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October 13 – Dealing with Things Promptly · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast. Today is October the
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  13th. I think that is Tuesday for most of us here.
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  And our devotional today is titled Dealing with Things Promptly.
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  And I don't know, maybe we should wait on this one.
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  Maybe we should do something else first and come back. I think you need to be
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  kidding. I'm making a joke about the holiday. Yeah, sorry.
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  This one is not the episode for the procrastinators out there,
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  or is it? Okay, let's just get into it. The stone.
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  Spiritual growth flourishes when I deal with problems quickly instead of letting
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  them take root. Ripple 1, Practically.
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  Today, I will not ignore selfishness, resentment, fear, or dishonesty when they appear.
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  The sooner I acknowledge them, the easier they are to address.
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  Honest correction today prevents greater regret tomorrow.
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  Ripple 2 is Spiritual. As I follow Christ's example of humility and repentance,
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  the Holy Spirit quickly brings conviction when my heart begins to wander.
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  The Father never reveals my faults to shame me, but to free me,
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  inviting me into a life marked by honesty, humility, and love.
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  Corey, when I think about this one, I kind of go to the practical ripple, you know, first.
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  And there's a part in, you know, Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount,
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  and that's in Matthew 5 and in verse 25, you know, where he's teaching.
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  And part of his sermon, he says, settle matters quickly with your adversary
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  who's taking you to court.
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  Do it while you're still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you
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  over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer.
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  He may be thrown into prison.
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  So, and that sounds like an odd thing, you know, an odd thing to have in the
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  middle of the Sermon on the Mount, like, you know, why is Jesus giving legal
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  advice, you know, kind of thing, you might think.
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  But he's talking about the requirements of their law was very religious.
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  You know, it was the law of Moses, right? There were the Ten Commandments that
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  had grown into 613 rules and regulations in the Old Testament.
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  And that's why he's trying to get back to, you know, what is the intent of any
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  kind of law, any type of situation like that.
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  And the intent is to reconcile. And that's why he's teaching in the message
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  there about settling matters quickly, you know, with any adversary that you have.
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  And that goes back to, you know, today I won't ignore my selfishness,
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  resent, and the fear or dishonesty. The sooner I acknowledge them,
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  the easier they are to address.
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  And it's whether it's internally within, you know, my own spirit,
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  within my own heart, or whether it's a conflict that I have with somebody else.
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  You know, if I'm not willing to talk about, you know, what happened between
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  me and another person, then I'm never going to be able to reconcile with that
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  person, you know, or have any type of relationship with them again.
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  And I mean, that's just one example of how dealing with things promptly can
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  resolve things. Because.
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  You know, there's that thing sometimes we talk about, well, just let bygones
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  be bygones and it's water under the bridge, you know, that kind of stuff.
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  But for us, you know, who are addicts or alcoholics in a mean way or another,
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  those things, the water doesn't stay under the bridge.
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  Right. You know, the water starts to swirl around and then it comes and it overtakes
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  the bridge and it washes out the road, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
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  And it's because we haven't been maintaining the banks, you know,
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  our boundaries or what have you. But anyway, that analogy probably didn't hit
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  too well either, but I'll just turn it over to you, Corey, let you run with it.
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  Well, I mean, no, I mean, it's all like, you know.
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  You know, you think about a boat, right? Boat? A boat.
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  Wood boat. Or gets a hole in it. Yeah. Water starts coming in.
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  Exactly. If you don't take care of the hole, the boat's going to go under, right?
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  And so what I've found in my life through that kind of example,
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  and really after being sober for a length of time and then letting the water
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  fill up and fill up in the boat is it becomes chaotic.
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  It becomes really chaotic and like you know just trying to balance this do this
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  do this make sure this person right it's a very complicated way and oh only
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  kind of life i could live like that is me drinking,
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  because i'm not feeling it right and so in in the sex inventory part of our book.
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  On page 68 or 60.
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  No, what is it? I think it's 69, somewhere there.
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  It says, if we're not sorry and our conduct continues to harm others,
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  we possibly drink, right?
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  So that gives me like this thing of like, hey, if I continue to harm others
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  and not make things right, and I'm not sorry for what I'm doing and just hurting
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  you, man, I could possibly drink.
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  And for someone like me to drink is the dime. So maybe these spiritual principles
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  are more important than me just acting right. Right.
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  And I guess like, you know, it comes in slowly. I don't know about you,
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  if you've experienced this, but it'd be a little lie over here.
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  There'll be something over here. Then it'll be a thought about this.
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  And it's just starts whirling around.
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  And then I can't even keep a conversation with my significant other,
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  let alone make a phone call to check on a new dude, because my life is so unbearable
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  because my head won't sit still and I can't sit still at perfect peace and ease either.
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  But what I found is what it says, right? We make amends quickly if we've harmed
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  somebody. We talk to somebody about it. Man, I got, what a cool deal.
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  Like, you know, this program that I'm in and you're in, I have a list of people I can call.
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  And, man, like, you know, when I give someone a phone call, like,
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  I'm doing better, like I said before, you know, of, like, you know,
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  telling them what's going on with me, too.
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  Because I've really practiced it really hard about asking about what they're
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  doing, what's going on with them.
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  But, you know, man, if I'm not calling and being an example of what this program
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  looks like, and that's me not being an example of what this program looks like,
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  because if I'm just always perfect, then I'm not, then who am I?
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  Yeah. Because I have stuff that comes up. Sure. And so when I'm being an example,
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  and that's being a real human with human problems, we're,
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  not extra better because we're in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous today.
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  We just found a spiritual way of life that works for us today and that we're
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  not out here guzzling ourselves to death.
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  What else do you think, buddy? I like the wooden boat analogy that you had,
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  because it's almost like, you know, something will happen and there's a hole
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  in the bottom of the boat, springs a leak.
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  And, you know, for me, I may not notice it at first, but I notice that all of
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  a sudden there's water in the bottom of my boat.
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  Well, instead of looking for, you know, where the hole is, I'll just grab a
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  bucket and start wasting time bailing water out, right?
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  And then something else happens and there's another hole in the boat now.
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  And so then there's more water coming in. And I'm looking around the boat going,
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  where is all this water coming from? And so I'm bailing harder and harder and harder.
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  And if I had taken the time initially when the water first started coming in
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  to find that hole and to plug it, then I would not have to go through nearly as much effort.
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  And I was just thinking about how exhausting it is when I look back and see
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  that I've been bailing water instead of plugging the holes, you know?
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  And so, because bailing water takes a lot more of my time, effort,
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  and energy than it would just to fix, you know, to plug that hole to begin with.
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  But for me, you know, dealing with things promptly is not easy, Corey, because I am.
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  I've been a procrastinator from way on back, right? I mean, from very early on in my life.
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  I mean, why do something today that could wait for tomorrow?
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  Right. You know, I mean, it's that kind of thing.
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  But then tomorrow, it could wait for tomorrow.
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  And then that next day, it could wait for the next day. It just never gets resolved.
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  And meanwhile, I'm getting exhausted by bailing out the water,
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  you know, versus when I deal with it quickly, then, you know,
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  the sooner that I acknowledge something, the easier it is to address,
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  just like, you know, the practical ripple had said.
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  Well, do you think, uh, it's kind of like Noah's Ark, right?
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  We are talking about boats. Right. You know, it's the opposite,
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  right? You know, like displacing the water now, but like, you know,
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  it's like, you know, cause there's always going to be a flood.
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  You know, and are you prepared for that flood?
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  You know, and I don't think we always are. And like, you know,
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  that's where, and that's like where the self-reliance thing comes away.
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  Right. You know, cause like I've always been trying to be self-reliant, but it always fails.
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  Well, if I can be God-reliant, you know, rely on God instead of me and God to
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  take care of the boat, you know, and I, and you know, I was thinking about this
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  the other day and, you know, I got like, you know, we come into this position,
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  I come into this position where,
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  of, well, on page 62 of the big book, it's like, you know, and there's some,
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  there's scripture that points to this, or 63 in the big book,
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  you know, and there's so many different scriptures that point to this,
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  but I hold onto this because it's true.
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  It says on page 63, he provided what we needed if we kept close to him and performed his work well.
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  And man, like, you know, today I can go to sleep almost every day and I know
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  that I'm performing God's work.
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  And I know I'm taken care of. And, you know, like, I think that's important,
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  because, like, you know, when I go through my life, do I know that or do I not?
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  Do I, like, can I go to sleep today knowing that, man, I've tried to help other
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  dudes, I've been a piece of my family, been a piece of this world.
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  Like, you know, like, I could do that today. I've not always been able to do that.
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  You know, and, you know, usually, you know, it wasn't like this.
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  It was like chaos calamity boats getting filled up with water regardless something
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  bad's gonna happen and you're gonna go to jail court it's just not a matter
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  how and what it's when because it's just a time limit,
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  and um i think it's really cool to be a part of this thing like you know be
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  a part of this right here right getting we were talking about it before we started
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  today like the opportunity to be able to just read literature and talk about
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  this stuff because it's a man like i don't know about you, but I have sat
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  outside of meetings for hours talking to people just about spiritual things.
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  Just, you know, I went through and talking and how much fun.
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  And like, we get to talk with a microphone on this and let other people experience this with us.
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  And I think it's the coolest thing in the world, man. Yeah, we love it.
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  But our prayer for today is, Father God, help me deal honestly with my failures as soon as they appear.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, give
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  me the humility to admit my faults and the courage to make them right.
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  Shame in me through the example of Jesus. Amen.
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  I just launched into prayer because I couldn't think of anything else to say
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  after that. You know, that happens sometimes, right?