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August 26 – The Joy of Giving It Away · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Welcome back to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:06
  I'm Pastor Mike.
• 0:07
  We have back with us today.
• 0:09
  Corey, as well as Steffani, who is here all week.
• 0:12
  How's it going so far, Steffani.
• 0:14
  Hey, it's good and great. Feel pretty good about the past 2 days.
• 0:16
  All right, well let's dive right into Wednesday, though.
• 0:19
  Today is his titled The Joy of Giving it away.
• 0:22
  The stone.
• 0:23
  What God gives me grows stronger when I share it freely with others.
• 0:27
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:29
  Today, I will look for opportunities to encourage, serve, and help someone else.
• 0:34
  Growth is not meant to be stored away.
• 0:36
  What has helped me may be exactly what someone else needs today.
• 0:42
  Ripple 2 spiritual.
• 0:43
  As I share what I've been given, the Holy Spirit fills me with what I need and then sends me out again.
• 0:49
  The Father blesses me so that I can be a blessing to others, and Jesus gave himself freely and taught his followers to do the same.
• 0:56
  And we'll save our prayer for the end of the episode.
• 1:00
  But this is one of those things, um, very early in the program, and I don't know exactly how early for me, but this would have been within my 1st year.
• 1:11
  I know. I started noticing a pattern of, you know, everybody in the meetings that I was in there for a while.
• 1:18
  It seemed like everywhere I turned, I was hearing about, well, if you want to keep it, you got to give it away. And to get it, you have to give it.
• 1:24
  you know, and those kind of phrases, which I know, Corey, you're the, you're the one who loves all the phrases and cliches of, of recovery lingo so much.
• 1:33
  But, As I've, you know, thought about that over the years of grown and studied, I mean, it has proved not only true in my life, but it's also very much a biblical concept as well because in Luke, um, chapter 6, verse 38 is where, you know, Jesus himself is saying, give and it will be given to you, the good portion packed down, firmly shaken and overflowing, will fall into your lap.
• 1:59
  The portion you give will determine the portion you receive and return.
• 2:03
  So again, that's just another way of saying, um, you know, if you want to keep it or to receive, you know, you need to be giving.
• 2:12
  And I think we've used the example here before.
• 2:15
  We might have talked about it even fairly recently, Corey, I don't know if it was last week or what it was about, you know, the way our hands work together, you know, as one is reaching out in service to someone else, you know, God is giving us something that we would never expect on the other hand.
• 2:28
  And it's that cycle of when, and really, it's the pattern of how every single day's daily devotional that I've written for this program is structured, you know, because I start with what am I giving or the practical ripple, and then what do I get in return, the spiritual ripple?
• 2:47
  I mean, it's the whole structure and lingo of this whole thing.
• 2:50
  But that's what, and I've certainly found it to be true in my life, is that when I am more open, you know, we were just talking the other day about even my thought life at times is still selfish. When I'm on the way to do something good, it's still trying to get me to turn around every step of the way.
• 3:04
  But when I go forward with it on the other side of any type of service that I've done for another person, I never regret it.
• 3:13
  I never feel bad, and I never leave there, more importantly, I never leave there, and I haven't yet anyway, left there, and gone and gotten a drink on the way home.
• 3:21
  So it keeps me sober personally foremost.
• 3:23
  But anyway, that's that's my initial thoughts on it.
• 3:26
  Where do you go with it, Steffani?
• 3:29
  It's funny you said that.
• 3:30
  I was just thinking there were, if I need an attitude adjustment, if I haven't, um, done my daily check in with God, um, I can always go to a meeting and I'll hear exactly what it is that I need to hear that fills me up and reminds me that there were things that I left undone.
• 3:51
  Um, and I, too, have also seen how, I can go to meetings and go to meetings and go to meetings, but if I'm not giving away what I learned.
• 4:05
  Or if I'm not sharing my experience, strength and hope while I'm in the meeting, then I'm not going to receive the blessings of that meeting.
• 4:16
  Because for me, I think we talked about this the other day about where 2 or 3 are gathered.
• 4:22
  For me, um, you know, alcoholism is a war.
• 4:26
  It's a life or death kind of thing.
• 4:28
  And I look at Alcoholics Anonymous in meetings, especially when that newcomer walks in.
• 4:34
  That's a life or death situation right there.
• 4:37
  Um, you know, they may find exactly what it is that they need.
• 4:42
  They may hear exactly what it is that they need to hear, or they may not, and they go right back out.
• 4:48
  Um, It could be that the seed is planted, but, um, You know, I see joy in those.
• 4:58
  I see joy when I take the action work with another alcoholic.
• 5:02
  Um, you know, I think the word is some.
• 5:06
  It's not everybody that gets a program or, you know, gets sober.
• 5:11
  And at times it's disheartening, um, because in my life, I want everybody to succeed.
• 5:17
  Um, but I'm just a vessel.
• 5:20
  And if I've got a conscious contact with God, I am a funnel of hope.
• 5:29
  You know, for somebody to walk a different way of life.
• 5:33
  To try something new, to maybe think about what they've done in their past and can they get over that hurdle of laying it down and letting it go?
• 5:45
  Some people can't get past that.
• 5:49
  But what a joy. Yes.
• 5:53
  Shame?
• 5:54
  Yeah, shame.
• 5:54
  Yeah, exactly.
• 5:56
  Yeah, but what a joy it is to see when those people finally do get it, you know, and the light comes on.
• 6:02
  Yeah, guilts can be healthy for me.
• 6:05
  Guilt can make me try to correct something, but because guilt is just saying I did something wrong, but shame is saying, I am what's wrong.
• 6:12
  And that's the part I can't get bogged down in.
• 6:16
  Anyway, what thoughts do you have for us, Corey?
• 6:19
  Interesting wording.
• 6:21
  Um, That face, I know y'all can't see it listening, that that face Corey makes usually means he's either trying to process something or he's about to fire back an argument.
• 6:33
  So.
• 6:34
  Well, no, I mean, I was just thinking about it because it says, so our troubles, we think, are basically what I'm making.
• 6:38
  Yeah. But, like, I mean, I don't know about guilt and shame.
• 6:42
  I mean, I know a lot about all of it.
• 6:43
  I felt it. Sit face.
• 6:45
  But I don't, you know, I don't stay bogged down into it because, man, it gets me nowhere.
• 6:49
  Because I think selfishness self-centered, that's the root of my troubles.
• 6:53
  And so like, man, I was, you know, like, it's like, when's the right opportunity?
• 6:59
  And, you know, I think, man, I used to hang out in more of the midtown area, um, in those that were, like in the, anyways, in those meetings a lot more, and I would just hear so much about service.
• 7:13
  And it wasn't like, you know, service of like, it was like, giving people robs, doing this, doing this, and that's all they would talk about.
• 7:21
  And, um, man, like, it's it's weird because, like, if I'm the problem,
• 7:28
  Then, like, you know, we come in and we were talking about this other day, like, you know, we just love on you.
• 7:33
  Well, man, I'm getting all this attention and I like that, right?
• 7:36
  Well, what about when that attention stops?
• 7:37
  And because on page 129, the big book, it says, even if he displays a certain amount of neglect, irresponsible, irresponsibility towards the family, and it's talking, this is talking about to the family afterwards, and it's talking about like, if dad is not like, you know, hanging out with the family and doing what he's supposed to do, I mean, this is kind of old, this is back in 1939.
• 8:00
  It says it is well to let him go as far as he likes and helping other alcoholics.
• 8:05
  And then it goes, tells me like when does that start?
• 8:08
  It says during the those 1st days of convalescence.
• 8:13
  This will do more to ensure his sobriety than anything else.
• 8:17
  So during the 1st days, right, giving someone a ride, talking to somebody, pulling up a chair and listening to their story, because their story is probably a little worse than yours, because you're still sitting here and they just got there.
• 8:28
  And because so that's so important to me and like, no, man, I've seen that in a microcosm, you know, when I've gone to speak to people in treatment centers, you know, variety facilities where you see the fellow patients that are in there for a week or 10 days stay or what have you, that are very helpful to each other because they trust each other.
• 8:46
  Well, I think they're just trying to be counselors too.
• 8:49
  You know, you'll always get the counselor that comes in there and they're like, you know, I've done this 24 times.
• 8:55
  I'll be able to tell you what to do.
• 8:57
  But yeah, yeah.
• 8:59
  It's funny because you ever, but anyways, I was trying to even more hopeful story there, but Corey, thanks for putting it back down to her course.
• 9:06
  Well, you always have one, right?
• 9:08
  They're, you know, the, the, that's not their 1st rodeo. And, you know, it wasn't my 1st rodeo either, but I think that's the change too.
• 9:15
  And I remember when I came back and, um, Doug Malt, you know, so crazy because, you know, dog mold sponsors, best friends.
• 9:23
  But these dudes are dead, so I can talk about them all at once.
• 9:26
  Randy, he, uh, came back in because that was comfortable for me.
• 9:30
  And I was like, hey, Randy, will you be my sponsor?
• 9:32
  And he's like, yeah.
• 9:34
  And then I called him like 2 weeks later.
• 9:36
  I said, hey, Randy, what do I need to do?
• 9:38
  And he was like, well, man, you know what the program is.
• 9:40
  You know what to do.
• 9:40
  And, uh, man, like, you know, I can, and I think I might have said this on here, but I can really make a death about me.
• 9:47
  You know, so he died like 2 or 3 weeks later.
• 9:49
  And I was the best thing in my life because I did know what I was doing. And I needed direction. Because if I knew what I was doing, up to that point, I wouldn't be doing where I would have started.
• 10:00
  I wouldn't meet even where I was at.
• 10:01
  And so, but, you know, man, I love red.
• 10:04
  You know, you know, I love Doug and, you know, so I think about that and, you know, and it talks about it on the 5th tradition, it says, in the 12 and 12 shoemaker stick to thy last, better to do one thing supremely well than many badly.
• 10:19
  It's talking about helping others.
• 10:21
  So like when I'm helping others, like, you know, and I think and Steffani can relate to this, you know, because I've gotten to watch Steffani.
• 10:28
  Steffani's, you know, a really good example too, and I'm not like calling you out or anything, but man, Steffani was trying to be Superwoman out there with these women.
• 10:37
  And I think she's probably got a little boundaries in there now.
• 10:40
  And, you know, and like, you know, but it was, it was so cool to see in that moment too, because, you know, she's saving women. And she was, I was watching her stress herself out about it.
• 10:51
  I was like, man, you know, but you know, I did the same thing.
• 10:56
  I was loaning out, I'm not this time, but I've loaned out money.
• 10:59
  I've done this, moved them out, try to dose them off the alcohol.
• 11:02
  I've done that too, thinking I can do that.
• 11:04
  I'm a doctor, I'm a doctor.
• 11:05
  Yeah, but what you're talking about is exactly what this is saying and being able to see that because I remember that period, you know, when Steffani was in and just so engaged with, you know, the other women in the recovery rooms and just had a joy about it.
• 11:20
  And, um, I think the trick is not allowing that joy to fade into disappointment when you have spawn sees or people you're working with who go back out.
• 11:31
  So how have you overcome that, Steffani?
• 11:32
  How have I overcome that?
• 11:34
  Or have you?
• 11:35
  I mean.
• 11:36
  Well, you just say face.
• 11:37
  It's only out on the internet for everyone.
• 11:42
  I have a list of women I pray for every day.
• 11:43
  Yeah. And some of them have gone back out and some of them have come back in.
• 11:47
  And they're still on my list and every time God puts them on my heart, I pray for them.
• 11:52
  Um, you know, because the thing is, when I did this whole thing, I've been doing it for a while.
• 11:58
  I had a sponsor 1st go around.
• 12:00
  She really wanted it for me.
• 12:02
  I didn't want it for myself.
• 12:03
  Um, you know, and so.
• 12:07
  She planted those seeds, though.
• 12:10
  And had I not had worked with her prior, I wouldn't know where to look when I was desperate and needed it.
• 12:19
  So, you know, I think that we are all vessels forgot to use on on everyone's journey.
• 12:26
  We are fellow travelers.
• 12:28
  And this thing we call life.
• 12:31
  Um, and at the end of the day, if we can help the next person in line.
• 12:35
  Um, show a little love and tolerance.
• 12:39
  Because at the end of the day, we all do create our own chaos, regardless of if we're having an addiction problem or not, where humans were broken and we all created our own chaos to some degree.
• 12:53
  Yeah. And, uh, grace and love and tolerance, I think it's a beautiful thing.
• 12:58
  For so long, we walk along too, is though we are not creating our own chaos until all the, you know, glass houses and facades come crashing down around us, you know, because they haven't been, you know, built with a proper, you know, foundation or the the cement of the common, you know, solution that we have and things of that nature.
• 13:18
  So, right?
• 13:20
  Isn't it interesting that they're, uh, so you got a primary purpose, right?
• 13:24
  Yeah, okay, this message to the alcoholic, you're still so up, Virginia.
• 13:28
  You have a real purpose, right?
• 13:31
  The real purpose is be a maximum service to others.
• 13:34
  And, you know, to God, to be a maximum serves the guy and the people about us.
• 13:39
  So you have those two, right?
• 13:41
  Primary and real.
• 13:43
  And then you have our next function.
• 13:45
  is to grow an understanding and effectiveness.
• 13:47
  This shall last a lifetime.
• 13:49
  And so, you know, everything that I've done and others have done, you know, to the degrees that I've done it.
• 13:56
  is a way that, you know, because it goes back to this, right?
• 14:00
  It goes, shoemakers, stick to thy last.
• 14:02
  It's better to do one thing supremely well than other than many badly.
• 14:07
  And that is of being of service to others.
• 14:09
  You become more effective.
• 14:11
  I become more effective with my time as well.
• 14:13
  My time is important, just as y'all's time is important.
• 14:17
  So when I sit down with a man.
• 14:18
  You know, I know what we're doing.
• 14:20
  I have a plan.
• 14:21
  It's not, you know, it's not activity, it's action, right?
• 14:25
  And we're making, we're doing things. And so I think, you know, as time goes on, I've definitely probably, you've probably seen that.
• 14:33
  You have more, you have more action than activity.
• 14:36
  You're more effective as well on your approach.
• 14:40
  And, you know, and that's cool because like, you know, I'm, we have families, wait, we all have families.
• 14:45
  I don't have time running around chasing dudes, you know, trying to make sure they're okay.
• 14:51
  You know, it's not my job.
• 14:52
  My job is to carry this message.
• 14:54
  If I stick to this message, and nothing else, like, it's worked for 1000000s of people, but my message can get a little screwed by my ego.
• 15:03
  Well, and that's contingent on the daily reprieve of, you know, your spiritual condition, right?
• 15:09
  Right, yeah, absolutely.
• 15:10
  Like, what am I doing to improve that?
• 15:12
  Um, I mean...
• 15:14
  And they'll be resting on your laurels either.
• 15:16
  Yeah, you did. At the same time.
• 15:18
  I was thinking about when you were talking about people who kind of develop, you know, their the deviations from the programs start to enter into how they sponsor, teach, and talk kind of thing.
• 15:31
  And I start thinking about how like denominations that is, having, you know, in terms of a church.
• 15:37
  Somebody disagrees about something and, you know, it's kind of like the joke of all you need to start a, um, a new recovery meeting is a space and a resentment.
• 15:45
  Well, I mean, you could say the same thing about church is the only thing needed to start a new denomination is, I guess, the same thing.
• 15:51
  you know, or a disagreement or what have you.
• 15:54
  Because even in those situations, you know, you can always point back to some type of, you know, righteous philosophy that you're standing on, you know, that I'm right and others are wrong. And our goal is constantly to check, too, am I doing this because it's truly what my higher power wants or am I doing this because it feeds my ego?
• 16:15
  And I have to look at those questions, honestly, all the time.
• 16:21
  Our prayer is, Father God, help me freely share what you have given me through your Holy Spirit, make me willing to serve and encourage others.
• 16:31
  Shaping my life through the example of Jesus.
• 16:33
  Amen.
• 16:34
  Amen.
• 16:35
  Amen.