Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / August 25 – Freedom Through Connection

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August 25 – Freedom Through Connection · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:06
  Hey guys, this is the Daily Ripples, and we got Steffani with us, and we got Pastor Mike.
• 0:12
  And today is August 25th.
• 0:15
  Freedom through Connection.
• 0:17
  The stone, the freedom God gives is not freedom from people, but freedom to love and connect with them.
• 0:23
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:26
  Today I choose connection over isolation.
• 0:28
  Real relationships require honesty, presence, and vulnerability.
• 0:33
  The more I move beyond myself, the more room there is meaningful bonds with others.
• 0:39
  Ripple two spiritual.
• 0:42
  as I move toward connection instead of isolation.
• 0:45
  The Holy Spirit draws me in the deeper fellowship with God and with others.
• 0:49
  The Father created me for relationship, not loneliness.
• 0:54
  And Jesus formed a community of followers who learned and grew together.
• 0:59
  And uh, Yeah, I was thinking about page 164.
• 1:05
  I mean, I wasn't thinking about it, but I just thought about it.
• 1:07
  Um, You know, and it tells me on page 164, it says, He will show you how to create the fellowship you crave.
• 1:19
  And then it goes on to the next paragraph that says, our book is meant to be suggestive only.
• 1:24
  We realize that we know only a little.
• 1:26
  And you know, people say that right there, that line, and then they're like, they say, you know, they say something that they say in treatment centers, they completely mess it up.
• 1:35
  But anyways, that's all, it says God will constantly disclose more to you and to us.
• 1:41
  Ask him in your morning meditation, what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. So I was thinking about that and I was thinking about like what a God has done in my life.
• 1:51
  And when I 1st came in the rims of these recovery rooms, man, they opened, they opened with open arms, right?
• 2:00
  They, they were very, they, they had a chair.
• 2:02
  They were smiling and everything else in between.
• 2:04
  They took me out to eat.
• 2:06
  We went golfing.
• 2:07
  We did all sorts of fun things, man.
• 2:09
  And, um, But I think for a lot of people, and for, you know, I didn't get to experience that because right when I got in, I got in the book and I started working with other guys because I knew that's what you're supposed to do because I've done it before, and, But you see people come in, and I've seen, you know, this is the biggest problem I see is, you know, they come in, you know, hopeless.
• 2:31
  And then they get a little comfortable.
• 2:35
  They coach out to eat and they forget about any of these 12 set things.
• 2:38
  That gets put to the corner because this fellowship has gave them this hope without the, but without like, without the work, though, it's dead.
• 2:49
  I like how it.
• 2:51
  Anyway.
• 2:51
  Yeah, you just hook us of faith, could you?
• 2:53
  So, but you know, without doing the work.
• 2:56
  I'm, it's just like me sitting in jail.
• 2:59
  I got a common problem.
• 3:00
  We on jail, but there's no solution.
• 3:02
  Without a solution, we just have common problem.
• 3:06
  So, If I don't do the solution, you know, in my friend of mine, you know, he says, you know, after you come in here for a little while, man, you know, you start feeling that loneliness again.
• 3:16
  Because everybody, you know, it's like a shipwreck, right?
• 3:19
  Talks about it on page 17.
• 3:20
  You know, it's like a shipwreck, but everybody else is off the beach and everybody else is back to land, you know, everybody's good.
• 3:26
  But you're still on the beach.
• 3:28
  You're like, hey, what about me?
• 3:29
  You know, so I see that so many times, you know, and some people, you know, get a little bit through the work and get the little bit of this God conscious and starts doing it a little bit, then stops, and then they go back out.
• 3:39
  And then there's this ending, never-ending cycle for 20 years, but in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out because they get that little bit of peace, that little bit, and they wouldn't come back if they didn't have that little bit, right?
• 3:52
  So they keep on coming back and back and forth.
• 3:55
  But, you know, on page 152.
• 3:57
  It says, yes, there's a substitute and it is vastly more than that. And it is the fellowship in alcohol anonymous.
• 4:02
  There you will find release from care, boredom, and worry.
• 4:07
  If I'm don't do the work, because God's created a fellowship I crave through me helping others.
• 4:12
  Not trying to get anything out from them.
• 4:15
  If I come into a relationship in love, then I'm not, you know, and then I don't know if God creates that fellowship, and I don't know, that's what was my beginning thoughts.
• 4:24
  Sorry.
• 4:25
  Man, what a gift this connection is, really, you know?
• 4:30
  And how from a, you know, faith perspective too.
• 4:34
  I mean, we're not meant to walk this thing alone, you know?
• 4:39
  But don't you think that a lot of people, by the time they've gotten to needing AA, aside from Corey's case with the chronic relapser, which I completely understand that too, there's a lack of willingness there.
• 4:52
  Um, They've, they've gotten to a point where,
• 4:57
  They have to find an option.
• 5:00
  Everything they've done hasn't worked, but there's still a bondage to their self.
• 5:05
  You know, there's still the chase that hold them back.
• 5:08
  Even when they come into a room when they 1st, you know, I can just remember those 1st few times and I was like, I, I need to do something.
• 5:18
  I don't want to do this anymore but I can't quit.
• 5:21
  I need to do something.
• 5:22
  What is that?
• 5:23
  That was willingness right there for me.
• 5:24
  And it was, I still have a bondage of self because I'm still all into self.
• 5:29
  Um, and coming in and having a willingness to hear what others have to say.
• 5:35
  Um, and then listening to those people, and you have to do it more than once, right?
• 5:41
  I mean, it's like any kind of sport you play, any kind of thing you have to practice at it.
• 5:46
  You have to show up, number one.
• 5:49
  And if you're new in this, show up, come to a meeting, 90 meetings in 90 days.
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  You've got to practice because it's not going to be ingrained in your head and it's not an automatic thing.
• 5:58
  So I walked in and I was like, I know I need this.
• 6:01
  I don't know if I want to hear this, but I know I need to come every day probably.
• 6:05
  Somebody said you need to come every day.
• 6:07
  I was like, do I feel like I want to do this?
• 6:10
  No, I don't really feel like I want to do this.
• 6:12
  But these people sound like me.
• 6:15
  I'm hearing their experience something just like mine.
• 6:19
  So, you know,
• 6:21
  The willingness that they had to share got me up and out of isolation.
• 6:27
  It got me up and out of myself, even though I was still stuck in myself.
• 6:32
  Do you really believe that?
• 6:34
  Do you, you know, and the reason I say that is because I think what happens is we go in these rooms when we hear all this stuff.
• 6:43
  The stuff that sounds like him, plausible and decent and, you know, agreeable to some terms and, you know, but do I really believe that I am still stuck in self all the time?
• 6:54
  You know, it's almost like a negative thing that I can get, you know, used to saying all the time, like, you know, I'm still just, you know, in me.
• 7:00
  Well, but, you know, I know a little bit about your life, and I don't, I would disagree.
• 7:06
  Well, when I 1st came in is what I'm saying.
• 7:08
  That's where I was.
• 7:09
  I'm not there anymore.
• 7:10
  Right, but you can get we can get called in though, right?
• 7:12
  still saying those words and it's like, but but am I real?
• 7:16
  You know, because, like, if I take it all the way back to my thought life, right?
• 7:21
  In my thought life, I am 100% still stuck on self, because my default reaction, even now, even when I have things that I'm called upon to do that are in service to others that I've signed up to do, that I've volunteered to do, and that I get spiritual fulfillment out of doing it, I will still, at times, in my thought life, be complaining about it the whole way there.
• 7:40
  You know, not wanting to do it.
• 7:43
  But that's where I think willingness, I've gotten enough willingness from experiencing the rewards and benefits of work in this program that's grown my willingness enough that even when I have those thoughts hitting me hard from, you know, putting the dogs in their rooms, or going down to the car, to leaving the garage, to, you know, down the driveway until I finally hear that song or something, you know, on the radio or through the stereo that.
• 8:14
  gets me in the zone of where and in the moment of where I need to be.
• 8:18
  Because for me, a lot of times I do connect to my higher power through music. And so it helps me in those times.
• 8:23
  And so, but my fault life is still complaining and stuck in self the whole time about what inconvenience everything is, even though it's something that I signed up for.
• 8:32
  And the willingness is what pushes me through those things and the willingness comes from the experience of experiencing the benefits of having done it before.
• 8:42
  I mean, yeah, I've just got to go back to page 130 in the 12 and 12 a lot.
• 8:47
  And because it says so much and it says, at 1st he goes along because he must.
• 8:53
  But later he discovers a way of life.
• 8:57
  He really wants to live.
• 8:58
  And so like, yeah, man, like, you know, I did a lot of this stuff, because I must, in the beginning, because I knew, like, you know, because there's words in there.
• 9:07
  It says immunity.
• 9:08
  It says, you know, per sobriety, if I work with others.
• 9:11
  I knew what the I know what the benefit is.
• 9:14
  I know what the benefit is waking up on my knees every morning and doing the things that like that.
• 9:19
  Getting and saying prayers to get out of me.
• 9:22
  You know, I saw the benefit when I was facing, you know, you know, what, 15 felonies.
• 9:28
  of writing a prayer list before I went to court, so I didn't pee myself in the process of doing that because I, you know, I didn't even want to drive myself down there because, you know, my attorney said you were going to prison.
• 9:38
  So I got an Uber every time. And I didn't want to be a hassle to my family.
• 9:42
  So, and when I did that, because I must, I must get out of myself, but then I found a way of life.
• 9:49
  I really wanted to live.
• 9:50
  Now, like I don't, man, you know, I get to, I get the privilege to do things like this.
• 9:58
  I get the privilege to see dudes eyes open, and I really like that, and I don't have, you know, I, sometimes, you know, it's hard for me to call, like I got, I got some dudes that like have a brand new guys that like sometimes are like, man, I got to call him.
• 10:13
  have an awkward conversation for a minute anyways, but it's still good though, right?
• 10:18
  Because, like, I know what's on the other side of that.
• 10:19
  But, you know, sometime, but like I still enjoy it.
• 10:23
  Yeah, there's this negative thing that people, like, you know, people talk about because they're still stuck at, there's so many people out there and yeah, there's a, the 5% rule.
• 10:32
  And there's so many people that are stuck right before page 51 in the or 52 in the big book.
• 10:39
  They're still on page 52.
• 10:41
  And that's the bedevilments, right?
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  They're still full of fear.
• 10:43
  They still don't know how to be used to others because they don't know. Like, and that kind of sucks watching.
• 10:49
  But, you know, real quick and all should be quiet.
• 10:51
  And on Genesis 218.
• 10:54
  Oh, bring us a word.
• 10:57
  It says, and the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone.
• 11:01
  That's right.
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  I will make him a helper.
• 11:03
  comparable to him.
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  So, and God says I shouldn't be alone.
• 11:08
  And you people said I shouldn't be alone either.
• 11:10
  And we're 2 to 3 or gathered.
• 11:12
  you know, that's a meeting, right?
• 11:13
  And so that's, I think it says something else in the Bible to that too.
• 11:17
  I just know the AA stuff.
• 11:18
  So, but I, uh, I, but you know, man, people gave me a life and why would I not?
• 11:26
  I'm so grateful to give that give it back.
• 11:29
  I don't know what else to do.
• 11:30
  Yeah, you quoted from where Jesus said, where 2 or more are gathered in my name there.
• 11:35
  I shall be with you always, or that would be with you as well.
• 11:38
  Now, a lot of people use that to say that's the requirement for having church.
• 11:43
  You know, where 2 are more gathered in your name, but it's it's more programmatic actually than that even because where he actually said it was on the tail end of his teaching about holding, you know, fellow, you know, holding their fellows accountable in that when someone wrongs, either the community or you, you approach them, and if they will not, you know, repent and change their ways, then you take someone else there with you because where 2 or more are gathered in my name, there I will be with you also.
• 12:10
  And so it's really talking about the work of accountability and reconciliation more than the work of church.
• 12:15
  So in my mind, that's more of a 12 step passage than a lot of times we even realize.
• 12:20
  Wow, I did not make that connection.
• 12:22
  Yeah. So thanks for that. That's where a seminary degree comes through, I guess.
• 12:29
  What else do you have for us today, Steffani, what are the thoughts did you have on this?
• 12:34
  I just know that, um, addiction, you know, keeps people isolated in shame and guilt, and, um, a little bit of willingness will, um, Will certainly open the door for God to shine his light inside.
• 12:55
  So.
• 12:57
  Any other thoughts for score yet?
• 13:00
  Oh, I think it was all great.
• 13:01
  Awesome.
• 13:02
  Well, we'll always look up.
• 13:03
  sat with our prayer for the day since you opened us up?
• 13:05
  You moved on to tomorrow already.
• 13:09
  Prayer, Father God, free me from the bondage of self.
• 13:12
  through your Holy Spirit, help me build healthy and meaningful relationships.
• 13:16
  Shape my life through the example of Jesus.
• 13:19
  Amen.
• 13:20
  What are you doing, man?
• 13:21
  Sorry about that.
• 13:22
  Real works.