Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / July 28 – Staying in My Lane

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July 28 – Staying in My Lane · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  hey guys this is the daily ripples with an s because we have a website too because so
• 0:10
  to type it in right you put an s at the end of it and i'm the co-host but michael's on here too
• 0:19
  so he's sir and so it's really cool like i think it's when we get to get to get to get together
• 0:23
  because we don't always get to do this,
• 0:26
  but today is July 28th, staying in my lane.
• 0:31
  The stone, I'm called to help,
• 0:33
  but I'm not called to be everything for everyone.
• 0:37
  Real humility accepts both the responsibility God gives me
• 0:41
  and the limits he places on me.
• 0:43
  Ripple one practical,
• 0:45
  today I will focus on what is actually in front of me.
• 0:48
  I will not try to fix every person or situation.
• 0:50
  I will offer help where it is needed.
• 0:53
  and appropriate, but I will not overextend or take what is not mine. Staying grounded keeps me useful.
• 1:01
  Ripple too spiritual. The Father gives each of us a role, not the whole burden. Jesus served
• 1:09
  faithfully, never stepping outside the will of the Father or trying to control outcomes.
• 1:15
  The Holy Spirit keeps me aligned. Remind me that I am a part of the work, not the source of it,
• 1:22
  As I accept both my calling and my limits, I find steady purpose and peace.
• 1:28
  And I'm going to tell you, Pastor Mike, after reading that, man, because I did read this today, but you are very articulate and you are very good at writing.
• 1:37
  The commas, I think, is great.
• 1:40
  I don't have that ability.
• 1:43
  Yeah, but you've got other gifts and skills.
• 1:44
  Well, but anyway, but when I look at this, you know, I, you know, when I looked at this at first, I was going in a completely different direction. But, you know, when I look at this right now, you have the fifth tradition is very important of the program and the room I'm in. And it says my primary purpose to help the, let me read the full version of it.
• 2:08
  Yeah, yeah.
• 2:09
  The long form.
• 2:11
  Because I think the long form does a better justice.
• 2:14
  Most of the traditions are more fleshed out in the long form in our literature and recovery for sure.
• 2:21
  Each Alcoholics Anonymous group ought to be a spiritual entity having but one primary purpose,
• 2:28
  that of carrying its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.
• 2:33
  So, one thing that tells me the group's a spiritual entity.
• 2:38
  Second thing that tells me who I'm here to help.
• 2:41
  I'm not here to help a bank robber.
• 2:43
  I'm not here to help a murderer.
• 2:48
  You know, man, those are just, you know, if, you know, I, and this kind of stands on a place, but I'm going to stand on this position.
• 2:56
  Because there's one thing that's common between everybody in those rooms is when they take a drink, they want more.
• 3:03
  Yeah.
• 3:04
  And after a certain amount of time, they drink.
• 3:08
  And it says that in the doctor's opinion, and they would not have put the doctor's opinion if it wasn't true.
• 3:14
  And so someone comes in there and they're like, man, I'm having bad relationship advice.
• 3:20
  I sometimes drink a little bit too much.
• 3:23
  Just sometimes.
• 3:24
  But like my wife asked me to stop.
• 3:26
  I've been in treatment centers and this and this and this.
• 3:29
  That doesn't fully make them an alcoholic.
• 3:32
  Just because you've been to 18 treatment centers doesn't make you an alcoholic.
• 3:36
  Because, you know, my book tells me that what an alcoholic is.
• 3:40
  What if you've got situations that you're just drinking over?
• 3:44
  What if you've had a rough time and you're just drinking?
• 3:47
  Because, you know, the one common thing is if you don't want to sip after that first drink,
• 3:54
  then you're probably not an alcoholic.
• 3:56
  And I'm not here to want to tell you, but it tells me I qualify that.
• 3:59
  Yeah.
• 3:59
  And I think that's an interesting thing because, you know, people come into that room.
• 4:04
  You know, some people want to just save them because they're in the business of helping.
• 4:09
  Yeah.
• 4:10
  Yeah.
• 4:11
  And I'm not in the business of killing someone either, though.
• 4:13
  So if I decide, hey, man, this dude, you know, you rob banks or do this and I can help you.
• 4:21
  And he goes out there and gets in a, you know, a standoff with the Atlanta Police Department.
• 4:28
  You know what I mean?
• 4:29
  Like, you know, yes, I told him because he said, man, these dudes, you know, in this 12 step room said they had the cure for me.
• 4:36
  But, you know, on a little smaller scale, you know, people do that with, you know, all these different drugs or this.
• 4:43
  And I do think, you know, all these other rooms are very important because they have each of those rooms has a common problem.
• 4:50
  But if I don't have the same common problem as you, and we're not going to relate, we're not going to be able to talk about this and understand each other.
• 4:56
  I don't know.
• 4:57
  What are we at all?
• 4:58
  Well, I got a little bit sidebarred whenever you said it's in the doctor's opinion, and it wouldn't be in the doctor's opinion if it wasn't true.
• 5:08
  And I wanted to stop you right there and say, so what makes it an opinion then if it's just abject?
• 5:12
  True.
• 5:13
  But anyway, it's just the words.
• 5:17
  words. Sometimes we get caught up on them a little bit. But what I get from it is this one today for
• 5:25
  me, you know, as I read it again, because we've talked about this a lot on here. Most of these
• 5:32
  daily devotions I've written months ahead of when we're actually pulling them back up and talking
• 5:37
  about them because I wrote everything. And in fact, recently I had a major milestone accomplishment
• 5:42
  because I got all the way through December 31st and I was so happy about that, man.
• 5:46
  We just fist bumped.
• 5:47
  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 5:49
  And so now I got to go back and re-edit, you know, the drafts or whatever.
• 5:53
  But, you know, but reading it again, it always something new strikes out.
• 5:59
  And as you were reading it today, what jumped out to me was this is talking about how I used to be an overworker, overachiever, man.
• 6:07
  Because I would just want to do everything.
• 6:10
  And even doing for good, not doing selfishly, like, you know, early in recovery.
• 6:16
  working with other people trying to do things that are good i'm still an over worker and an
• 6:21
  overachiever even in that you know i'll try to be all things to all people if somebody needs something
• 6:27
  i want to provide it for them early recovery that was especially true you know if they were
• 6:31
  the female persuasion but there might have been some other motivations there but you know god
• 6:36
  rescued me from that as well by giving me the right woman you know and so um but and this is saying that
• 6:45
  clearly says in the spiritual ripple, and I believe it,
• 6:48
  that the Father gives each of us a role, and we don't have the whole burden.
• 6:51
  And kind of where that comes from, as I wrote it,
• 6:55
  as I was thinking back to the book of Exodus in the Bible, Moses.
• 6:59
  Moses, who did have a major role to play in the liberation of his people.
• 7:05
  He led them across the Red Sea, away from the Egyptians,
• 7:08
  and then they're in the wilderness.
• 7:10
  And then in the wilderness, Moses is still trying to be everything to everybody.
• 7:14
  Never mind the fact that Moses had some limitations.
• 7:17
  He wasn't a good public speaker.
• 7:19
  He was a great teacher and clearly close to God,
• 7:23
  but he wasn't nearly as good of a public speaker as some other people in his family.
• 7:28
  And there was a time when Jethro, who was Moses' father-in-law, I believe,
• 7:35
  told him plainly to stop trying to be everything for everybody.
• 7:38
  And this is in Exodus chapter 18, starting in verse 17.
• 7:42
  It says, what you're doing is not good.
• 7:45
  This is Jethro talking to Moses.
• 7:47
  So you and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.
• 7:51
  The work is too heavy for you.
• 7:53
  You cannot handle it alone.
• 7:55
  If Moses couldn't handle the work that God called him to do alone,
• 7:59
  then why would I think that I could do anything that God calls me to do on my own either?
• 8:04
  I have to have others working with me.
• 8:06
  I can't do it all myself.
• 8:08
  I have to, you might say, stay in my lane, you know, and realize what I can control, what I'm responsible for and what I'm not.
• 8:16
  Well, you know, I might have talked to you about this, you know, but there's a time, you know, before when I was in the recovery rooms, my conversations talked a lot about balance.
• 8:32
  And managing my time.
• 8:34
  Yeah.
• 8:35
  Which can be read as protecting my time.
• 8:38
  Yeah, sometimes.
• 8:42
  Well, for some reason today, I mean, you know, me and you, dudes we hang out with, we do,
• 8:49
  I mean, I would say we do our fair amount of work in the rooms, right?
• 8:54
  I mean, you know, I could always, I probably couldn't do any more.
• 8:58
  You know, I'm probably maxed out.
• 9:00
  You seem to be, objectively.
• 9:02
  Right.
• 9:03
  Oh, in all different directions.
• 9:05
  But, you know, what's really cool about that is the way I understand it, you know, it says the way you understand it.
• 9:12
  And I think believing it.
• 9:14
  So in 164, it says, abandon yourself to God as you understand God.
• 9:18
  And as I understand God right now and what my job is to do today is abandon myself to him and his kids.
• 9:27
  And, you know, so but what I've done that, you know, what's different before and now is I've done that.
• 9:34
  in my life today i have time for like you know what how cool right like you know they have uh
• 9:40
  see you next tuesday yeah right on you know you know i'm able to do these and that's a women's group
• 9:47
  right yeah you know i'm trying to find um pastor mike 229 because it's micah it's uh if you want
• 9:56
  to pull it up you're probably probably quicker it's micah 6-8 but i mean when i was thinking about
• 10:03
  you know, when and how to give and, you know, abandon myself. And, you know, God is taking
• 10:10
  care. I was talking to my sponsor today or the other yesterday, you know, I was told him, I said,
• 10:16
  you know, God is taking care of me every day, every time and all through all this. And, you know,
• 10:24
  there's some things that, you know, go on in my life, you know, it's overwhelming. You know,
• 10:27
  if I looked at it in an aspect of, man, I got to deal with this for that long and do these things
• 10:32
  every day. Anyways, it got overwhelming. And like, cause we were talking about it and he was like,
• 10:37
  man, it's crazy, you know? Anyways, but you know, it's not like, but when I don't look at it like
• 10:42
  that and I take care of God's kids, it's not that big of a deal. Right. And that's, you know,
• 10:47
  I can relate to that because I go back to kind of when we first started doing this podcast,
• 10:52
  you know, I started out just writing these daily devotionals. I put them on a WordPress site,
• 10:56
  created the site, started sending it out to some folks. And that's based off of some things that
• 11:01
  some other people in recovery, including yourself, were doing.
• 11:03
  Well, I kind of spearheaded the idea as well as, you know, Memphis, our friend who's been
• 11:07
  on here before.
• 11:07
  He sends some daily devotionals out to men and has for years.
• 11:11
  And that, you know, kind of got me to thinking of that idea when I found that I had time.
• 11:15
  But as it kind of grew into a daily podcast, initially, I would always get a lot of anxiety.
• 11:21
  You know, we talked about it some at the time back in March, whenever it would be recording
• 11:26
  nights, because I would think about, can I maintain this?
• 11:30
  Can I maintain this?
• 11:31
  You know, that kind of thing.
• 11:32
  And what I found is that if I just take it a day at a time, it goes smoothly.
• 11:38
  Now, but I want to pause real quickly because I'm sure that there are people who are listening
• 11:43
  who, when you said Micah 6, 8, but we didn't say what it said yet, are probably screaming
• 11:47
  at their device or at their phone, probably yelling out what the verse says, because it
• 11:52
  is one of the famous ones.
• 11:53
  And it's just, he has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
• 11:56
  And what does the Lord require of you?
• 11:58
  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
• 12:03
  So that's the verse that you were kind of pulling up and kind of using as inspiration there a little bit.
• 12:09
  Yeah, I think that's really cool.
• 12:10
  You know, I really wish, you know, that's wild.
• 12:15
  I was definitely eating when I was up this page.
• 12:18
  For those listening to the Russells online,
• 12:21
  Corey has discovered he got a couple pages of his Bible stuck together here.
• 12:25
  But God's word cannot be so easily defeated.
• 12:31
  But, you know, where it says, you know, he has shown you, oh, oh, man, what is good?
• 12:36
  Oh, that's yeah.
• 12:37
  Oh, man, what is good?
• 12:39
  And what does the Lord require of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?
• 12:47
  And like, you know, without pride and without ego.
• 12:50
  Right.
• 12:50
  Right.
• 12:51
  And that's important because I can walk around and think I'm, you know, somebody that's important.
• 12:55
  And, you know, I think, you know, I can go back to a simpler level and I'm just, you know, man, I'm just an alcoholic.
• 13:01
  Yeah.
• 13:01
  You know, but I'm a child of God today.
• 13:03
  And if I don't, like, I think about that, like, what if I didn't help Peter?
• 13:09
  You know, but I got this free gift.
• 13:13
  You know, what does that feel like?
• 13:15
  I mean, I'm not trying to talk down to anybody out there, but, you know, that's something crazy to live with.
• 13:20
  You know, someone spends just, let's say, a year talking to you and you find freedom through that.
• 13:28
  Yeah.
• 13:28
  And then you just hold it in.
• 13:31
  We don't share it with anybody.
• 13:33
  That probably causes chaos within someone.
• 13:36
  Well, it's symptomatic of a lack of gratitude, you know, within a person.
• 13:41
  And eventually that lack of gratitude will bubble up in other negative ways in our lives.
• 13:47
  That's why when I live out my gratitude, I'm able to be more at peace today.
• 13:53
  And that's one of the gifts of God that I've received as well.
• 13:56
  Well, Corey, why don't you close us out today with our prayer for today?
• 14:00
  Yeah, it is on July 28th.
• 14:06
  Prayer.
• 14:08
  Father, help me accept both my role and my limits today.
• 14:11
  Through your Holy Spirit, keep me grounded and faithful in what you have given me to do.
• 14:18
  Shape my life through the example of Jesus and use me rightly, not excessively.
• 14:24
  Amen.
• 14:25
  Amen.
• 14:25
  I tried to throw some extra words in there for you, but...
• 14:28
  We do that sometimes.
• 14:29
  You know, we just start to throw in extra words.
• 14:33
  And neither of us are short in supply of words.
• 14:36
  That's the only thing that I got.