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September 3 – Building More Than Sobriety · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Hey guys, welcome to The Daily Ripples.
• 0:07
  Hey, we haven't talked about it in a while, but we do have a website and it's called the Daily Ripples with an S at the end.com.
• 0:14
  With no V, just dailyripples.com.
• 0:17
  And I think in the show notes to this, we have an email address.
• 0:21
  We do, both of these.
• 0:22
  So if you have any complaints, flesh, no, no, no, no, not complaints.
• 0:28
  acclamations.
• 0:30
  I don't even know what acclamation may not even praise.
• 0:32
  Praise.
• 0:33
  Oh, well, it's got any complaints about how my depault and how many praise on how I... Shut up.
• 0:41
  Sit into the daily ripples and we'll get back with you as as long as it's nice.
• 0:47
  In three, I find business days.
• 0:49
  Anyways, but uh, Today, September 3rd, building more than sobriety.
• 0:55
  The stone.
• 0:57
  God did not rescue me simply to keep me sober.
• 1:01
  He rescued me to build a new life.
• 1:03
  Ripple one practical.
• 1:05
  Today I will remember that recovery is more than avoiding old habits.
• 1:08
  It is choosing new ways to live, love and serve.
• 1:13
  My family friends and those around me should see evidence that God is continuing his work in me.
• 1:19
  Ripple too spiritual as I keep saying yes to God.
• 1:23
  The Holy Spirit builds a new life where the old one once stood.
• 1:28
  Following Christ's example of love and service.
• 1:31
  I become a blessing to those around me.
• 1:33
  The father's gift of grace is meant to grow beyond me and touch the laws of others.
• 1:39
  Ma'am, you were really failing at this day.
• 1:44
  What do you mean by that?
• 1:47
  Have become a blessing to those around me.
• 1:49
  I'm a blessing to those around me sometimes in my wife.
• 1:53
  Yeah, and that's where sometimes you got to object.
• 1:56
  You know, my therapist tells me to believe in the person I am today, not the person I used to be.
• 2:01
  Right.
• 2:01
  Yeah, and you know, we kind of talked about that last week with our friend, uh, Stephanie, and I can get so caught up, like, because, you know, and I'm gonna probably talk, hey, I don't really call, Carrier, but the AA police can come and get me.
• 2:16
  Yeah.
• 2:17
  Hey, AA, you know, is so crazy because because I'm an alcoholic and I sit in these meetings like so, you know, because I've heard it for so many years.
• 2:30
  I got to feel like a bad boy.
• 2:32
  Like I, you know, like I can't feel good.
• 2:35
  Like, I can't have ego.
• 2:37
  Like, I can't, you know what I mean?
• 2:39
  And it's so directed of like feel bad because you're a bad boy. And I don't like, you know, I, man, I'm, I'm not dealing with people and mean is I'm dealing with people in line. And that's where I go rectify my errors with people in my mind.
• 2:54
  And it's not in, to sound, like, you know, to sound a certain way or to sound, and in line with everybody in the meeting, because I did that before.
• 3:01
  And it got me, you know, in sounding along with everybody in the meeting, got me where everybody went, is out the door.
• 3:07
  And you know what I mean?
• 3:09
  Because they're like, you know, I had, you know, that approach didn't work because not many people make it in the deal.
• 3:16
  And so that approach, the approach of using my defects to become an asset to somebody else to help somebody, right?
• 3:24
  And to be of service to other people and not be in a meeting for me.
• 3:27
  Because it's always been about me. And, you know, we're not going to get on that whole thing. We could go down that road, but I'm not. Because, you know, it's almost like I'll get dudes today.
• 3:37
  I have 2 dudes and vigils right now.
• 3:39
  that one of them's coming back in, and the other one, you know, he's like, let's go.
• 3:47
  I need to do an inventory.
• 3:48
  Well, then you do an inventory with somebody else.
• 3:52
  Yeah, what are you, and I'm cool with it, right?
• 3:56
  I enjoy it.
• 3:57
  And if I didn't have, you know, if I had let more people, like, you know, going through the book with more people, I probably would have said no, because the thing is, is how long is it going to be about you before you're ready to go help God's kids?
• 4:11
  Because I don't, if you're always getting ready, you're never going to go do.
• 4:15
  And so like the thing is, is when I look at dudes that have been around the deal and they, you know, they're like, man, I got to do another 4 step.
• 4:22
  Well, there's a book.
• 4:23
  I didn't know if you know this, but it's in here exactly how to do it.
• 4:27
  I don't have to go take a dude's time that could be helping a newcomer and helping you because you want to talk more about you because that's the helio.
• 4:36
  But I see people come in though, man, I need to do a 4 step.
• 4:39
  So we can talk about you some more? Because, you know, it's like, you know, I hear dudes a lot, you know, they're, They're like, man, I need to go back through the steps.
• 4:50
  Why?
• 4:50
  Why?
• 4:52
  What are you going to find out more about you?
• 4:53
  Been doing this thing for 15 years?
• 4:56
  Well, and what that tells me, you know, if somebody's been in it for 10, 15 years, and they're, they feeling like they need to do a 4th step again, or what have you, then my question is, well, have you been doing the 10th step, right, you know?
• 5:09
  Did you make, because the 10th step for those who are not as familiar with the steps, just to remind the 4th step is where we, you know, take personal inventory, but the 10th step is that we continue to take personal inventory.
• 5:19
  And when, and just as importantly, when we're wrong, promptly admit it.
• 5:23
  So 10 is kind of like the culmination of 4 or 9 on a daily basis.
• 5:26
  Or 4 through 9 on a daily basis, you might say.
• 5:29
  Keep working on your defects, stay connected with God, you know, keep that list going, you know, continued.
• 5:36
  And it's not a, it's not a, when you retire at night kind of thing.
• 5:39
  It's all throughout the day, I have to inventory myself.
• 5:42
  You know, what is driving me in this moment right now, you know?
• 5:45
  And, uh,
• 5:48
  But in terms of kind of the, your opening comment about feeling myself, you know, this day on writing this one, you know, the stone itself, you know, where it said God did not rescue me simply to keep me sober, he rescued me to build a new life.
• 6:02
  You know, as you know, I'm sure, in the chapter called the family afterward, in the big book on page 82, it says that we feel a man is unthinking when he says sobriety is enough, you know, because there is more that has to be done.
• 6:15
  Do I get the page reference wrong?
• 6:16
  You looking for?
• 6:17
  Oh, yeah, the family.
• 6:18
  No, that's in the, uh, that's in the, into action.
• 6:21
  Okay, and I use the wrong chapter name.
• 6:22
  Yeah, sorry.
• 6:23
  whatever that case may be.
• 6:25
  Now we're going to have to go look it up.
• 6:27
  But, uh, uh, you know, we all make mistakes.
• 6:31
  I'm falling short of the glory of God, daddy, though.
• 6:34
  Was the page number right?
• 6:36
  Give me credit, some credit where it's due, Corey.
• 6:39
  Man, talk about.
• 6:41
  It says on page 82.
• 6:43
  It says the alcoholic is like a tornado.
• 6:45
  drawing his way through the lives of others.
• 6:47
  You know why it's like a tornado?
• 6:49
  It's destructive because it doesn't know what it's the killing.
• 6:53
  It doesn't have, that's later, it's general.
• 6:54
  Hearts are broken, sweet relationships are dead.
• 6:57
  Affections have been uprooted, selfish and inconsiderate habits have kept the home in turnwolves.
• 7:04
  And there's my quote.
• 7:05
  Right.
• 7:06
  And it is in the chapter into action.
• 7:08
  It is not in the chapter, the family afterward.
• 7:10
  I don't know how the heck I got that.
• 7:12
  But anyway, yes, my point is that, yes, I 1st have to get sober, right?
• 7:19
  That's my 1st job because I'm not going to be able to be effective in helping anybody while I'm still drinking and why?
• 7:27
  Not because alcohol in and of itself is evil, but because I am an alcoholic.
• 7:33
  And I think that's important for people of faith, too, is that, you know, if it was the, you know, the opinion or the view of my higher power, at least, that alcohol in and of itself as a substance was evil, then, you know, I'd always be like, well, why you got Jesus turning water to wine, then, you know, now people can argue and they have for centuries about, you know, alcohol content and that and what have you, which I always find is just silly.
• 7:57
  Um, but the thing is, what was intended for good, in me, becomes evil because I'm an alcoholic, if that makes sense.
• 8:06
  So what was intended to bring, you know, joy, conviviality, social, what have you, in me, turns into isolation, selfishness, self-centeredness.
• 8:17
  And it's because I have that alcoholic thinking.
• 8:20
  And so sobriety is not enough for me, you know, I have to stop drinking, but then the goal for me of not drinking is to see, okay, well, what does God really have in store for me then? Because I can't see that while I'm drinking.
• 8:36
  I can't see what God has in store for me if I'm busy drinking.
• 8:39
  Can I ask you a question?
• 8:41
  What is alcoholic, thank you?
• 8:44
  Alcoholic thinking?
• 8:46
  is the way that an alcoholic thinks.
• 8:48
  But what is that different?
• 8:51
  How does that differentiate for me?
• 8:52
  It could be an addictive thinking.
• 8:53
  It could be, you know, the mind of an addict, whatever you want to say, but it's almost a little bit, and now again, neither one of us, to be fair, our psychologists, we've not been trained in how the brain works.
• 9:05
  We're not mental health experts, Corey, so all of this can be taken with 2 grains of salt because there's 2 of us here.
• 9:11
  But I think of the the alcoholic thinking is almost that borderline, almost obsessive, compulsive kind of thing when it relates to the substance or thinking about, you know, anything related to alcohol.
• 9:27
  No, I just, I know you don't like a lot of these terms and phrases.
• 9:32
  No, and the, and the, but no, I will say in the book in the program.
• 9:36
  Well, it's not that I don't like them, is I don't think it's accurate to our philosophy.
• 9:41
  And the reason I say it, I don't think it's accurate to our philosophy, it because there's many types of it for alcoholics.
• 9:47
  We have varied traits, just like every human.
• 9:49
  Well sure.
• 9:50
  And sometimes,
• 9:52
  And you know, this is, you know, it does.
• 9:55
  It comes from the rooms and it comes from what people say.
• 9:57
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:58
  And so, like, me saying, oh, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but I'm not saying it's right, because the only alcoholic trait that I have is in the chapter where the good doctor talks about that says, we believe and so suggested a few years ago that the action of alcohol and these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy.
• 10:21
  that the phenomenon a craving is limited to this class, and never occurs in the average number drinker.
• 10:28
  So what's an allergy?
• 10:30
  So when I take a drink, I drink more.
• 10:32
  But no, not even related to drinking, but what is an hour?
• 10:35
  Oh, oh, the definition?
• 10:37
  Yeah. What in the substance or food or medicine?
• 10:42
  I think I can't, there's 3 of them in the definition.
• 10:45
  And it's 3 different things affects the body in a certain abnormally.
• 10:49
  Okay, right.
• 10:50
  Is your brain in your body?
• 10:51
  Absolutely.
• 10:52
  I'm not disagree.
• 10:53
  Yeah, no, I'm just saying, like, I'm just trying to hone it in to, like, I mean, it's a good,
• 10:58
  it's a good, uh, debate kind of topic for sure, you know.
• 11:01
  But a lot of times, and the reason why I point that out is because a lot of times we think of our thinking in our brain as somehow separate from the rest of our body.
• 11:09
  Well, it has a physical reaction to alcohol the same as the rest of our body.
• 11:13
  Oh, absolutely.
• 11:14
  And this aligns with the way the literature goes on.
• 11:16
  When I took, when I was in Gatlinburg at a wedding and I took a drink, after being sober for a good amount of time.
• 11:24
  Um, In the middle of the 2nd or 3rd drink, I remember having this vivid, colorful imagination of how the rest of my life's going to be.
• 11:36
  And it wasn't without alcohol is with it.
• 11:39
  And it was, it was something that it was, it was just like, you know, it was just sudden and I thought, you know, and I'd imagine every which way of how I was going to add alcohol back into my life and make it where it was going to work.
• 11:52
  Um, yeah, the reason I'll bring this up is because, you know, I think a lot of people, well, that we hang around in these rooms and through the years, talk, and, you know, I, our friend, you know, we can debate it, but, you know, she, people talk about isms and this and this and, and I'll tell you, I, I would like to say that a lot of people talk about that to make excuses for bad behavior.
• 12:19
  Oh, sure.
• 12:20
  I mean, that's human nature.
• 12:21
  So my thing is, is the physical and mental idea of when I take a drink, I want more and after, because I didn't come in here because of my defects, Michael, I came in here because of alcohol is, and alcoholism is when I take a drink, I want more, and after a certain amount of time, after being in a jail cell naked for a month, and then being in a lower level for another couple months with a $1000000 bail.
• 12:48
  With an ankle monitor on a still drink, regardless of anybody, any judge, any lawyer, any prosecutor, any doctor, anybody else, buy family and kids.
• 12:56
  That's alcoholism, alcoholism is not defects of care, because everybody and their mother has defects of character.
• 13:06
  That makes us human, and that makes us useful to God's kids, so I can be at the same place as another man.
• 13:11
  Well, and that's also weird, because I was just thinking about how, you know, this is, you know, a faith and recovery podcast, which for us, that just equates to, it's just about life, right, the life that we live today.
• 13:23
  But I was thinking about that, about, you know, you brought it back to that, uh, being able to have that common commonality with, you know, any of God's kids, right?
• 13:34
  Because we're all, you know, like you said, God's kids, we're all, uh, in our faith anyway, we're all joint heirs with Christ, you know, we're all part of this collective, and that's where the, you know, the theme of this today about building more sobriety is also to make us more effective and useful, not just in the rooms, but outside of the room.
• 13:54
  absolutely.
• 13:54
  And to use the the cliche phrase, you're practicing those principles in all of our affairs.
• 14:00
  And I definitely try to do that today.
• 14:03
  Now, I don't say I do it perfectly all the time, but you know, it's definitely something that if it were not for my sobriety, though.
• 14:10
  I wouldn't even be sitting here having this conversation.
• 14:13
  I'd still be stuck in myself.
• 14:15
  I wouldn't care what you thought about it because you were wrong and I was right to begin with, right?
• 14:19
  I mean, that, because that's how my, my mind worked, you know, when I'm continuing to pour alcohol on it.
• 14:24
  One of the many ways, my money.
• 14:26
  Back to real quick, either.
• 14:28
  We're probably going a little bit.
• 14:29
  No, you're fine.
• 14:30
  We're not.
• 14:31
  I was thinking about it, like, you know, on page 82 where you were talking about the alcohol is like a tornado roaring in the way through the lives of others, right?
• 14:39
  You know, some people get mad when they come in about this family member doing this, their wife, their whatever kids, all this stuff, right?
• 14:47
  Might be a little unruly at that time.
• 14:50
  Well, they got every right to be too, because on the family afterwards, the 1st page of the family afterwards.
• 14:56
  Oh, the chapter I misquoted earlier.
• 14:58
  Okay, yeah.
• 14:58
  Everything connects.
• 15:00
  Oh, I know it does.
• 15:01
  Yeah, that's why I always call you the, the, the accountant or the beautiful mind.
• 15:05
  you know, those movies of the people that have the big brain moments.
• 15:08
  I didn't say specials.
• 15:10
  called neurodivergent.
• 15:11
  Okay, that's Corey.
• 15:12
  I dont know if you are or not.
• 15:13
  So anyway, it reminds me of that.
• 15:14
  One page 122 says cessation of drinkings, but the 1st step away from a highly strained abnormal condition.
• 15:22
  The doctor said to his years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
• 15:30
  Or family member, right?
• 15:32
  And I know I sure did that to my mother.
• 15:35
  And I sure did that to my dad when he is alive.
• 15:37
  And yeah, so when I, uh, so when the thing is, when I look at those people, you know, I think about, and the people that I, still the day, you know, I think I'm so how grateful I am to have them all.
• 15:50
  Yeah. You know, that she still talks to me because she should, she, but, you know, I mean, you know, she's, uh, she does because she loves me.
• 15:57
  Yeah, but you know, what a cool deal because, you know, and that is my, you know, that's the deal, right?
• 16:04
  So I got to make that stuff right.
• 16:05
  And it's, you know, every day how I treat my fiance, how I treat my kid, how I do that.
• 16:11
  And that's where we where we take this stuff is in our home. And that's the best, you know, bring it to bring it back to whole circle.
• 16:19
  Yeah, page 19.
• 16:21
  Yeah, 3 places.
• 16:23
  Well, and it says you have the better, uh, a better, uh, Says we feel elimination of our drinking is but a beginning.
• 16:32
  I'm much more important demonstration of our principles. Well, I was before so respective homes, occupations and affairs.
• 16:40
  I didn't see anywhere in Michael that said AA meetings, but I could be reading wrong.
• 16:44
  I, I, I, you know, my copy of the book reads the same way yours, though, just there, Corey.
• 16:50
  So yeah, how about you pray us out?
• 16:52
  Prayer, Father God, thank you for giving me more than sobriety.
• 16:56
  Through your holy spirit, continue building a new life within me.
• 17:00
  Shape me through the example of Jesus and help my life become a blessing to others.
• 17:06
  Amen.
• 17:07
  Amen.