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July 13 – When Humility Finds Me · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:07
  I'm Pastor Mike, and I've got Corey with me here today.
• 0:10
  It is Monday, July the 13th.
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  And just to kind of refresh, this is the beginning of a week for a lot of you commuting to work
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  today.
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  The Daily Ripples podcast is where faith meets recovery.
• 0:23
  I write a daily devotional called The Daily Ripples, and it's at dailyripples.com.
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  And then Corey and I or other guests at times get on here every day and we talk about the daily devotionals.
• 0:33
  And if you have any feedback for us now or anytime, email us to wave, W-A-V-E, at dailyripples.com.
• 0:43
  But for today, July 13th, it's titled, When Humility Finds Me, the Stone.
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  Humility is not something I achieve. It is something that grows when I stop living for myself.
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  Ripple One is practical.
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  Today, I will look at the people in front of me as opportunities to serve, not obstacles to manage.
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  I will not help others to gain something in return.
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  I will simply show up, listen, and be present.
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  Ripple 2, Spiritual.
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  The Father forms humility in me as I seek His will instead of my own.
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  Jesus shows me that real humility is lived out in love and service.
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  The Holy Spirit redirects my motives, moving me away from self-gain and toward genuine care for others.
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  As that shift happens, humility is no longer something I chase.
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  It becomes part of who I am.
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  And as always, we'll save our prayer for the end.
• 1:35
  But, you know, today, Corey, in this one, you know, really kind of what I'm getting at with today's daily ripple is trying to address some of my own, you know, you mentioned yesterday with this being July that we're going to be talking about character defects a lot, right?
• 1:49
  Well, some of my own character defects, I'm kind of writing or talking against, you know, whenever I'm writing these, especially the practical, because it's like people are opportunities to serve, not obstacles to manage.
• 2:02
  Yeah, I mean, that's me all day looking at people as obstacles to manage, you know, whenever I get locked in and I'm trying to accomplish something, I get into the, you know, type A, you know, control mode, right?
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  Like, if this is going to get done, then I have to be the director, you know, and everybody else are my actors, you know, and if you do this, then we'll do this.
• 2:23
  And, hey, Corey, I'm going to need three episodes from you by this date at this time.
• 2:27
  You know, like, just really, and it's a way of coping with my stress.
• 2:33
  But when I just sit back and just relinquish that control, then I can actually enjoy what I'm doing.
• 2:40
  Right.
• 2:40
  You know, that's why I don't like you mentioned a lot of times, you know, you'll do a lot of prep and homework, you know, for these, you know, daily ripples episodes.
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  And that's assuming that you have the right month.
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  Anyway, if you don't know what we're talking about, go back a couple of days and you'll get you'll get the joke.
• 2:57
  But the but I do a little bit, you know, like I'll pick out like a grounding verse to talk about.
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  But I don't like script out like all of my thoughts because I don't think I would enjoy, I want this to be, you know, you and I having a conversation or us with others having a conversation about these things and not some scripted thing.
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  You know what I mean?
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  And that helps me as well to practice relinquishing that control.
• 3:24
  Well, just so I'm relinquishing my control, my prep work, I'll tell you what I do.
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  I go through these.
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  And, you know, my problem, I found what I do wrong probably, is I just look around at words, right?
• 3:39
  Yeah.
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  And then I'll think about a couple words and I'll write a page number down.
• 3:43
  I'll think about a couple words and I'll write a page number down.
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  But, you know, the Bible part is the most finding something to put it from the Bible.
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  That's my only probably time-consuming thing.
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  Yeah.
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  I'm not as familiar with the Bible.
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  Right.
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  And that's not like I can just flip to a page.
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  I got to take a picture of it and then I put it onto something that tells me what's relating to that.
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  But then I go look it up in the Bible and kind of look how that kind of, you know, parallels or if it doesn't, then that's just what I do.
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  But so it's not as lengthy as you think.
• 4:20
  Yeah, yeah.
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  But what I was thinking about this is something that the stone, humility is not something I achieve.
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  It's something that grows when I stop living for myself.
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  And in the doctor's opinion in the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, it says the unselfishness.
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  So the doctor's opinion, just so if anybody doesn't know, is not wrote from Bill Wilson.
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  It's wrote from a doctor.
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  Dr. Bob.
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  Well, no, not Dr. Bob.
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  No, not Dr. Bob.
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  It was Bob and Bill.
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  Have I been wrong these whole years?
• 4:58
  No, it's Dr. Silkworth.
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  Dr. Silkworth.
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  Okay, so Dr. Silkworth was a doctor who worked in Towns Hospital.
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  Okay.
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  Anyways, but, you know.
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  I probably cut that out so I don't sound stupid.
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  No, well, that's humility.
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  So, but so he wrote, you know, he wrote his, the doctor's opinion.
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  And an opinion, right, is the belief of a fact.
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  So if you think about that, you know, and like when someone said this in front of me, I was like, whoa.
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  Because it was just light bulb.
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  Yeah, because like it made it when they said it, it made the doctor's opinion so much more important.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  And so.
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  But anyways, it says the unselfishness of these men talk about people in AA.
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  As we have come to know them, the entire abstinence of profit motive in their community spirit is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in that alcoholic field.
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  They believe in themselves and still more in the power which pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gates of debt.
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  And, you know, so when I think about what I read, you know, something about, you know, when I look at opportunities to serve, not obstacles to manage.
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  I will not help others to gain something in return.
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  I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about that's the whole deal why these anonymouses are out there, right?
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  Right.
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  The whole nonprofit motive, the community spirit.
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  Man, most people I know that are in there, not a lot of people are closet drinkers.
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  I mean, I wasn't, but I know you were.
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  Yeah, I mean, it was an isolating drinker for sure.
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  Right. And yeah, I didn't want coworkers, especially to know how much I was drinking.
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  Definitely.
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  Yeah.
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  But yeah, I know. I mean, I spent a lot of time in bars. I spent a lot of time around people and
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  then the other people I manipulated. So, you know, I, man, I manipulated people. So I was able to talk.
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  And so I, when I take away the, the, the alcohol, man, I, I, you know, most of it,
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  most people in this position can talk fairly well and can communicate fairly well once they start
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  you know get the alcohol out of you know but you know i think that's interesting because you know
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  the way we talk to each other i've talked to other people and we're very more more open to other people
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  um and i don't know i was just thinking about that and i was thinking about humility you know i
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  don't know if you're familiar with the 12th tradition too much in the 12 and 12 on page 187
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  it says we are sure that humility expressed by anonymity is the greatest safeguard that
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  Alcoholics Anonymous can ever have and so i think about that and you know that means there's no uh
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  how can i say this i mean there's no big dogs in AA yeah there's not like a president of the
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  organization right right so and that's important because man like you know and that there's nobody
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  running it and you know i've always been told when you start getting too good at your service position
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  you need to get a new one um and that's why they have the spirit of rotation right yeah because when
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  i start getting too smart and i start touching things and man i start managing you know my ego
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  does it automatically oh yeah yeah feel like you're in control but you know i think you know some way
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  When I just let God take over, like, you know, God, God leans me this way and takes me this way.
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  And it's, I don't know, but we're rethinking.
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  Well, it says in the spiritual ripple, you know, Jesus shows your real humility is lived out in love and service.
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  And I can be of service to other people and still be very controlling and self-serving with it.
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  but not if it's being lived out in love, because love and control cannot coexist.
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  You know, if I'm trying to control you, Corey, that means I don't really love you.
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  You know, I don't love you as a person who can make your own decisions, has the right to
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  be wrong even sometimes, you know.
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  And the same thing happens, you know, at home, you know, with our wives and significant others.
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  And so, you know, also think about this is in, you know, Mark, the 10th chapter, you know,
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  verse 45 says that even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to
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  give his life as a ransom for many.
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  So again, you know, it's talking about trying to follow with my life, the example of Jesus
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  now he lived his life and not because I'm trying to be Jesus, but part of our role as Christians
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  is to live life according to the way Jesus exemplified and taught us to live.
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  And he did say that no greater love has anyone than this to lay down his life for his friends.
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  Well, you know, and in recovery, we talk about turning over our will and our life,
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  our lives to the care of God as we understood him.
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  And the lives part, a lot of people make the analogy that that is, you know, our will,
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  our actions, you know, kind of what we do, turning that over to God as well.
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  And sometimes when I'm turning over my life, my will, my actions to God,
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  God is leading me to places that may require me to actually lay down my life, you know, for somebody else.
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  Like, I don't know.
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  I haven't had to do it yet, obviously, because I'm still sitting here.
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  But, you know, the true humility leads me to wherever God wants to take me, wherever God wants me to be.
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  Right.
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  Well, I mean, like, I think when I read the third step prayer, we've talked about this probably,
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  how I, you know, my will is my thoughts, my life is my actions.
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  And so that's just the way it made sense to me in my head.
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  And then I think about page 164, right?
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  It's because, you know, it says abandon yourself to God as you understand God.
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  You know, and it talks about that.
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  You know, Pastor Mike, I like to think everything's in order in the book.
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  I don't know if they're that smart back in 1939.
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  Yeah.
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  But it's only 164 pages, but they could not have messed up that much.
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  But what I was thinking about is like, you know,
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  kind of like after it tells me what I'm supposed to do every day.
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  It says, you know, ask what I can do for the man who still suffers.
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  Right.
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  And then it goes, and I don't know if we talked about what I've like
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  kind of recently thought about on page 164 about this.
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  Not, I mean, I can't answer that until you tell me what you've recently thought about it.
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  So it says, ask him in your morning meditation.
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  what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.
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  Right.
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  Then it goes on to say the answers will come
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  if your own house is in order.
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  So maybe, let's just say your own house is in order.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, maybe you need to be praying for yourself.
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  Yeah, to get your house.
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  Right, right.
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  You know, because it says,
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  but obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got.
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  See to it your relationship with him is right
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  and great events will come to pass for you and countless others.
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  This is the great fact for us.
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  And I've said this probably on here too, but, you know, it's interesting that everywhere in the big book that's in the middle of the sentence, right, is capitalized as talking about God.
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  And the great fact is capitalized on this page, but it's not capitalized on page 25.
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  Anyways, but, you know, the last part of it, it says, abandon yourself to God as you understand God.
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  Admit your faults to him and to your fellows.
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  So don't just, you know, you know what I mean?
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  And I can come in and then you'll join us as we do what?
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  Yeah.
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  Trudge.
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  Right.
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  Well, it's also gift freely what you find and join us.
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  And I think, you know, that's like, so when I think of what I'm banding myself to God, what does that look like?
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  You know, to me, it's the most absolute thing of love.
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  Where can I show love?
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  Where can I be in love?
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  And I don't think there's any, we were kind of talking about some dude earlier about, you know, talking about character defects.
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  And, you know, I, man, I can get bogged down in that.
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  And I don't, for some reason, when I'm sitting here with you or sitting here with a new guy going through this literature, I'm not worried about my character defects.
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  You know, God says he's, you know, the book says God's going to take care of them as I do his work.
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  Right.
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  So, I mean, like, I don't, I think, you know, my best place with, you know, in this work is with another dude just one-on-one.
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  And I think that's the most peace, and I think I get a lot out of that.
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  I like how you brought up in prayer that sometimes we might need to pray for ourselves.
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  Right.
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  Because a lot of times people in AA, and I've heard people say in the rooms of AA that,
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  well, I should never be praying for myself.
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  I should always be praying for somebody else to try to train themselves out of self-seeking.
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  And then at the end of the meeting, we all stand up and we pray for ourselves.
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  Right.
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  Because that's in the model prayer or the Lord's prayer.
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  Give us this day our daily bread.
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  Well, that's saying, God, give me what I need.
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  And then we say, lead us not into temptation.
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  That's saying, God, keep me away from evil.
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  You know, help protect me from myself.
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  And it's not for any selfish or self-serving need.
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  It's so that we ourselves are being full and filled, you know, with the spirit of God, with the love of God, the light of Christ, so that we can share that with somebody else.
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  Well, you know, I was thinking about when you said that.
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  The book says it, too.
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  I don't know, on page 87 in here, it says,
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  Ask for ourselves.
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  It says, you know, we are careful never to pray for our own selfish needs.
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  Selfish ends.
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  Or no, it says, we may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped.
• 14:45
  Exactly.
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  You know, because my prayers don't look like I want a new car.
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  Right.
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  We're not a prosperity praying group.
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  Yeah.
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  Hey, God, you know, watch over my family.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, watch over my family, watch over my kids and, you know, help guide and direct me.
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  You know, I find a lot of, you know, my, man, I'll tell you, I, I left my notebook that has my prayers in my car.
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  And I don't know why there was this, like, there was this block for me just, like, Corey, walk out there and go get it.
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  Yeah.
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  So for three days, I didn't go through that.
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  And, man, my mornings, you know, they, that's, I have to do that.
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  And I was talking to my sponsor about that today.
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  No, it wasn't because you got kicked out like before and Bill told you to take your stuff with you.
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  Because I remember that story, which is hilarious.
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  No, it was because I'll tell you, I was in a rush one morning.
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  And I hadn't done my prayers for the people.
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  And I just grabbed my notebook and did it while I was driving.
• 15:45
  Yeah.
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  And, you know, because that's important to me.
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  And, you know, I'll tell you, you know, one thing I do with that prayer book is I have like five or six people on there that I have some pretty.
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  I mean, to me, they're big.
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  You know, like, I think amends are all subjective.
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  You know, what's a big amends to you might not be a big amends to me.
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  But, you know, to me, they're, you know, fairly, you know, decent size amends.
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  And so I pray for those people every single day.
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  And I ask God for their forgiveness and love.
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  And then underneath it, I say, you need to contact them anyways.
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  But that's for me, you know, and God's going to present that in his own time.
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  But that's important because if I'm constantly praying about myself, I find direction in prayer as well when I get quiet.
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  And I think that's the whole meditation thing.
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  Exactly.
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  You got to stop and listen.
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  Well, our prayer for today, to close out, we'll talk about more of this the next couple of days.
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  But our prayer today is, Father God, teach me to seek your will instead of my own.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, reshape my motives and help me serve others with a sincere heart.
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  Form in me the humility I cannot create on my own through the example of Jesus.
• 16:57
  Amen.