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October 14 – Beginning and Ending with God · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Hey guys today is october 14th beginning and ending with god,
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  the stone peace grows when i place each day in god's hand before it begins and before it ends,
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  ripple one practical today i will take time to review my day with honesty and
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  begin tomorrow with purpose instead of carrying yesterday's regrets or tomorrow's
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  worries, I'll focus on today's responsibilities.
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  A settled heart makes wiser decisions ripple too spiritual.
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  As I follow Christ's example of seeking the Father in both still moments and
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  busy days, the Holy Spirit gently redirects my thoughts away from fear and toward trust.
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  The Father provides the wisdom I need for today one step at a time.
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  And, you know, I've come into this position lately, my mornings,
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  you know, and my mornings are pretty not simple anymore, but they used to be very simple.
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  You know, because, well, you know, I'm an enthusiast, Michael,
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  and like I overdo things to any degree, and I love my morning time.
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  I love my prayers in the morning. I love my meditations in the morning.
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  I love my readings in the morning.
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  And like, you know, because it started out with like a 30-minute thing,
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  and now it's up to like an hour and 15 minutes every morning.
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  And, you know, but it's really cool because I get to spend that time with God.
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  I get to spend that time away from anything, thinking about anything quiet before I start my day.
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  And that's so important to me because, man, like, you know, well,
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  with what we have today, like we have we have a thousand thoughts on our phones
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  scrolling through all at one time. Right. Yeah.
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  And man, that will jump like we were talking about the other day.
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  Like, man, think about the flood of water that puts in your boat.
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  Like right off the top, right? Right when you wake up.
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  And so like, what's cool is, is be able to sit down and go through some of these
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  thoughts. Like, you know, it's really cool to have directions.
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  Right, on awakening, when we retire, which is exactly what today's Ripple is talking about.
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  Right. Those pages, yeah. And it tells me, I think one of the most important
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  things in this book, besides on awakening, is what it tells me on 164.
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  Because it says, ask him in your morning meditation what you can do each day
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  for the man who's still sick.
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  The answer will come if your own house is in order. but obviously you cannot
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  transmit something you haven't got seats with a relationship with him is right,
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  and it's like so that kind of puts me in like almost like a a challenge right,
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  if i look at that because if i if i ask him every morning what i can do for
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  the man that's still sick and then it almost challenged me is your own is your
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  house in order because maybe you need to get it in order.
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  Maybe you need to build a boat for the flood, right?
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  So you can be of use to God and his people.
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  Because that's what it says our real purpose is, is to fit ourselves to be a
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  maximum of service to God and people around us, right?
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  So if that's my purpose and I read that every morning, I'm like,
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  man, I got to go straighten that up with, you know, there's a guy or gym doc
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  is this doctor, whatever we call him, doc.
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  But I could like, you know, anyways, I had to straighten something up a doc
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  the other day. You know what I mean?
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  Like, but I wake up when I, when I go through this practice and I go,
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  you know, go through that. One thing I don't do as well, though,
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  I don't know what your nights look like.
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  When we retire, and I have a justification because it wasn't in the original
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  manuscript, but I don't do that as well.
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  I fall asleep normally,
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  with my baby, and I fall asleep in there on the couch, and we get in bed and
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  all that stuff. But I don't practice that as much, and maybe I should,
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  and maybe that's something I need to start doing some way or some form.
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  But yeah, what do you think?
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  Well, I think that as you were sharing that, my thought was,
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  because you're talking about something that you're diligent about and then something
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  that you don't do as well. And it's all in those same stretch of pages,
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  regardless of when they were written or when they were added in.
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  It's all in those same, that same chapter in the chapter into action,
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  you know, in the big book, Alcoholics Anonymous. And it's in the section talking about step 10.
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  So what I'll say full confession is I'm much better with the end of the day
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  part than the beginning of the day part.
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  And the reason is just because of my routine. I don't have the same daily discipline
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  you do in terms of the on awakening, right?
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  But I do have the discipline in the end of the day part. And there'll be times
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  when it'll be the end of the day and I'm going through there and I'll plan out,
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  even if it's one of those things, you know, the book talks about,
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  you know, the questions that we're supposed to ask ourselves,
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  you know, as we're reflecting.
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  And so I'll realize that there's something that I need to address or make right.
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  And there are times, and technology is great, right? Because I could be sitting
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  there in my, you know, whirlpool tub, you know, every night at the end of the
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  day, because that's the discipline that I have.
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  And so while I'm in there, I'm, you know, that's when I'm doing my end of the
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  day reflection act to your eyes.
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  And, but I can, with technology now and with a little iPhone,
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  I can draft out, even if it's 10 p.m.
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  At night, I can draft out a text to send to somebody, you know,
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  9 a.m. the next morning. It'll go automatically, you know, 9 a.m.
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  The next day to do those things about if there's something that I need to clean up.
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  And that type of discipline and activity is where, and I've talked a little
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  bit earlier this week about, you know, an issue a couple of months ago that
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  my wife and I had had where she said something that I was upset about and I
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  needed to address it and things of that nature.
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  It was in one of those end of the day, you know, ending the day with God's sessions
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  and thinking about that stuff that I decided that the best way for me to get
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  out some of the things that I needed to do in that relationship was to,
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  I had some amends that I owed to my wife, and I...
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  Took the approach because there weren't like major amends that I drank over
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  like during the night step process, but it's more of that step 10 process of
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  continuing to take my own inventory when I'm wrong, properly admitting it.
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  And for me, the properly admitting it in that in particular instance was I needed
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  to write my wife a letter so that I could get out and say everything that I
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  needed to say, make all the amends that I needed to make clear my side of the street
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  and be heard or I eat red, you know, without being interrupted.
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  But it was one of the situations where she read it and then,
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  you know, we talked about it briefly after.
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  So it wasn't like I was writing it to avoid talking to her directly.
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  It's just that I didn't know if I could, you know, talk directly about,
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  you know, what Naomi said without breaking down or what have you.
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  And so, so yeah, just kind of full confession, you know, the flip side of what
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  you said probably is true in
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  my life, much better end of the day than the beginning of the day stuff.
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  And part of that is because I'm not always consistent on even when I wake up
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  every day, you know, because the nature of the work that I do is very heavy
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  in the afternoons and evenings kind of stuff.
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  And so anyway, that's just me, though. But that beginning and ending with God,
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  you know, this whole concept is.
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  It talks in the spiritual ripple about, as I follow Christ's example of seeking
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  the Father in both still moments and busy days, that example is one that,
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  Even from, you know, the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, you know,
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  it talks about early in the morning while it was still dark,
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  Jesus got up, left his house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.
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  So Jesus, you know, was praying in the mornings as well.
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  So you're doing a much better job, Corey. It sounds like a following Jesus with
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  what you said that I am because I'm doing the end of the day stuff.
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  But my point is, whatever time of day it was, when Jesus ran into earthly or
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  human calamity and conflict, time and time again throughout the Gospels,
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  what you read is that he goes away to a secluded place to pray.
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  I mean, on the nights leading up to his death and crucifixion,
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  he was going to the garden. He was praying, you know, Father,
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  if it be possible, remove this cup from me. But if not, your will, not mine, be done.
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  He modeled every single thing that we're talking about here,
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  praying for God's guidance and direction and then doing exactly what God wants us to do.
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  And, you know, I don't know. That's just that's just what I thought of with this.
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  You know, you know what an AA meeting is. So it's really cool if you think about this.
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  So, you know, we might have talked about this, but, you know,
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  you open an AA meeting with a prayer. Right. So we invite God to.
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  Well depending on what AA meeting you're going to right but like because it
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  could be speaker this this and this,
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  you know you open meeting with a prayer this is a discussion type prayer they present topic right,
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  and for the next hour you're thinking about topic listening to people talk so
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  you're primarily meditating on a topic because you're sitting there.
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  Well, I don't know about you, but like when I haven't been called on for 30,
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  45 minutes, normally kind of weaving the topic around just a little bit in my
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  head, listening to people too at the same time. So I'm meditating on a per,
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  particular topic. Then meeting closes with prayer. Everybody goes home.
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  So I hear a lot of times in those rooms, people are like, you know,
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  man, this is my medication.
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  This is my daily dose, whatever. Well, man, like, you know, my daily dose starts out in the morning.
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  I open it with prayer. Yeah. Yeah. Quiet.
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  But what I, of course not. What I am saying is like, Like, you know,
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  I see a big percentage of people out there that are very meeting dependent rather than God dependent.
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  At the same time, man, I don't believe that it is right to tell people,
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  man, just go to meetings.
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  Because, man, like the primary purpose of the meeting is to carry the message
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  of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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  How do I carry that message? Well, I find somebody to take me through this literature.
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  And then I go do it with somebody else. Right.
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  But what am I doing there? Man, I'm going to see my friends.
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  I'm going to see if there's a dude in there that's, you know,
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  kind of new that I could, you know, take along through this book. That's why I'm there.
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  Yeah. And it's the bright spot of my life to be there. But it is not my daily
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  medication. If I don't go to a meeting for a week, that's okay.
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  Yeah. Because I'm God conscious, not meeting conscience.
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  Right, right. And, you know, I understand there's a time and place,
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  man, when people are first coming in, that they're starting to do that.
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  But man back when this program first started they had a meeting a week,
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  yeah there wasn't a meeting every day much less 28 meetings right you're not
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  gonna be able to go in many cities you couldn't go hide away in there either
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  you had to go face light yeah and one last thing before i you know quit my rant.
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  You know and i and if i i don't want to offend anybody by any of that stuff
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  and like i don't think it will but like you know so it does say,
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  in uh on page 101 of the big book it says in our belief any scheme of combating
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  alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure,
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  so like when i think about that right like that maybe means go face life and go be around your family,
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  because i you know i will i've got i've gotten to experience a lot of this, right?
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  When I wasn't around my family with the mother and my son and my son,
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  I came home to an empty house because I was hiding away in AA meetings and not
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  facing life and, you know, procrastinating on the most important piece of my life.
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  And we just talked about that, you know, yesterday about dealing with things promptly.
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  And I think, I just think it's really important that like, you know, this work here,
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  especially like, you know, especially in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous is
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  the most important thing to me and building a conscious contact with God versus,
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  how to wait in an hour thing. Yeah, I like it.
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  Well, I think you want to end with our prayer today? Yeah. Father God,
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  direct my thoughts and guide my steps today.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, free me from fear, self-pity, selfish motives.
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  Shake me through the example of Jesus. Amen. Amen.