Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / July 30 – Investing What Was Given

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July 30 – Investing What Was Given · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey guys,
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  this is the Daily Ripples.
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  Um, today is July 30th. We also have Michael with us.
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  We are, uh, recording together. Um, investing what
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  was given. The stone. What has
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  been given to me is not meant to stop with me. It grows deepens
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  and multiplies only. I think only is a big word right there.
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  When I am willing to give it away. Ripple 1: Practical.
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  Today, I will take responsibility for giving back.
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  I will not treat what I have received as something to consume,
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  but something to contribute to. Whether through time,
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  effort, or resources, I will invest in what has helped me and,
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  and support what sustains others.
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  Ripple 2: Spiritual. The Father gives in abundance.
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  Not for me to hold on to, but to pass along.
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  Jesus shows a life that multiplies through giving, not keeping.
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  The Holy Spirit reminds me that what I have received is
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  part of something ongoing and expanding. As I give back,
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  I join in a work that reaches beyond me and into the lives
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  of others. I, uh, you know,
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  when I was reading this the second time, and I've told you this example,
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  but I think it's a great example, and Excuse me to any listeners
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  that might think it's a little bit much, but it's okay.
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  We're all adults. I think
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  about if I had this problem and you know where I'm going with this.
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  If I had this problem, like let's say herpes. Oh my
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  goodness. We got the herpes back in the chat. All right, here we go.
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  I'm locked in. All right. So I got herpes and I go into this room.
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  Wait, you have herpes? No. Oh, okay. Okay. For example.
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  Right. Sorry. So I go to this room. This anonymous room with 50
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  other people. And I go in there and they're like, hey man,
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  just sit down, man, talk, talk with us,
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  hang out with us, do a couple things,
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  we'll take care of the herpes. So I go in there and
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  they do that, we do that, and then I'm sitting amongst them because now we're
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  friends, right? Because we all got the same problem. They've given me a solution
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  to my problem. And someone else comes in.
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  Yeah. And they're— and everybody— and everybody's like,
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  hey man, it's your chance, let's go help this dude. And I'm like, no,
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  I'm not helping this dude. We talked about it on the last one. Yeah,
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  there would be a— they're inside of me, you know.
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  I think there would be something stopping them. Maybe, you know,
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  maybe it's a character trait of some people, but I don't know what
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  else I would do. But tell them, be like, hey man, we got this thing.
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  Yeah, because if you find something good and you want to tell people about it,
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  right? And like, you know, I think, you know, when something was
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  freely given me, yeah, you know, what else
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  would I not— what else would I do with it, right? Yeah.
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  And then on the same token, if the literature,
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  you know, and the literature is very in detail about this,
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  if the literature says Hey, if you do these
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  things, you will not ever get herpes again.
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  You'll have immunity from it. Why would I not do
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  that? Right? It's almost like insanity
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  is a lack of perspective, a lack of proportion,
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  and the ability to think straight. So that's in the Big Book.
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  If my way of thinking says, You know what?
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  I'm not going to do what these people tell me to do, but I know
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  this thing is killing me. Right?
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  I have a lack of proportion and the ability to think straight. And so I
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  don't know. It's interesting, at one time in these rooms,
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  we're using an analogy, we're in a different, we're not in those
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  rooms, but in these rooms. No shame if anybody's
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  in SLA. I'm cool with it, man. Anyways,
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  um, but they were a lot more quick
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  with it, right? You weren't sitting in these rooms trying to convince
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  people to work the 12 steps. Yeah, they came into the rooms because they needed
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  help, and you worked the 12 steps a lot of times same day, the same
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  day coming in early. It was real quick, man. Yeah, you know, and it's like,
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  what— to me, there's like, we're lost track in this, you know.
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  If you agree with me, that's cool. We got an email address if you don't.
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  But we've lost track of this whole feelings thing of, I don't feel
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  like this. Well, I didn't feel like it either, but I was on my deathbed.
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  Yeah, I was. You know, so like the feelings are subjective.
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  You know, this literature is objective and so is the Bible. But,
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  you know, if I look and do what the literature says, I get results.
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  And it is a results business. People tell me, hey, we're not— that's either
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  literature you're talking about. Absolutely. The book and the Bible. It's like if
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  I do what it says, I get the promises. And if I do what it
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  says also, and the first 51 pages of it, light drink,
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  I get the promises of that as well. Yeah. And so I think it's important
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  to like, you know, when I look at this, it's like, what, why would you
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  not? Yeah. But you know, I'm insane too. But I see that,
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  you know, Corey, you, you say why would you not? We see that
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  with sometimes, you know, everyday run-of-the-mill,
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  you know, Christians or Jesus followers as well, right? They receive,
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  you know, the gospel, good news, saving grace of God but then they keep it
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  to themselves. You know, a lot of, you know, certain people of faith focus
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  a lot about their personal relationship with Jesus, but it's not
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  just a personal relationship. It's also a community of faith, a community that is
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  meant to share and bear each other's burdens. It's about investing,
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  you know, what was given, as the thing says. It said,
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  you know, I will not treat— this is in the Practical Ripple today— I will
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  not treat what I have received as something to consume, but something to contribute
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  to. And that contributing to it is so important
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  because when I'm contributing to this life of faith, when I'm contributing to my life
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  in recovery, when I'm living life with people,
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  helping people, receiving help from people even, my spirit
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  is filled more. You know, my spirit expands
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  and I experience more of the fruits of the Spirit. And I also think about,
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  you know, investing what was given. There's a parable that,
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  you know, know, Jesus told in the Bible. This is in Matthew chapter 25,
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  uh, and I see you studying your Bible there too, Corey. You're okay, good,
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  you're not in the same book. Um, but in Matthew 25,
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  starting in verse 14, this is— and I'm going to read from The Message Bible.
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  You, you probably heard this one before, Corey. It's also like a man
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  going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together
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  and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave $5,000,
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  to another $2,000, and to a third $1,000, depending on
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  their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to
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  work and doubled his master's investment. The second did the same.
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  But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master's
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  money. After a long absence, the master of those 3 servants came
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  back and settled up with them. The one given $5,000 showed
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  him how he had doubled his investment. The master commended him, Good work!
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  You did your job well. From now on, be my partner.
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  Now, the traditional reading of this is where it says, well done, my good
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  and faithful servant. The servant with the 2,000 showed
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  how he also had doubled his master's investment. The master
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  commended him, good work. You did your job well. From now on, be my partner,
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  or, well done, my good and faithful servant. Then the servant given
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  1,000 said, master, I know you have high standards
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  and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error.
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  I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and
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  secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound, down to the last cent.
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  The master was furious. That's a terrible way to live!
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  It's criminal to live cautiously like that. If you knew I was after
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  the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have
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  done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers,
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  where at least I would have gotten a little interest. Take the thousand and give
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  it to the one who risks the most, and get rid of this play-it-safe
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  who won't go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.
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  And so in other words, it's the parable about using our—
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  in the other versions of the Bible besides The Message, it's called the
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  parable of the talents. You know, that master gave the talents to
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  3 people, and the one who did not invest
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  or use those talents to grow the kingdom of heaven is the one
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  who was condemned or judged versus those who
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  invested and gave what was freely given to them are the ones who
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  were applauded and whose spiritual life grew even more.
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  You know, I was— I'm sure you know where I was at, but you know,
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  you gave me this Bible that has 4 different versions in it, right? Yeah.
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  And so it's cool because I can pick out which version I like.
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  And so I'm in James, and it's in, uh, verse— or chapter 2,
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  verse 20. And I like it. I like the
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  version in the Living Bible for what I needed to say. It says, fool,
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  with an exclamation mark, when will you ever learn that believing
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  is useless without doing what God wants you to?
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  Faith that does not result in good deeds is not real faith.
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  Yeah. And man, like, you know, faith without works is dead,
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  right? And you know, I— how important,
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  you know, with me not doing anything and me just— because
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  I can, I can take a lot. I'll tell you what, man, I got a
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  lot of books on the mind, on this, because I think that's interesting
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  how that stuff works. But I think at one time too, I thought that stuff
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  would fix me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's, you know, I,
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  I actually, I sent a dude a text message the other day and he's
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  in, uh, Knoxville, but we were talking and I was trying to tell
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  him, you know, how— because he's about 6 months sober I was trying to tell
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  him how important this literature is. Yeah. And then I had to add something to
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  the message because I was like, man, like, um, I said like something about
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  how important this literature is. And then I said, well, then I had to add
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  like, well, it's important to do it too, right? Because like, yeah, not just read
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  it, right? It's like I just consume. Yeah. If I didn't— I'll tell you what,
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  if we didn't have gone— had not gone through this work and just
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  knew the literature, what it said, we wouldn't be able to talk the way we'd
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  be able to talk about it either because we haven't felt it. Yeah, you know,
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  that's another thing in this too. If you haven't felt it, yeah,
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  you don't know what you're missing. And you need to get in this work,
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  you need to get a spot, and you feel it through experience, through doing.
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  And it's kind of like growing up, they always talked about the difference between someone
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  being book smart and having common sense, right? You know, and if you have both,
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  that's the beginning of wisdom. Kind of like explaining an orgasm to somebody
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  before they've ever had herpes. And I'm just like, oh yeah, that's interesting,
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  right? We're not going to to explain that.
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  Anyways, I think it was good. We'll finish
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  this with a prayer. It's a— it's high time to pray. Absolutely.
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  Prayer. Almighty Father, thank you for what has been given to me through
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  your Holy Spirit. Help me give it back freely and faithfully.
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  Shape my life through the example of Jesus, and let what I
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  offer today become a blessing for others tomorrow.
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  Amen.