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June 28 - Faithful Persistence · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Hey guys, this is the Daily Ripples, and this is Corey with co-host Corey.
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  Today's June 28th, Faithful Persistence.
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  The Stone.
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  Lasting impact is built through persistence.
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  What begins small can grow into something powerful when it is carried forward with determination.
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  Ripple One Practical.
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  Today I will not underestimate the value of steady effort.
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  Even when progress seems slow or unnoticed, I will continue doing what is right.
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  Consistency over time creates results that cannot be rushed.
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  Ripple 2 Spiritual
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  Christ remained faithful in His mission.
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  Even when the path was difficult, as I follow Him, the Holy Spirit strengthens my resolve to keep going.
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  The Father often works through small beginnings and steady faithfulness to accomplish far more than I can see.
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  You know, when I was just reading, I was reading this,
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  and I was really thinking about, you know, persistence and, you know, my daily practices and what that looks like, you know.
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  And I, you know, what my day-to-day, you know, every morning looks like.
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  I wake up
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  I don't do anything
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  I roll out of bed to my knees
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  I say a prayer
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  and from there
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  now we got the coffee maker on a timer
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  so it's really cool
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  because I'm like
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  this is kind of fancy to me
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  but probably not fancy to some of you
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  higher up folks in life
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  but the coffee's already made
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  when I walk through the kitchen
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  and so I pour a cup of coffee
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  After I do my prayer and I go sit down and I go through some readings.
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  I do some writing on those readings.
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  Then I have a prayer.
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  I got a prayer book of people I pray for.
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  And then my sponsor gave me a prayer.
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  And it's called Litany of Humility.
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  And I've been praying this for probably maybe two weeks now.
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  maybe longer maybe if my ego tells me longer it might be longer but i think it's been two weeks
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  um like so when i when i get done and i get on my knees and do my prayer for the people then i get
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  on my knees and say that prayer and um that's my morning i might do some reading too and i find a
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  lot of peace in the morning you know especially before my day and i think if i didn't do that those
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  things is consistently my life would look crazy with my and you know i also i read 86 and some of
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  the 85 85 through 87 through 88 and i i run through some of that stuff because um it says on awakening
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  as well so i do a bunch of little things but that's just mine and you know but i think the
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  most important thing is starting out on my knees um i heard some guys talk about you know there's some
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  dudes and like the monasteries and you know how it all set like so if you were to take away
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  an hour of sleep for an hour of meditation in the morning so page 88 tells me the promises of
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  doing this stuff and it says we are in then much less danger of excitement fear anger worry self-pity
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  or foolish decisions.
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  We become much more efficient.
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  We do not tire so easily
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  for we are not burning up energy foolishly
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  as we did when we were trying to arrange life
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  to suit ourselves.
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  So when I start my day on that basis,
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  that's what gets me going.
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  I'm finding that there's more and more prayers
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  in this book.
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  I don't know everything about this book,
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  but it's really cool
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  because every time I go through it or I hear someone talking about this book,
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  I find these other little things and these other little things
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  because 164 says, ask him in your morning meditation
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  what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.
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  This is an interesting thought, though,
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  because the next part of the paragraph says,
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  the answers will come if your own house is in order.
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  So what if I'm the man that's still sick?
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  That's kind of interesting to me when I think about it.
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  because I can't.
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  So then it goes on to say,
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  but obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got.
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  See to it that your relationship with him is right
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  and great events will come to pass for you and countless others.
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  This is the great fact for us.
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  You know, what's interesting on page 25 in the big book,
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  it says the great fact, and that's not capitalized.
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  But back here on 164, it is capitalized.
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  And I think that's a really cool thing.
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  You know, I kind of understand that a little bit today.
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  I pulled up Galatians 6.9
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  and Galatians 6.9 says
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  let us not become weary in doing good
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  for at the proper time we will reap a harvest
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  if we do not give up
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  you know I was thinking about the rooms
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  and recovery and things
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  and I remember this one business meeting
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  this lady cussed me out and called me a nerd
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  and like, you know, ran out the room and, you know, I know I sometimes probably get some weird looks
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  talking the way I do because, you know, this literature is very interesting to me and like,
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  you know, it saved my life and I studied a lot and I talk a lot about it because it's very important
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  and I think about like, you know, that particular thing and just trudging along like that and because,
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  I found I don't make as many friends in that nature.
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  You know, I think you probably make more friends of, well, when I was growing up in school, you know, there was nerds in school.
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  And they are obviously doing very well today.
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  But I didn't think that was cool.
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  I didn't think it was cool to be a nerd.
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  But, you know, they probably got a lot better jobs and they probably are doing some things today which are really cool.
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  But, you know, so I think about, well, it says it on the preface.
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  It says, because this book is the basic text of our society.
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  So this is the basic text of the society that I'm in.
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  And this book is, I'm not going to represent a certain society, but this book is the book of Alcoholics Anonymous.
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  I feel kind of been kind of feeling a little weird about, for me, representing too much of a particular anonymous.
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  So I'm going to try to do better with that.
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  Because I don't want to, you know, this is anonymity, right?
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  I have the level of press, radio, and films.
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  And this is considered radiant.
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  So I kind of need to, you know, I think I need to do better with that.
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  But in the fourth edition in this book, it says literature, or in the Alcoholics Anonymous book, it says literature has played a major role in AA's growth.
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  Then down lowly, it says slowly at first, you know, then it says it has taken root slowly at first and growing by leaps and bounds when literature has become available.
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  And so when I think about that and I read that, it doesn't tell me anywhere in there when more friends are made and more, you know, little groups and all this.
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  It says when literature is available.
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  And, you know, that's very important because, you know, this is the program of recovery in this book.
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  And so if I don't have recovery and, you know, so there's a triangle and, you know, the way I was explained, you know, recovery is the bottom line of that triangle.
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  And then on the two sidelines, you have unity and service.
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  Because without the program of recovery, there's no unity in service, right?
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  There's no anonymous thing.
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  This literature has become really a big deal for me.
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  It says consistency over time creates results that cannot be rushed.
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  Yeah, I stay consistent in my life today.
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  And, you know, I hope that, you know, one of the hopes I do about talking about this stuff is that, you know, because another man showed me how he was in the morning.
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  And I'll tell you, you know, when I started doing what he was doing, three weeks after it ended, that may be even shorter, two weeks, I texted him in the morning time.
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  I said, hey, man, I understand what you're talking about now.
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  Because I never understood.
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  I never understood what this daily reprieve means.
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  And, you know, going back to the big book, it says 85.
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  And I don't know, you know, for me today, I don't know.
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  I'm kind of at a place where I hope I never let up.
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  But it says it is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels.
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  And, you know, laurels is past achievements.
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  And so past achievements, what I did yesterday, says we are headed for trouble.
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  if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really
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  has is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. And
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  so the sentence right above that paragraph says, this is how we react so long as we keep
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  in fit spiritual condition. So I think about fit spiritual condition, and I think about how
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  do you get fit? Well, you got to work out. You got to hit the gym. And I think about
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  You know, it was funny, you know, when I first started working out, you know, I was, you know, I'm so selfish and self-centered. I think the whole gym's looking at me the whole time anyways. But, you know, it was funny because I started eating a lot of food. I weighed 150 pounds when I first, 155 pounds when I first started working out. And I was like, man, because I was skinny.
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  And I remember my son was probably three years old, and I told myself I didn't want to be just an average dad.
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  It's okay if you are.
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  I mean, the smarts really did get it for me, so I went with working out instead of that.
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  So before I ever went to the gym, though, I was doing push-ups and eating peanut butter and eating a bunch of food in my garage.
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  And so I think about that because I was trying to get fit in some degree before I even went to the gym because I didn't want to be the smallest dude in the gym when I went in there.
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  And I probably was even though, but I felt a little bit thicker when I went in.
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  So when I started working out, I started getting fit.
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  And so when I think about fit and then I think about conditioning, what am I doing to condition?
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  And I don't know.
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  I mean, I have, I don't know what all, I mean, I do a bunch of different little things, you know, but it starts out in the morning.
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  But, you know, I read with dudes.
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  I talk to guys.
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  You know, I go to these rooms and I'm a part of the service structure, which I think is important.
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  And I have, you know, unity within, you know, my society.
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  And so I think about that, you know, that's the triangle.
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  And that, to me, is probably another way that I say in spiritual fit condition as well.
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  It says, then it goes on to say, every day is a day we must carry the visions of God's
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  will into all our activities.
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  And, you know, I, every day I ask God what his vision is for me.
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  Then it goes on to say this little, how can I best serve thee?
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  Thy will not mine be done.
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  It says, these are the thoughts which must, you know, must is a big word, I think, and
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  might not be to some people, but it seems pretty big to me because it's telling me I must do
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  this, which must go with us constantly.
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  Then it says this, and we talked a little bit about this on a previous episode, but it
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  says we can exercise our willpower.
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  So I'm still not powerless.
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  Along this line, all we wish, it is proper use of the will.
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  Now, I just think, you know, all the, you know, the words in that, you know, kind of tell me, you know, I can't let up. I don't even know if I would want to ever let up because, you know, like that's where I'm at today. Because I'm scared of who I would be if I did let up on all the things I do.
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  And, you know, maybe God has another plan for me, you know, somewhere down the road that, you know, I'm not able to do something.
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  But I remember I called my sponsor about this one time and I said, hey, man, like, you know, what if I'm not able to wake up in the morning early and do all the things I do?
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  And he was like, you know, Corey, why?
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  Are you just being fearful to be fearful?
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  And I do that stuff, right?
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  Because I will.
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  I'll get in fear for no reason just to, you know, because that's what I'm used to.
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  That's what my life has looked like, you know, selfish and self-centered.
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  But, you know, it goes on to talk about in that Christ remained faithful in his mission, even when the path was difficult.
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  Yeah, life's not always perfect for me.
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  But I do think about like the gym and during that time and during my time when I first came back into these rooms.
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  And yeah, I put my head down.
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  I just put my head down and got to work.
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  And because there, like that willingness thing, I don't think there's anything else to do.
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  Well, you know, maybe other people could argue that, you know, because they still got this
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  and they still got this, but I didn't have anything.
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  I was barely able to get out of my closet every day because I was so scared to walk out the
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  front door.
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  And that willingness from that pushed me to just keep on trudging through.
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  It says the Father, or no, it says the Holy Spirit uses my daily life.
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  Or that's the one, I'm sorry.
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  It says the Father often works through small beginnings and steady faithfulness to accomplish far more than I can see.
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  And, you know, real quick, I want to, I think that's cool because, like, far more than I can see.
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  Because there's a promise.
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  And it says, man, I am not on my pages.
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  Sometimes it is on page 100 in the big book.
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  It says, both you and the new man must.
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  So I think there's an important, like five, I can't count that fast, five, six words, six words in the first part of this paragraph.
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  Both you and the new man must.
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  So it's got to be you and a new man.
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  You know, I'm going to critique some A literature and, you know, probably someone that's listening to this, he might say something, but that's okay.
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  So in the, what is it, the new, the morning meditation book, anyways, you know, there's another approved literature.
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  That is the, I can't even think of the name of it for some reason, the Daily Reflections, that's what it is.
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  And I thought it was interesting that they took out the first sentence to this paragraph.
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  because the first sentence tells me something important.
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  It says, both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.
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  So it's got to be you, and there's got to be a new man,
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  because in this literature, it tells me that I have to give this away,
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  that I have to help people.
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  There's no, like, let me do 1 through 11 in the steps.
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  It's you and the new man must walk day by day in this path of spiritual progress.
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  And this is, you know, so if you persist, remarkable things will happen.
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  When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's
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  hands were better than anything we could have ever planned.
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  Follow the dictates of a higher power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful
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  world no matter what your present circumstance.
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  That's a pretty cool promise.
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  I have all the promises in my book, at least this one and some other ones, highlighted in
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  pink.
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  And promises and prayers are highlighted in pink.
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  Anyways, Father, give me strength to remain steady and faithful.
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  Through Your Spirit, help me continue to work.
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  Set before me and trust that You are building something greater through Your Son.
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  Amen.