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June 24 - Starting Where I Am · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
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  I am Pastor Mike, and for the second day in a row, we've got our buddy Jason with us here
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  from our local recovery rooms here in the Memphis area.
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  And Jason, I'm going to turn it over to you today for you to start us off by reading our
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  Daily Ripples devotional for June the 24th.
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  Thanks, Pastor Mike.
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  All right, guys, this is the Daily Ripples for June 24th, starting where I am.
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  The stone.
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  Growth begins with humility.
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  I do not need to have everything figured out to begin.
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  I only need a willingness to learn.
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  Ripple one, the practical.
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  Today, I will embrace being a learner.
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  I will not pretend to know what I do not.
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  I will listen, observe, and stay open to guidance.
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  Progress starts when I admit I still have much to learn.
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  Ripple two, the spiritual.
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  Jesus welcomed those with simple, open hearts.
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  As I come before the Father with humility, the Holy Spirit teaches me to step by step.
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  I do not need perfect understanding.
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  I need a willing heart.
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  Over time, what begins as small faith grows into a steady way of life.
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  Absolutely.
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  And Jason, where do you get out of that when you initially read that?
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  That I'm still learning.
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  That I'm still very much early in my sobriety.
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  um you know i see guys in these rooms you know with with 20 30 years and that just blows my mind
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  that you know i'm working on one year um but at the same time you know seeing those guys in here
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  gives me hope you know that this is the uh not to quote stores but this is the way you know uh
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  uh what's funny is i've said in the previous podcast you know i've relapsed a couple times
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  I've done treatment a couple times. Well, the reason I believe that this program has stuck this
• 1:57
  time is because I learned so much the first two times or maybe what not to do also. In my first
• 2:06
  two attempts at sobriety, I never got a sponsor. Well, this time around, I got a sponsor and lo and
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  behold, this is the longest I've ever gone as I'm actually working the program opposed to paying
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  a lip service and just showing up for meetings, but I'm being an active participant in my own
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  recovery and it's working and I don't see an end to it in sight. Man, this is, again, this is the
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  program if you want to stay sober. Before you came into the program, I wonder
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  this kind of learner mentality or kind of growth mentality or kind of taking it in. I mean, how does
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  that or how did it or does it apply to other aspects of your life? You know, have you, have
• 2:50
  you always been kind of open to learning new things? Is that something that you've had to develop and
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  grow through recovery or kind of what's your experience been in terms of that kind of learner
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  mentality? Well, I, I've always been open to learning new things, but I have for the longest
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  time last so long, I've never been able to because of the alcohol. Yeah. Um, like we were talking in
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  group today being able to be you know your you know your your best self you know things of that
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  nature um but i i was never really open to to learning anything new because i always had the
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  you know alcohol was always first and as we know you know once you start drinking you know then you
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  and you're drunk all day and you know nothing else gets done right there's no there's there's
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  learning, you're not even doing the things you know how to do anymore. Right. You know? And that's
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  one thing, and I think it's a strange phenomenon, and I think I've definitely found this to be true
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  in my life and in my life of recovery, is that one of the things that I've learned and that is
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  said often in rooms of recovery is that from the time that we start drinking heavily or actively,
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  we stop maturing and developing emotionally. So in other words, if I started drinking when I was 14,
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  Then I'm going around at 36, which is when I entered into my recovery program.
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  At 36, I was coming in with the emotional development, you know, of a teenager.
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  And in my case, it was 18, you know, whenever I first started drinking.
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  So I'm coming in at 36 with still an 18-year-old's view of the world because I just poured, you know,
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  any kind of problem or anything that I needed to learn, develop, or grow emotionally,
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  I just kept pouring alcohol on top of that, you know.
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  And so I got kind of locked in.
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  And so there's always a catching up to do.
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  But the good thing is that, you know, Jesus affirms that we should approach this life of
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  faith and our time in recovery, because to me, they go hand in hand with the mentality
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  of a child anyway.
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  One of the more famous verses in the Bible, you know, Matthew chapter 18 and verse 2, and
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  I'm going to read the international version, says that he called a little child to him and
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  placed the child among them.
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  And he said, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
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  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
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  And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.
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  So that tells me and teaches me that not that I need to be immature, not that I need to come in, you know, throw in tantrums or anything like that,
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  which we've been around recovery rooms enough to know some people do that when they first come in.
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  And I'm sure I had my share of the newcomer drama, you know, back in the day, whenever I first started doing this.
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  But it just reaffirms for me that humility, the posture of humility that I need to have, the posture of being able to learn.
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  One of the key things that stood out in the practical ripple, you know, when you're reading it again this time, I would not pretend to know what I do not.
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  And I was just sitting there thinking, man, I wish the other people in the world outside
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  of recovery programs, outside of those listening to this podcast, I wish everybody could get
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  that message because, man, so many people get into trouble in their lives by walking around
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  pretending that they know something that they actually know nothing about.
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  And that is, you know, whether it's politics, whether it's social issues, whether it's faith
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  or even recovery, that happens so often.
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  But and then what does it take to get past that?
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  Well, it tells us that, you know, over time, what begins as a small faith grows into a steady way of life. And that's been my experience as well. And Jesus affirms all throughout Scripture that all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed, and you'll be able to move mountains.
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  And for somebody who's now about to start, you know, in a role as a full-time pastor who came from, you know, growing up as a Baptist to spending, you know, 15, 16 years in atheism to coming back into the church and recovery, that faith that I started with, you know, 14, 15 years ago has definitely moved mountains in my life because I don't know that I'd be alive and here today without that faith.
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  In terms of talking about knowing things that we don't know, though, Jason, I wonder, are there things in your life that you pretended to understand when you first came in here about seven months ago that you've learned that you really didn't know what you were talking about at the time?
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  That's an interesting question for you.
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  Yeah, it's most things.
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  I didn't know how to pray.
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  Yeah.
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  That's one of the biggies.
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  I did not know what a relationship with the God of my understanding looked like or felt like, because I believe I did kind of pay that a little bit of lip service.
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  I have been lucky enough, though, that I get God winks all the time now.
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  And I don't know if it's because I'm conscious of them.
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  And it's just little things that God is saying hi to me and let me know that I'm on the right path.
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  But again, like I said, I'm absolutely still learning.
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  And that's never going to stop from what you guys have told me.
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  Yeah.
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  For me, you know, I think about those God winks and seeing things.
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  And, you know, Jesus talked in the Bible a lot about, you know, having eyes to see and having ears to hear.
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  And he was talking about not just observing things with our physical senses, but seeing the spiritual reality, you know, underneath and above, you know, what we see in the physical world.
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  And I think that's one of the blessings of, you know, my sobriety is that it's cleared out, you know, all the crap out of my system.
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  So it allows me to have that awareness of where God is working in my life today.
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  Versus before, I would have, if I weren't outright denying that God was at work in my life, I certainly was not appreciating it.
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  I was not grateful for it.
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  And so all of those things are fruits and gifts, you know, of walking forward, you know, one
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  day at a time, you know, in this program, trying to do what God is wanting me to do while,
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  you know, at the same time trying to be of service to other people around me.
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  And I don't do it perfectly.
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  I don't, you know, I'm not pretending, as we talked about, you know, pretending to know
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  what I don't.
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  I'm not pretending to know how God works or exactly how God does that work in me or in
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  you or anyone else in the program, but I can observe the results of it. You know, I can see
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  the results. I can see the growth. I can see the improvement, you know, in people around me and in
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  myself. And even if it's just as we were talking about, you know, yesterday about being able to
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  pause when I'm agitated versus, you know, in the past I would have gone off on somebody,
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  I know that that pause, I'm sure that my wife appreciates it at home, you know,
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  Because we used to get into some pretty big arguments kind of early on as we both were trying to take control.
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  But I'm glad that I don't have to do those things today.
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  Another question that I had is, and this is a harder question for you, Jason.
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  Hard.
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  But where would you say that your pride or your character defects is keeping you from being a learner right now?
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  In other words, what do you think you know that maybe God is starting to reveal to you?
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  Hey, maybe you need to learn more about this.
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  oh that is a good question um i think honestly in this patience um i have learned i had never
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  had any type of patience before in my entire life um was always running an imaginary race
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  uh you know i'm in a hurry to get things done rush and rush to life's no fun old alabama song
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  you know um but that was me uh to uh you know to a t uh i was always running a race in everything
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  i did even if there was no time limit on anything and um i've i'd in my in when i first got sober i
• 11:02
  thought that was going to be an automatic oh hey i'll be more patient now and more understanding
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  and it probably got worse and i think the reason is i was being taught a lesson i was being taught
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  learning how to, you know, how to slow it down, um, how to pause when agitated. Um, and as I'm
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  learning it, it now, all of a sudden, you know, I, I don't get mad at that red light that I get
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  caught at, you know, I don't think the red lights are out to get me like I used to, or I used to
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  cuss at a red light in an object, man. I'd cuss at it and it knew I was coming, you know, Jason,
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  How dare you make me stop?
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  That's gone now.
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  Gone relative to how long I've been at it.
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  You know what I mean?
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  But I can sit at a red light now, and I've noticed the other day that I don't have to.
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  I'm trying to be patient.
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  It's not an issue anymore.
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  I'm just taking my time.
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  There's another AA saying, it's about giving everything to the stream of life.
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  That's part of my prayer also, to help me stay with the flow of life and stay in the current of life.
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  There's another old adage in there, man, another AA adage that imagine you're an ant that's on a log floating down a river,
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  and you're thinking that the ant thinks it's steering the log.
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  The ant is not steering the log.
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  It's just a long for the ride.
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  So that's the way I kind of look at that.
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  All of those animal analogies lead me to believe that your sponsor has been getting into your head.
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  Because I know Corey talks about that chicken and pig example quite a bit.
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  I don't know if you've heard that one or not.
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  But I want to back up to one thing that you said.
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  Sure.
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  You were quoting some Alabama lyrics.
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  Does that mean you're a country music fan?
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  I'm a music fan, dude.
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  Okay, that's the right answer.
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  Because if it was just a country music fan, we're going to stop this right now.
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  I might have some resentment.
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  I might break out some hate ball and MJG on you, man.
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  Some old school Memphis rap.
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  Well, that would definitely trigger the censorship filters.
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  Oh, for sure.
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  For sure.
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  Especially if I started rapping along with you.
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  But anyway, on that note, it's time for us to close out with our prayer of the day.
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  If you would, do us the honor, Jason.
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  All right.
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  Father, help me remain teachable.
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  Through your Spirit, guide me as I learn and grow, and lead me into a deeper understanding
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  of life through your Son.
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  Amen.
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  Amen.
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  Amen.