0:24
  Hey everybody, this is Steffani.
• 0:26
  And we're going to throw Steffani right into the fire and we have her read our Daily Ripples devotional for the day and kick us off.
• 0:34
  So take it away.
• 0:35
  Today, August 24th, trusting what I cannot explain.
• 0:38
  The stone.
• 0:39
  Faith does not require me to understand everything.
• 0:42
  It requires me to trust the one who does.
• 0:45
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:47
  Today, I will resist the urge to explain every circumstance or answer every question.
• 0:52
  So the most important changes in life cannot be fully understood.
• 0:56
  I can focus on the results and continue taking the next faithful step.
• 1:01
  Ripple two spiritual.
• 1:03
  As I trust beyond my own understanding, the Holy Spirit guides me forward, revealing what I need to know when I need to know it.
• 1:11
  The Father is at work even when I cannot see the whole picture, and Jesus teaches me to keep walking anyway.
• 1:18
  Prayer.
• 1:20
  We skipped that for the end, okay?
• 1:22
  We do say the prayer for the, that's right.
• 1:25
  You remember it.
• 1:26
  Good jobs.
• 1:27
  Fantastic.
• 1:28
  So when I read this, um, There was a time in my life, I had to justify things.
• 1:36
  I had to rationalize them.
• 1:37
  Um, maybe it was uh, making excuses for people at home, making excuses for people that um, were friends with that I called friends.
• 1:47
  Um, overexplaining.
• 1:50
  Oversharing at times, um, during drinking, it was part of my downfall.
• 2:00
  You know, because when you drink,
• 2:02
  Your lips are... Loose.
• 2:06
  They certainly are.
• 2:07
  Yeah. and um, say some things you would never say if you were not drinking.
• 2:13
  Right.
• 2:14
  That's exactly right.
• 2:15
  So, you know, at some point I had, I realized that I needed to surrender. And I needed, as a part of this program, a conscious contact with a god of my own understanding. Um, what does that look like to me?
• 2:29
  Do that look like something I grew up with?
• 2:31
  Maybe.
• 2:32
  Um, I was introduced to the Baptist religion, Nazarene religion and Catholicism.
• 2:38
  So, um, I also had a friend who uh, was a practicing Buddhist.
• 2:43
  So for me, religion, um,
• 2:48
  was a way to step into that conscious contact with God.
• 2:52
  to create my own understanding of what that looked like.
• 2:55
  Um, And that has been the sole rock for me is leaning on that understanding, coupling it with a good AA program.
• 3:08
  Trust in God that's going to carry me through all of that.
• 3:12
  And like I heard on a podcast previous that you guys did, um, you know, is this God is everything or God is nothing?
• 3:21
  So, you know, brought that up recently.
• 3:25
  Right. That's exactly right.
• 3:26
  I think it was actually today's daily ripple.
• 3:29
  And that really resonates with me.
• 3:31
  You know, divine intervention.
• 3:34
  Um,
• 3:36
  And the other thing is, is once I make that conscious contact with God of my understanding, I get to practice this in my daily living.
• 3:46
  Um,
• 3:47
  You know, it's not just an alcoholics anonymous.
• 3:51
  It's not just coming to a meeting, but it's it's having conversations with a work partner.
• 3:57
  Um, because God is on my mind.
• 4:00
  Godly things come out.
• 4:03
  Yeah, when you make God everything.
• 4:05
  So, you know, the more I practice this program, I don't want to say the more godly I get, but the more god conscious I get.
• 4:16
  That's a good way to put it.
• 4:17
  Yes.
• 4:18
  I like that.
• 4:21
  Well, I, you know, I was thinking when I was looking at this again for, you know, today that the stone especially hearkens back, you know, to the proverbs three, you know, especially verses 5 and 6.
• 4:35
  And that's where it says, trust in the Lord, with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
• 4:43
  And, you know, that's versus scripture that I think a lot of people know, and it sounds familiar to all of us, but knowing it and doing it are 2 different things.
• 4:52
  You kind of, you kind of touched a little bit on your opening shared there, uh, Steffani, that, um, And it was just in my, my own noon meeting today that I went to.
• 5:02
  It was brought up about seeing the difference between people who knew, who know all the words and can say all the right things, you know, and sometimes you do get that from religion or exposure to religions and things like that, but the difference comes in, whenever you see people who not only can talk it, but who are also walking the walk as well.
• 5:20
  And I mean, that's one of the reasons why, you know, I personally enjoy and appreciate, you know, doing like this project with the podcast, especially with my buddy Corey, that I do it with so often, because man, this man, I'm sure he's probably got about 5 page references in the hopper right now, just waiting to unleash them.
• 5:40
  But the thing is, why I wanted to kind of, kind of hype you up that way is that whenever someone, especially in a recovery meeting, talks about, you know, talking and walking, going hand in hand, I always think of Corey, just because of just what I know of you, you know, and just, and it just fills me with the gratitude and appreciation that I have you along on this journey with us as well.
• 6:01
  So with all that being said, now that you're fully embarrassed, Corey, what thoughts do you have?
• 6:07
  Well, man, yeah, yeah.
• 6:10
  You know, you hear people talk and, you know, you, uh, free, you know, I can hear people and you can hear the way that people talk and I think Joe and Charlie, they're, I mean, I don't even, I've never even listened to Joe and Charlie tapes.
• 6:24
  I don't like their voices.
• 6:25
  Sound like a preacher.
• 6:26
  No offense.
• 6:27
  Oh, but my grandfather, right?
• 6:30
  My grandfather's a Baptist preacher.
• 6:32
  I, you know, anyways, but they talk about, uh, AA comes,
• 6:37
  AA comes to life and, you know, and you can hear people that just, you know, understand words and then you can under the people that understand the literature and the way it's worked through their life, you know, because like, I, you know, and it's kind of, I can't remember how, I kind of think about, you know, into the 4th dimension, right?
• 6:56
  So like it talks about that and, you know, this book and this literature and you know, all the literatures, you have become more of a, instead of a three-dimensional object to me.
• 7:04
  a 4 dimensional object to me because it's working through my life.
• 7:08
  And I can see it and I understand it.
• 7:10
  You know, I was talking to my significant other today and she was telling me about this girl and she was like, man, like, you know, she's kind of, she's been drinking again, but she's not doing this.
• 7:20
  And I was like, you know what, you know, it's kind of crazy because it's kind of like, you know, when I put the, uh, when the, with the example of putting the milk with whiskey with the milk, right?
• 7:29
  It's the most craziest sounding thing in the world.
• 7:32
  Because then I, like I was, after I made that reference, I was talking to somebody.
• 7:37
  I was like, man, do you even think whiskey and milk tastes good together?
• 7:40
  And, um, that has nothing to do with this whatever we're talking about at all.
• 7:47
  And like, I mean, it probably doesn't.
• 7:49
  But where I was thinking about on the, uh, on the riding is, uh, It's like trust, I trust beyond my understanding.
• 8:01
  The Holy Spirit guides me forward and that's in the spiritual one.
• 8:04
  But man, I had to have proof.
• 8:06
  And, you know, I think in the 12 and 12 on page 33, it says true humility and open mind can lead us to faith.
• 8:14
  And every A meeting is an assurance that God will restore to sanity if we rightly relate ourselves to him.
• 8:21
  And you were kind of talking about that a little bit before this of like, you know, relating ourselves to him and how I relate myself in the room, common problem, common solution, right?
• 8:31
  Because like I hear these people that talk about when they drink too much, they want more.
• 8:35
  And after something of messing up relationship, job, this, through this.
• 8:39
  They continue to drink for some reason.
• 8:41
  That was me.
• 8:42
  And that's where I relate common problem.
• 8:44
  I was also in a meeting the other day that was this kind of generic open to anybody.
• 8:50
  And this dude, you know, sounded like he had some troubles in his life.
• 8:54
  And, um, He identified as an addict.
• 8:59
  I just wanted, like, you know, after the meeting, I went up to him and I said, hey man, what does your mornings look like?
• 9:04
  Because that's the that's the biggest thing, right?
• 9:07
  What does your mornings look like?
• 9:09
  He's like, 0 man, you know, I go take my dog for a walk.
• 9:12
  I was like, cool.
• 9:14
  What, what do you do before that?
• 9:15
  He's like, I wake up.
• 9:17
  I said, that's it.
• 9:19
  Anyways, and um, we definitely didn't have a common problem, though.
• 9:24
  And it was a very interesting problem.
• 9:26
  We talked about that.
• 9:27
  Anyways, so like, That common problem was a big thing, though.
• 9:32
  And it's, it's bigger than I can like, you know, explain when I come around people, that unity, that unity of feeling like I'm in, it's the right place because when I'm not, I can feel that.
• 9:44
  I felt that my whole life beforehand before I took the drink of alcohol, right?
• 9:48
  Because the drink of alcohol made me feel one.
• 9:51
  And then you put me around with people that are not like me.
• 9:54
  I don't feel I won, but that unity was so important for me to feel a part of.
• 9:58
  And then to see it working, right?
• 10:00
  Because I had to see something.
• 10:01
  I needed proof.
• 10:03
  And, you know, just like that said, you know, AA was assurance that God was there, that God was in that room and if I just did what those people did, that was enough.
• 10:14
  But in Isaiah,
• 10:16
  And I, like, I don't know what I'm doing either because, well, we're gonna, we're gonna,
• 10:21
  I got a couple things.
• 10:21
  I'm sorry.
• 10:22
  I had a headache before this, but it just went away.
• 10:24
  It's cool.
• 10:25
  Um, page 53 on page 63.
• 10:28
  It says we had a new employer, being all powerful.
• 10:32
  He provided what we needed if we kept, kept close to him and performed his work well.
• 10:37
  Well, what do we need?
• 10:38
  And I think that's an interesting thing right there, because what did I need?
• 10:42
  I didn't know what I needed, but I'll tell you what I needed, and it's on page 85.
• 10:46
  And that's an, it's an interesting connection
• 10:47
  I just made the other day.
• 10:48
  It says if we if we have carefully follow directions.
• 10:53
  We have begun to sense the flow of his spirit into us, to some extent, we have become god conscience, and that's what I needed.
• 11:01
  And I didn't know what I needed, right?
• 11:02
  And then, like, because, you know, God works in so many different ways because in Isaiah, I think it was Isaiah 55, 8, and uh, uh, for my thoughts or not your thoughts, nor are my your ways.
• 11:16
  My way says the Lord.
• 11:18
  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours.
• 11:23
  And my thoughts than your thoughts.
• 11:25
  Now I can never see how God's working, that God works in such a crazy way.
• 11:31
  Man, we were at church and we'd saved a seat for our friend.
• 11:34
  We saved 4 seats, right?
• 11:36
  But it just so happened.
• 11:38
  He didn't show up, but we already had the seat.
• 11:40
  Um, one of my significant, significant others, friends showed up and was sitting by herself.
• 11:46
  She went over there and grabbed her and we had a seat.
• 11:49
  So we're... It's always works out just like it's supposed to just write the right time.
• 11:54
  Well, and I like that at the end you brought it back to church and maybe, Steffani, you can have some good advice for everybody listening because this is, you know, recovery and faith podcast.
• 12:05
  And so I was thinking, you know, as we were talking, especially when you were saying about the common problem and how you can identify and how you have unity with people in the rooms of recovery.
• 12:14
  Because of that, you sometimes begin to trust, you know, kind of God working through them before you even have an awareness of God yourself, right?
• 12:24
  So my question is, How can the church do that better?
• 12:29
  Well, I was going to say the 1st thing, um, is that just like AA, there are a lot of programs out there for lots of different issues that people have.
• 12:40
  And if you haven't found a home that you fit in,
• 12:44
  There are plenty of those avenues out there and available.
• 12:48
  Look, and you will find a group that you feel like you fed at home.
• 12:52
  The vast majority of them do follow an AA program.
• 12:58
  Like the 12 steps. The 12 steps.
• 13:01
  Yes.
• 13:01
  So they follow a 12 step program.
• 13:03
  Um, and there are several churches throughout the city who have recovery-based programs um, in their facilities.
• 13:12
  And so, um, you know, Google search, um, and dig around and plug in.
• 13:19
  Well, and I'm thinking even beyond that, just the people that, you know, sit on the pews or just on the regular welcoming committee, you know, on a Sunday worship service, you know, that I think that they could, um, in many cases, we, I should say, could do a better job, you know, revealing some of those, you know, sides of our, you know, human nature or weakness, you might say, that would allow others coming in to not be so intimidated and would allow them to identify.
• 13:48
  We all have the problem of having human weaknesses and character defects and things of that nature.
• 13:53
  And so I think if the, if the, if the church, being the people who attend church, who, who think they're not addicted or controlled by anything, but sometimes even they are, but if they could learn one thing, I think it would be, don't be afraid to show your weakness and and, you know, kind of more insecure side at times in the, in the questions that you've struggled through kind of in your life of faith as well.
• 14:17
  Well, and you know, I do church to get filled up.
• 14:20
  Yeah. I go to church to learn a new facet of what God has to tell me.
• 14:26
  Um, The 2nd part to that is I try to take an action when it's available.
• 14:31
  You know, if that means helping around the facility or jumping in on a volunteering project.
• 14:38
  It's the action part we talked about, actually.
• 14:41
  You know, um, it's the welcoming the newcomer that walks in.
• 14:46
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:47
  And I mean, doing those activities is part of what, you know, just kind of tying it back.
• 14:52
  That's part of what trust leads us to do, you know, because can always explain how or why any of it works.
• 14:59
  Any of, you know, what Corey was walking through either.
• 15:02
  You know, I can't always explain how any of that works together, but I can see it usually after the fact when it does.
• 15:07
  Corey, you got any final thoughts for us today before we close in the frick?
• 15:11
  Well, yeah, back to this common problem.
• 15:14
  I'll swap into a guy.
• 15:15
  Uh, another day and, You know, he was so at this thing and I said, uh, I was talking about common problem, common solution to this new guy.
• 15:27
  Hey, I guess he kind of over heard me and he goes, well, you know what the common problem is.
• 15:33
  And I said, what?
• 15:35
  And, you know, what's your view on that?
• 15:37
  And he said, well, you know, um, disconnect or what, not disconnection from God, what is it?
• 15:43
  It's a better word for that, uh, it's separation, acceleration from God.
• 15:48
  yeah
• 15:48
  Yeah, you know, I looked at him and I said, well, everybody has that problem, right?
• 15:51
  Everybody has the separate, you know, spiritual malady to some degree.
• 15:56
  and everybody's spiritually sick.
• 15:57
  But not everybody, when they take a drink, they want more.
• 16:02
  Right. It's a, it's not a big percentage.
• 16:05
  And, you know, and that's why, you know, and you know, me and my sponsor were talking about this the other day, and he said, you know, we're, oh, it's like, man, you know, there's some barriers, I think, in this, you know, with this.
• 16:16
  And he said, there's no barriers in this program.
• 16:19
  But we try to help the world, right?
• 16:23
  So we come into this place of, you know, well, if you're a bank robber, you know, you're just, you know, not connected, God, so, yeah, we'll give you what we got.
• 16:32
  And, but like, I don't see eye to eye with a bank robber.
• 16:36
  Right. And I don't understand a bank robber, you know, the sex addict.
• 16:41
  I don't understand.
• 16:43
  But in like how me and my sponsors are talking about this, and he said, well, and nothing against people in NA, if they listen to this, he said, what is the doctor's opinion in the narcotics anonymous books say?
• 16:55
  And I said, well, it doesn't say anything.
• 16:58
  He said, exactly.
• 16:59
  And, So, but, you know, because the doctor's opinion, the book of Alcoholics Anonymous says that the action of the alcohol in the these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy, that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class and never occurs in the average tempered drinker.
• 17:21
  So that, you know, I mean, that's the that's the thing.
• 17:25
  And so like when I, when I'm addressing a man, like, you know, even if whatever their drug of choice is, Because usually they want to go to oblivion.
• 17:34
  Usually they're in there because they go to oblivion and they're not moderating at any sense.
• 17:38
  And, you know, usually I can weave it in a way and I talk to them.
• 17:42
  I'm like, well, hey man, what does it look like when you get out of jail?
• 17:45
  Do you go to the dope dealer's house or do you go to the gas station, get a 2 by 4?
• 17:51
  At the moment, I go to gas station.
• 17:53
  I go, yeah, me too.
• 17:55
  Me too.
• 17:57
  And when you start drinking, you want to go to oblivion, so you go do this other thing.
• 18:01
  You know, for some reason, you know, but there are true addicts too.
• 18:05
  And I don't understand that class.
• 18:07
  I understand the class that when they get out of jail.
• 18:10
  When they get out of jail and bond with an ankle monitor on their leg, they go to the liquor store and then they go to Kroger, get a welcome home balloon and they put it on their mailbox because that's what I do.
• 18:21
  Right?
• 18:23
  So like that's what I understand.
• 18:25
  So, but that was my final thought.
• 18:28
  Well, that was a good one.
• 18:30
  It was good.
• 18:31
  Well, you want to close this out with our prayer for the day, Steffani?
• 18:34
  Father God, help me trust you when I do not have all the answers.
• 18:38
  Through your Holy Spirit, give me confidence to follow where you lead.
• 18:42
  Shape my life through the example of Jesus.
• 18:45
  Amen.
• 18:46
  Amen. Amen.