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July 27 – Giving Without Return · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Welcome back to the Daily Ripples podcast. Today is Monday, July the 27th,
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  and we're glad to have everybody back here with us today.
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  I'm Pastor Mike. We've got Corey here with us also, and we're going to kick
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  it right off with our devotional today titled, Giving Without Return. The Stone.
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  Real giving expects nothing back.
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  Ripple One Practical. Today, I will give my time, energy, or resources without attaching conditions.
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  I will not measure what I give against what I receive. Gratitude will guide
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  my generosity, not obligation.
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  Ripple 2. Spiritual. The Father gives freely and without limit.
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  Jesus lived a life poured out for others. The Holy Spirit forms that same pattern
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  in me, moving me from self-interest to generosity.
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  As I give without expectation, I begin to reflect God's love in a real and visible way.
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  And as always, we'll save our prayer for the end. But Corey,
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  what have you got for us in terms of what are your initial thoughts on our entry today?
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  Man, you know, I'm from the South, kind of. I guess this is the South. I don't know. Yeah.
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  I moved up to Ohio for a couple of years. And, you know, one thing I noticed
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  about people that walk in front of, if you're listening and you're like this person, that's cool.
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  But a lot of men would walk 10 feet in front of the women that no,
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  you didn't have any men holding the door for others. They would hold the door for a woman.
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  But, you know, it was different from here. And this was the time I had hair.
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  I had hair. And I was getting my hair cut.
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  And this woman had asked me, she said, you know, what's the difference between,
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  you know, down there and up here?
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  And I was telling her, you know, I noticed the gestures of not holding the doors and these things.
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  This was right before she was done cutting my hair, too.
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  So, like, you know, it was a good timing because we didn't see eye to eye on this.
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  And she was like, you know, well, I couldn't understand if it was,
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  you know, you holding the door for a woman, but, you know, just holding the
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  door for anybody, you know, I don't.
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  And so it's just different, different culture. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, but.
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  My whole life, you know, I would hold the door for women. So,
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  you know, not now anymore, but, you know, so I could see what was,
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  you know, passing by. Right.
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  Right. I had motive. It's called window shopping. Right. And I always had motives.
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  And, you know, I'd be friends with you if you had the lake house,
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  I'd be friends with you if you had the open bar.
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  And I always had these motives. And, you know, even if I had good,
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  you know, ideas about these motives, you know, i just had motives and,
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  so when i come in you know i come into this thing and these people are you know,
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  and people you know asking me you know hey do you want me you know whatever
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  you know asking me you know to give their time to me,
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  i didn't understand it and i like i but it was cool because i was like man like
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  you know i've not been a part of that because the people i ran with weren't
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  a part of that either yeah and you know my dad was kind of weird about that stuff too he was,
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  he told me one day, my dad gave to a lot of charities.
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  He said, you know, Corey, you know, the biggest thing you can do to be able to give is have money.
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  And, but, you know, so that his view was to give to charities and, you know, that's cool.
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  But, you know, I don't fiddle on that.
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  I don't see eye to eye with any of that.
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  I see eye to eye of this work and the program of Alcoholics Anonymous,
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  what it was shown to me, what was shown to me was pretty much this big book and what it says is,
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  Faith alone is insufficient. To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self-sacrifice
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  and unselfish constructive action. Yeah.
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  I can read all the stuff I want to. I can do all the prayers I want to at my
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  house, man, and I can get deep into it. But what am I doing outside of that?
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  You know, and how am I treating my family? You know, am I giving to my family
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  freely or am I expecting something in the bedroom in return?
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  Right. You know, that's a serious thing. Cause like, you know,
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  or am I helping this dude out on the job or do you have being nice to this dude
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  for a raise or am I just helping one of God's kids? Right.
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  You know, and then on the, in the service world, right? Like I,
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  I remember I, I made an example of this cause in the 12 and 12,
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  there's an example of Bill Wilson.
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  Giving this drunk dude $5. And he gives this drunk dude $5 when him and Lois
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  only had $35 to their name.
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  But then goes to the meeting and only puts a quarter in the basket.
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  Well, you know, he was able to show off to this dude, but you know,
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  when nobody's looking, he just puts a quarter in.
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  And that whole view of that, right? It's like, what am I doing behind closed doors to help people?
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  Or am I just doing it in the face of people to try to show what a good person in anonymous rooms I am?
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  So my ego has to be set in place. And sometimes I think God's used me and my
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  ego, and God's definitely used me and my ego in many different ways.
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  But I got to keep that in check, I think that is a good word to say.
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  Because if I'm out here You're only doing speaker meetings, right?
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  Oh, yeah, yeah. You're trying to build up a name for yourself.
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  And then I'm not sitting down with anybody reading the book,
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  and I'm out here just, you know, talking in front of people,
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  but I'm not actually doing the work. You know, what does that say about me? Yeah.
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  But what were your thoughts? Well, I mean, kind of what you were sharing is
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  along the lines of, you know, there are some people that have a profession or
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  a calling, you know, that involves giving to others, right? Right. So, yeah.
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  Like police officers, firefighters, things like that, you know,
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  if they're, you know, stopping to help somebody, you know, that's part of the
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  role that they have and they get compensated for that.
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  And but just as importantly is the good Samaritan that's passing along,
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  sees somebody in need and stops to help them. Right.
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  It's it's but but some people have a calling that is placed on their lives and
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  and whether it's to go into public safety or whether it's to be a minister or a nurse or a doctor.
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  And those are, you know, compensated professions. And.
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  But at the same time, when I think of giving without return,
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  I think of even in those professions, I'm certain most people that I know that
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  work in professions that are helping others, they're not doing it for the pay.
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  You know, a lot of times the pay is low. A lot of times, you know,
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  they don't ever get as much, you know, attention or recognition for all that
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  they give that they probably deserve, but that's not why they're doing it.
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  They're not doing it to get recognition or attention. You know,
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  they're doing it because that's what they feel led to do.
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  And you talked about, you know, getting into action, you know,
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  in part of your share, you know, kind of giving back by working with others
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  and getting into action.
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  And that ties in exactly to that practical ripple, you know,
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  giving my time and energy, you know, getting into action with others,
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  working with others is spending my, you know, giving your energy to work with a new guy.
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  You know, as you mentioned, I think last week, you know, in one of our episodes,
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  you were talking about, you know, sitting down with new guys and spending an
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  hour and a half, two hours kind of walking through, you know,
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  pages of the big book with them, you know, that is definitely giving.
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  And many times, as we all know, especially with a newcomer, it's not guaranteed
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  that you're going to get the return of them getting the one year chip or them
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  getting the two year chip or three.
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  You know, they might go back out the day after you sit down with them and spend
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  an hour and a half with them. but.
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  You stayed sober that day because you gave of yourself. And,
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  you know, hopefully they did as well.
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  Yeah. Page 84, it says, you know, our next function is to grow an understanding and effectiveness.
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  This should last a lifetime.
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  My first year, man, I wasn't working. That's some of it, but a lot of the time I wasn't working. Yeah.
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  I was reading with two dudes a day, scared to death in my life.
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  But you know and i think about back then at that time i was you know what god
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  was doing with me in that time yeah god was putting me in a position to grow
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  and understand and effectiveness,
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  most of the the vast majority guys i would take through this work they've i
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  mean there's some dudes i took through this work and that's interesting to think
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  about that i took through the work my first while i was first in this deal yeah
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  and they're still sober today and that's crazy yeah,
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  But what's cool, you know, they out-sobered the sponsor.
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  Yeah, and I think that's cool because, like, it happens. It does happen. I, but...
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  But God was using me in a way in that time to go through this literature and
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  sit with other guys and grow an understanding and effectiveness.
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  You know, because I don't know what God's using me at that time for.
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  Right. He talked about that.
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  But, you know, I think the main thing is, is if I sit down in the morning and
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  I do what I need to do with God and my prayers and all that stuff,
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  you know, I have a better chance during my day to go run my life on Corey.
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  Because when I run my life, you know, and that's the thing, self-will run, self-will run.
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  When I'm running, I'm not watching and I'm not seeing what's going on.
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  But when I'm watching, right, because it says continue to watch,
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  I'm slowing down and I'm watching what my actions are, how I'm treating people.
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  Hey, can I be of service to this person?
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  How can I be of use to God and its people?
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  And when I live that way, you know, I find so much more, you know,
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  I find so much more out of there like and i you know yes it keeps me sober but
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  you know why would i not do that if someone else did it for me and still does
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  it for me man you know i still call my sponsor,
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  and you know my sponsor asks you know he listens and well you know and then
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  when he he talks he talks and i listen right and you know that's not been someone
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  you know i you know me and our friend was talking about this the other day
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  you know who i am today is not who i used to be at all oh yeah Yeah,
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  yeah, yeah. And I would never wish.
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  But today I will because, man, like that dude's giving his time.
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  Yeah. And I respect time today a lot more because, man, I don't have a lot of it. Yeah.
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  And speaking of listening, I mean, that is definitely an acquired or a learned
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  skill set because so many of us,
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  will listen in a conversation just to respond, argue back, rebut,
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  you know, whatever the case may be
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  versus actually listening to understand where the other person is coming from
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  is an entirely different skill set. And I think that that is.
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  Guided by the Holy Spirit. You know, it kind of becomes holy conversation at
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  that point when you have two people that are both engaged in listening to each other.
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  You know, it's more meaningful than anything that I ever did,
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  just trying to listen to argue back or to make my point.
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  So in William James, The Verizon Religious Experience, that book talks,
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  and I was thinking about this as we're talking about it, talks about people
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  that are first born and second born. Oh, yeah.
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  And, you know, you think about this and you think about someone that finds a,
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  let's say a career, you know, early on, they were like, man,
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  I want to be a firefighter. I want to be a paramedic. I want to be a doctor,
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  whatever. I want to help people. Right.
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  And they have good motives. Right. So I think about these firstborn people and,
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  you know, maybe I don't know, you know, we can't ever figure out how this is.
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  But, you know, those firstborn people, you know, they find something that is
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  giving that they can give back.
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  And, you know, they are living in this world of giving, you know,
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  where I had to, you know, the second borns and I'd be a second born,
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  maybe a third born, you know, right, right, right.
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  Yeah. I see where you're going with it. But, you know, where I have to,
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  you know, where I have to have a book, 100, this is interesting,
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  164 pages ingrained in my head over and over.
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  Because, you know, I didn't just, you know, be like, man, I love this,
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  reading the book with people.
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  You know, someone had to tell me, Koi, this is what you have to do.
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  And it says in the 12 and 12, wherever my 12 and 12 is, it says he goes along because he must.
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  Then he defined what does it say it's on page 130 it says more to do,
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  at first he goes along because he must but later he discovers a way of life he really wants to live
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  and it takes a lot of pain pastor mike for me it took a lot of pain for me to
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  find out this is something that i really how i really want to live yeah
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  versus you know someone just being born that way it's interesting Yeah, that is interesting.
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  I was thinking as you were sharing that I can count at least to being,
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  by that logic, to being at least third born, right?
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  Yeah. Because, you know, when I was born and as a child, I was raised in a family
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  that was, you know, very much taught a lot of these same principles about giving
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  to others, you know, without trying to get recognition.
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  You know, my parents, you know, when they give to the church,
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  they weren't doing it for the donor statement at the end of the year in the
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  tax write-off. You know, they were doing it because their faith said you tithe,
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  and so you tithe. And I learned from that example.
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  And then, you know, my second born probably would have been when alcohol was
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  introduced in my life, because that took me away from all that good that I learned
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  as a child and went completely the opposite direction.
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  And instead of carrying a wit about anybody else in the world,
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  all I cared about was myself and accomplishing my own goals and being,
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  you know, of benefit to myself and my family.
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  And then why I say at least third born was, you know, whenever I got sober from that.
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  And when my life turned around and kind of God called me and got me back,
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  almost that prodigal son moment, right?
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  I had that time in the wilderness and found myself eating with the pigs in the
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  slop and decided, well, my father's house, even the servants get better than this.
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  And had to bring myself spiritually back to the father's house.
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  But overall, the last thing that I'll say today is just to kind of get this
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  in because that worked in there. because Scripture affirms the wisdom of this devotional today too.
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  And that's in Luke 6, beginning in verse 34. It says, If you lend to those from
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  whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?
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  But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.
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  So all of these, again, we find this time and time again, that the recovery
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  principles that we dig into here are all rooted and share a lot of common DNA,
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  you know, with our Christian faith. Yeah.
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  Well, our prayer for today says, Father, teach me to give freely today.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, remove any need for recognition or return.
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  Shape my life through the example of Jesus, and let your love flow through me to others. Amen.