Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / May 20 - Today Is Enough

Transcript

May 20 - Today Is Enough · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Today is May 20th.
• 0:06
  Today is enough.
• 0:07
  The stone, the weight of a lifetime, can overwhelm, but today is manageable.
• 0:14
  Focusing on the present brings clarity and steadiness.
• 0:18
  Ripple One: practical.
• 0:19
  Today I will give my attention to what is in front of me.
• 0:22
  I will not carry tomorrow's worries and try to solve everything at once.
• 0:27
  One faithful day lived well is enough.
• 0:32
  Ripple Two: spiritual.
• 0:34
  Jesus taught us to trust the Father for daily provision.
• 0:38
  As I follow his example, the Holy Spirit anchors me in the present moment.
• 0:44
  Peace grows when I release the future into God's hands and live this day in trust and
• 0:54
  obedience.
• 0:56
  Yeah, that made me get a lot of thinking, but I was thinking about how, man, my mind can go crazy, especially in the mornings.
• 1:07
  Especially, I was talking about a friend of ours today, actually, and I was like, man, you know, when I wake up, and I don't know if you have this problem too, but when I wake up, my mind drifts a thousand miles an hour immediately.
• 1:23
  Absolutely. Yeah, same.
• 1:26
  then I roll I do this because we got like our tampar pedic bed is nice and all but it's it's
• 1:32
  too I fall too much into it and I wish it was a little firm all right big money but show show
• 1:38
  showing out there well that was not the half tampar pedic that was that but there you go
• 1:45
  it's the cheaper kind so it has like it has the built anyways it's it's not firm enough so like I
• 1:52
  So what I had to like, because my body gets stiff and like crunched up in this ball.
• 1:58
  So I roll out of bed on my knees.
• 2:01
  I do my prayer.
• 2:03
  And then I'm headed to the kitchen to turn the coffee on to get to go read my morning thing and sit down.
• 2:11
  And, you know, but during the middle of that, my mind is saying like things like, man, it'd be cool to sleep a little bit more.
• 2:20
  hey, you probably don't need to do this this morning.
• 2:23
  You probably could skip.
• 2:26
  Hey, why don't you just scroll on your phone for a minute,
• 2:30
  then get this thing started.
• 2:32
  My mind does all these things before I can,
• 2:35
  and then I sit down and read my thing.
• 2:38
  I fight with going through this battle,
• 2:40
  and I read my thing, I do some writing,
• 2:43
  and then I'm off into doing my prayers,
• 2:46
  doing some readings.
• 2:48
  But in between there and there, it's chaos.
• 2:55
  And I don't know, I was just thinking about that because like,
• 2:59
  but it starts there.
• 3:00
  And I think that, and we talk a lot, we talk all the time about this,
• 3:03
  how important that start is.
• 3:06
  Because I think, Michael, if, this is what scares me.
• 3:10
  I have a fear of not doing what I do in the mornings.
• 3:14
  Because that mind, that crazy Corey, that's like, you know, thinking this, this, this, and this, and this, and this, and this.
• 3:23
  What if that gets let loose?
• 3:26
  Yeah.
• 3:27
  Yeah.
• 3:27
  No, I absolutely know what you mean.
• 3:30
  And I can totally relate to that because, and it's not every day today that I wake up where my mind is racing like that, but it is still pretty frequent that that occurs even for myself.
• 3:42
  And recently, you know, I had to, because I've struggled with, and I've got a history with, you know, struggling with depression and anxiety and things of that nature as well.
• 3:51
  Now, I'm treated for that, and I see somebody about all those things.
• 3:57
  But when those thoughts start, you know, swarming me in the morning, what I have found recently
• 4:04
  is that, and again, I think I owe this connection a little bit to you with your regimented routine,
• 4:12
  you know, that you have.
• 4:14
  And so I've kind of incorporated, I kind of think of those wild thoughts of mine as kind
• 4:20
  of like wild stallions that are roaming through the field, you know, and they need to be lassoed
• 4:24
  wrangled in, you know, they need to be brought into the pen and kind of kept locked in. And the
• 4:28
  lasso that I use, you know, in my life is the serenity prayer, because the serenity prayer
• 4:34
  helps me. When I find myself, when I wake up and my thoughts are doing that, I start repeating the
• 4:40
  serenity prayer. And invariably, bringing it back to, you know, what this Daily Ripple today is about,
• 4:48
  What that does is that it gives me, as I start to categorize all those thoughts, I quickly
• 4:54
  realize which of those thoughts are things that I just need to accept because I can't
• 4:59
  change them, and which of those thoughts relate to something that I can actually do something
• 5:03
  about today, you know, the courage to change the things that I can, because that's the way
• 5:06
  that prayer goes.
• 5:09
  And once I'm able to do that, I'm able to focus on just the day ahead of me and not worried
• 5:16
  about, you know, what's happened in the past, and the other side of that is worrying too much about
• 5:21
  the future. And it really goes back to, you know, the wisdom and the program of it being a one-day-at-a-time
• 5:28
  program. And now, you know, I'm not going to try to read a lot of verses or the whole story, but
• 5:36
  in Exodus, you know, the 16th chapter is one of the places in the Old Testament where the
• 5:43
  the Israelites, you know, the chosen people in the Old Testament, had just escaped from slavery in
• 5:49
  Egypt. You know, they had already crossed over the Red Sea that was parted by Moses. They were in the
• 5:58
  wilderness wandering. And in Exodus, you know, God is telling them that he's going to rain down bread
• 6:03
  from heaven for them, and that the people were to go out each day and gather just enough for that day.
• 6:08
  And they were told specifically not to take more than they needed, to just take the manna that they need for the day, because if they kept it and carried it over into the next day, it would spoil and it would not be edible, essentially.
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  And of course, you know, as people are prone to do, the people tried to store it up and
• 6:26
  keep it for the next day.
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  And sure enough, it was spoiled the next day and they couldn't eat it.
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  So they really had to rely on that manna raining down from heaven every day during that, you
• 6:37
  know, 40 years of wandering in the desert.
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  And you see reflections of that in the model prayer, you know, that Jesus taught, you know,
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  the Lord's prayer, give us this day our daily bread, you know, and it's going back to that
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  same concept of what God provides for us today is enough, because today is all that I can
• 6:56
  really do anything about.
• 6:58
  As soon as we say a word, we are dealing with something that is in the past.
• 7:06
  As soon as we take an action, it is in the past.
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  So really, all that we have in the present are our thoughts about and our decisions about
• 7:13
  what action to take next.
• 7:15
  And that's how we build and live into more of a future that is the type of future and the type of life, you know, designed and ordained by God.
• 7:24
  You know, it says in the practical ripple, give my attention to what's in front of me.
• 7:28
  You know, somebody needs my help today, whether it's in the program or whether it's somebody from the church that I need to go and visit in the hospital.
• 7:37
  You know, the person that needs my help is not worried about what I did 14 years ago.
• 7:44
  So why am I thinking about it?
• 7:47
  You know, why am I still being weighed down by actions that I may have taken 14 or 15 years
• 7:52
  ago that have nothing to do with the person that I am and the person who God wants me to
• 7:57
  be today?
• 7:58
  And so that's the type of reminder that I need on a daily basis of, you know, God kind of
• 8:04
  affirming and reminding me each day to be the person that you are and the person that you're
• 8:09
  becoming.
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  And it goes back to that definition of humility that you read, you know, the true understanding
• 8:13
  of who I am in relation to other people with the honest desire to be who God wants me to be.
• 8:18
  Right. You know, I will read some scripture because I really like Philippians chapter 4,
• 8:27
  verse 6 and 7. And it says, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer
• 8:34
  and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which
• 8:41
  transcends all understandings will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• 8:49
  And we've talked about like part of my day, because it says on page 85 of the big book,
• 8:56
  it says, every day is a day we must carry the visions of God's will into all our activities.
• 9:04
  Well, I found out a while back, maybe I should ask God in the morning what his vision is for me for my day.
• 9:14
  That's just a good, it's a good starting point.
• 9:18
  I think that might even be in the book somewhere, yeah.
• 9:22
  So, but, you know, I'll tell you, I have a lot of routine, but part of my routine is, and, you know, I don't do this, but I do this in a way because I have my routine.
• 9:32
  And when I get out of my car every day in my morning, I say, God, show me your vision for my day.
• 9:39
  And, you know, because I've already, you know, [prayed] Thy will be done.
• 9:44
  And I wanted to ask you a little bit about this because, you know, I say little prayers.
• 9:48
  I just, you know, talk to God during the day and help me bring me back into one.
• 9:52
  And we've talked how I relate that to meditation, right?
• 9:56
  You come back to the breath.
• 9:57
  That's the present.
• 10:01
  But Judaism, right?
• 10:04
  They kind of go to the Ten Commandments, right?
• 10:08
  They're kind of heavy on the Ten Commandments.
• 10:10
  Is that right?
• 10:12
  Well, I don't want to speak for Judaism, but, I mean, they do share the teaching of the Ten Commandments with the Christian faith, yes.
• 10:19
  Well, I was kind of doing some research, and this was a couple weeks ago, so my mind is not.
• 10:25
  But I was, you know, relating all this, you know, to breath.
• 10:27
  And then I don't know if you're familiar with Emmett Fox, but The Golden Key.
• 10:34
  And he talks a lot about, you know, every time something comes up, direct your attention to God.
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  You know, he's very firm on this.
• 10:42
  And Emmett Fox also wrote this book, Sermon on the Mount.
• 10:47
  Sermon on the Mount.
• 10:48
  That's more what I'm familiar with the name from, from that book.
• 10:52
  But, you know, it talks about, you know, put all my attention to God and, you know, don't disrupt it.
• 11:00
  Don't disrupt God's process.
• 11:02
  And I have a problem with that sometimes, Michael, because I want to make, just like we were talking earlier, right?
• 11:07
  I want to make demands on how I want something.
• 11:11
  Like, you know, I want to do five or tens, right?
• 11:15
  I want to make demands on how this is going to be.
• 11:19
  And, you know, but we, and, you know, but I've always got everything I ever needed.
• 11:27
  You know, we wouldn't be sitting here and having a conversation if I hadn't.
• 11:32
  Right.
• 11:33
  And, you know, but so how hard it is, you know, when the, that, that chaos of, you know, and I can relate it to, you know, things of nature of like, you know, going to prison.
• 11:45
  and then, you know, this and this and this.
• 11:47
  And, you know, my mind just goes blank in the midst of chaos.
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  And, you know, when I focus my attention on God,
• 11:55
  it's like it brings me back to order.
• 11:57
  And I think that's a Jordan Peterson thing,
• 11:59
  but, you know, chaos and order, I think that's his book.
• 12:03
  Oh, yeah.
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  But I just think about that tension and that peace that God brings
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  and, you know, have a, I don't know, it's all cool.
• 12:13
  Well, for me, when fear crops up, and it doesn't matter what the fear is related to,
• 12:18
  the fear of scarcity is a big one, whether it's financial or material things.
• 12:23
  When those fears crop up, that leads me to focus on very self-centered things like,
• 12:32
  I need to get this job because it pays more, or I need to have two jobs so that I can provide
• 12:37
  for the family and pay all the bills and save up a little bit. Versus today, you know, and I don't
• 12:44
  mind sharing, you know, this time last year, I was probably bringing into my household about
• 12:50
  five or six times more money than I am today. And yet, I still have everything that I need today.
• 12:57
  I still have the same house that I've lived in, haven't missed or skipped, you know, a mortgage
• 13:02
  payment, you know, since my world and life changed quite a bit, you know, several months
• 13:07
  ago, have not, you know, lost anything.
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  In fact, I've gained more.
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  And what I've gained by being able to focus on truly, God, what do I need?
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  What is enough for today?
• 13:19
  What I've really gained is peace.
• 13:21
  Because I talked about a little bit earlier about struggling with depression and anxiety.
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  And when I had all that, and when I had all the jobs, and when I had all the responsibilities,
• 13:29
  The anxiety was through the roof, and it about killed me.
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  And today, I have peace.
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  And the things that I do today, the things that I'm pouring my effort and my life into today,
• 13:40
  are things that give life and not just things that give me a comfortable life, if that makes sense.
• 13:48
  You know, one of my prayers in the morning, it's funny how God works, Michael,
• 13:52
  is I was thinking, I was praying, I was like, man, you know, I'd like to be a little bit more
• 13:58
  financially whatever but but it's funny because like man like you know i got thrown on this huge
• 14:06
  project and they're like yeah you're well you know this got to be done this amount of time and
• 14:11
  now you know i got to work more time more hours and we were just talking about you know i get what
• 14:16
  i want and get what i you know get what i need always yeah how it's you know how it's presented
• 14:22
  to me is never how i want right you know it's like right oh now we're gonna have to work more
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  And, you know, not convenient.
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  That was not the way I wanted it.
• 14:32
  I wanted it into like a blank check.
• 14:36
  Right.
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  When you find that, let me know.
• 14:39
  But, you know, I think, you know, in the 12 and 12, and I've been pointing at this,
• 14:45
  and, you know, if you ever listen to me and Mike or Pastor Mike,
• 14:50
  and you're kind of like somewhat new in AA or recovery,
• 14:55
  Well, our point is, is go help somebody, right?
• 14:59
  Just go help somebody.
• 15:01
  But on page 125.
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  But keep listening every day so that you can find out how.
• 15:06
  Yeah, there you go.
• 15:09
  You don't want to give away all the secrets, Corey, because then what's everybody here listening for?
• 15:12
  Right.
• 15:13
  That'd be crazy.
• 15:14
  So page 125 of the 12 and 12 says,
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  true ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God.
• 15:26
  And, you know, I find that, you know, the more and more I do this and, you know, I can
• 15:31
  say we, because I'm able to walk this walk with you today.
• 15:34
  And that's a really cool.
• 15:35
  Absolutely.
• 15:36
  Yeah.
• 15:37
  But yeah, you know, the small things are small.
• 15:40
  Small things are small.
• 15:41
  The big things are small.
• 15:44
  And, but we'll finish this with the prayer.
• 15:48
  Absolutely.
• 15:49
  Father, help me live this day with faith and focus.
• 15:52
  Through Your Spirit, keep me grounded in the present and trusting in Your care for what lies ahead.
• 15:58
  Amen.
• 16:00
  Amen.
• 16:03
  ...
• 16:05
  We have an email connected to the podcast as well.
• 16:08
  And we would love, you know, because we sometimes argue and we would love to, you know, have like, you know, who's winning kind of thing too.
• 16:16
  However we get that email going, that'd be cool.
• 16:19
  But we're still working on the leaderboard.
• 16:21
  So, yeah.
• 16:26
  As I was thinking, I was praying, I was like, man, you know, I'd like to be a little bit more...
• 16:32
  "I wish I was a little bit taller.
• 16:33
  I wish I was a baller.
• 16:34
  I wish I had a girl with the goods I would call her."
• 16:37
  Yeah.
• 16:37
  Anyway, Too Short for anyone not... who's unfamiliar.
• 16:46
  Yeah.