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June 10 – A Higher Perspective · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Hey guys, this is the Daily Ripples with an S, by the way, Michael.
• 0:08
  And we got Pastor Michael here.
• 0:10
  And today is June 10th, a higher perspective.
• 0:15
  The stone, impatience narrows my vision.
• 0:19
  When I react quickly, I often miss the bigger picture and lose control of my response.
• 0:25
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:27
  Today I will pause.
• 0:28
  When frustration rises, instead of reacting immediately, I will step back and consider
• 0:35
  what else might be true in the situation.
• 0:37
  A moment of perspective can change everything.
• 0:41
  Ripple to Spirituals
• 0:42
  As I follow Christ, the Holy Spirit helps me see beyond my immediate reactions.
• 0:49
  The Father's perspective is wider, calmer, and rooted in understanding.
• 0:53
  When I align with that view, impatience gives way to peace.
• 0:58
  And my responses become more measured and gracious.
• 1:04
  Yeah, and patience does narrow my vision.
• 1:06
  And really anything that I would think that's on page 84, talking about resentment, fear, dishonesty, self-seeking, that stuff, that really narrows anything in my life.
• 1:20
  Because I can't, you know, I think I was talking to somebody about this, and after I, spiritual experiences and different ones, I feel like my view of the world begins to, you know, I begin to see further of different little roads here, this here.
• 1:42
  Right when I came in, there was only one road, and that road didn't look too good for me.
• 1:47
  But today, you know, I find that, like, you know, I can see a little bit further out.
• 1:52
  Not like God can, of course, but, you know, I know there's more hope down this road or whatever happens.
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  It's okay.
• 2:00
  When I'm able, well, I think when I'm in more of a spiritually fit condition.
• 2:04
  But what's cool about this is, and I don't, I think you probably heard me talk about this with the pausing.
• 2:11
  And on page 84, right?
• 2:13
  Because page 84 says, I continue to watch.
• 2:16
  And that's more of a vigilant, watch is a vigilant kind of, you know, staying vigilant, watching, kind of like at the red light.
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  So if I continue to watch for these things and when they crop up, I ask God who wants to remove them.
• 2:30
  We discuss them with someone immediately, make amends quickly if we've harmed anyone.
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  They'll resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.
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  That's the first part of the 10th step.
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  That's not the first part.
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  That's the second part.
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  There's some other things in there.
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  But if I flip and then it goes on to 85 and it says every day is a day we must carry the
• 2:53
  vision of God's will to all our activities.
• 2:56
  Then you go to 86.
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  Talks about when we retire at night and then it goes on on awakening.
• 3:03
  So throughout that day, it goes on to say when we were, it says here we ask for God's
• 3:08
  inspiration and to the thought or decision, we relax and take it easy.
• 3:12
  We don't struggle.
• 3:14
  And many times through this day, we'll say, I will be done.
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  Then at the bottom of 87, it says, as we go through the day, we pause when agitated or doubtful.
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  What do I do then?
• 3:27
  I flip back to page 84 and do what is suggested right there.
• 3:32
  Ask God to remove it at once, right?
• 3:34
  Talk to someone immediately, you know, and go through that process.
• 3:38
  And to me, what that looks like is if I'm practicing this in a disciplined manner, I do not succeed at this every day and probably 50% of the time or less.
• 3:50
  Probably less.
• 3:50
  A lot more less.
• 3:52
  But when I, but you know.
• 3:58
  I'm with you.
• 3:59
  I'm with you.
• 3:59
  Yeah.
• 4:01
  But I'll tell you, man, like when I'm on that, it's like my whole day when I get done with it was like a prayer and meditation the whole day.
• 4:10
  And it's like I just, you know, I float through.
• 4:13
  But man, it takes a lot of discipline.
• 4:15
  And it was a lot of words I just said.
• 4:17
  But anyways.
• 4:20
  Yeah.
• 4:20
  Well, I mean, I think about pausing when frustration rises.
• 4:26
  Right.
• 4:26
  And for me, when my frustrations rise, what I've learned over time and through working these steps is that if I'm getting frustrated with somebody, it's usually because I'm looking in a mirror, if that makes sense.
• 4:37
  You know, I'm seeing something that somebody is doing that reminds me of something either that I do or that I've had negative consequences for or that I just don't like.
• 4:46
  And anger, you know, can spring up in me, you know, unwelcomed or unexpected at times when those frustrations come up.
• 4:54
  But I've learned to know that when I'm getting irritable, when I'm getting frustrated, when I'm getting angry with others, to keep my mouth shut.
• 5:02
  Because if I'm speaking from a place of frustration or anger, nothing that I said is going to be on a plane of, you know, love, love of others.
• 5:11
  And I think about, you know, in James, the first chapter, starting in verse 19, says,
• 5:15
  Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
• 5:23
  And that's a good reminder for me.
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  And I was thinking too about, I have to kind of inventory and analyze whenever I am getting
• 5:32
  angry or upset with somebody exactly why that's the case.
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  And I would not be able to do that today if I had not done the fourth step in the program
• 5:42
  of recovery.
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  And I know that normally, this is the sixth month, we're talking about step six quite a
• 5:48
  bit this month, but I take it back to the fourth step because the fourth step was my training
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  ground to be able to identify even what my shortcomings and character defects were, and
• 5:58
  then to be able to, you know, turn those over to God and pray that God's will be done and
• 6:03
  not mine.
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  Because if my will is going to be done, somebody's probably going to get told off, you know, especially
• 6:08
  if I'm in a place of resentment and anger.
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  And I think about, too, and again, I know it's probably going to shock you here, Corey,
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  but if I look at page 67 in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, that I know, I know,
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  This is in the middle of talking about the fourth step.
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  And it's talking about that list that we made, you know, of all those resentments that we had.
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  And the first column was the person, place, or situation that we had a resentment at.
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  The second column was, and let me make sure I get it right, this is on page 65,
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  the cause of what my resentment was.
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  And then the third column is what it affects.
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  But you get over here to page 67, in the middle of the page, it says,
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  referring to our list again, putting out of our minds the wrongs others had done, we resolutely
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  looked for our own mistakes. And that's what we often call the fourth column of that inventory that
• 6:58
  we do. And step four is that we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. And
• 7:04
  because I have done that work a couple of times in my life, I've trained my brain to see and to know
• 7:12
  that when I have resentment, anger, bitterness, whatever's cropping up, what is my part in that?
• 7:17
  It could be as simple as the fact that I didn't get enough sleep last night, so I'm cranky today,
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  and so everything's ticking me off. It could be that the wife was fussing at me before I left the
• 7:28
  house to go to a meeting or to go to church about something that I hadn't done. But again,
• 7:33
  even the last part of what I just said, she was fussing because of something that I hadn't done.
• 7:37
  So I'm always going back to that kind of fourth step.
• 7:41
  And honestly, I wish that more people were trained in seeing and identifying, as the Bible calls it, the plank in our own eyes rather than the speck in somebody else's eye.
• 7:53
  Man, I haven't heard you in here reciting page numbers out of the big book.
• 8:02
  Man, I had a smile.
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  I had a smile the whole time.
• 8:08
  like a proud papa over there, right?
• 8:11
  You know, but you did say, you know, one of the words you did say in there was
• 8:16
  resolutely, right?
• 8:18
  We looked, you know, and you know, that intention on purpose.
• 8:22
  Exactly.
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  With determination.
• 8:24
  Exactly.
• 8:25
  Yeah.
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  And I didn't say perseverance.
• 8:27
  That's a very, that's a very big part of that.
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  Cause I don't think that I can lightly do that.
• 8:35
  And in a way, because, you know, we've talked about that before, because the house always wins.
• 8:43
  And this is kind of interesting, too, in the Sermon on the Mount book as well by Emmett Fox.
• 8:49
  And this is the chapter with what measure ye meet.
• 8:54
  Huh?
• 8:56
  Or meet-ee-T-E?
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  Anyways.
• 8:59
  Oh, yeah.
• 9:00
  Like metting out.
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  It's more of an archaic word.
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  In other words, kind of portioning out.
• 9:05
  Okay.
• 9:07
  But I do know this, because this is the law of life.
• 9:11
  And it says, the plain fact is that it is the law of life that as we think and speak and act towards others, so will others think and speak and act towards us.
• 9:23
  Whatever sort of conduct we give out, that we are inevitably bound to get back.
• 9:28
  And man, I was sitting there before we started this today, and that sentence popped into my head as I'm talking to my significant other.
• 9:40
  She said something, and I thought to myself, for some reason, that sentence just popped out in my head, and I said, honey, I love you.
• 9:48
  And you know, and I put that out there, and you know, she gave me a kiss and said bye, and it was okay.
• 9:57
  But, you know, five seconds before that, Michael, it was not okay.
• 10:02
  I've been there, done that.
• 10:04
  Absolutely.
• 10:05
  Yes.
• 10:06
  Well, and you were saying, you know, about the portion that you met out or meet out, you
• 10:11
  know, Luke 6 and 38 is where the verse says, give and it will be given to you a good measure,
• 10:16
  pressed down, shaken together, running over, it will be poured into your lap for with the
• 10:21
  measure you use, it will be measured to you.
• 10:23
  So I think that's what Emmett Fox is probably channeling in his thoughts and teaching about that.
• 10:29
  I think that's, I don't have anything else, buddy.
• 10:37
  Well, when I think about that, it says that in the second ripple, the spiritual one, that the Father's perspective is wider, calmer, and rooted in understanding.
• 10:49
  And that's affirmed in Isaiah 55, verse 8 says that God's thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
• 10:59
  As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
• 11:04
  So God's ways are higher than ours. And what would it look like in your life, you know, as you come upon those frustrating, you know, situations that you face and that we all face, if you try to look at God's perspective instead of your own, or do you try to look for God's perspective instead of your own, and how has that worked out?
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  I always, you know, I do ask for God for his vision, usually through those.
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  But, you know, also, I don't know, you know, I've never tried, I've never asked for God's
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  perception or perspective.
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  And maybe that's something that, ah.
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  And I think you probably have, just without thinking about it or without calling it that,
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  because every time that somebody offends you in the rooms and you can see them with compassion
• 11:52
  as a sick person, then you're seeing them more out of God's perspective.
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  Whenever you're able to see past the differences, you know, in someone and see the similarities
• 12:03
  and get to that place of empathy, sympathy, and compassion, that is seeing through God's
• 12:08
  lens.
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  In other words, when you're able to kind of take that good Samaritan approach that we've
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  talked about and show up and be of service for somebody expecting nothing in return, that
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  is acting out of a more of a godly perspective for sure. But I don't know, I was just thinking
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  of that because I think that that's a goal for all of us is that we're able to see our fellow
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  human beings, not just as somebody who can annoy us and take us off, but as somebody else who's made
• 12:35
  in the image of God, just like we are. Well, in Proverbs 14, 29, it says,
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  patient man has great understanding, but a quick tempered man
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  displays folly. And, you know, but, you know,
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  that takes me back to the St. Francis prayer, you know, and
• 12:53
  help me understand instead of being understood. Help me love
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  instead of being loved. You know, you took it back to page 67,
• 13:02
  you know, and I can kind of see that, you know, look at someone as
• 13:06
  sick, because I do, but I guess I just don't
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  look at it when I'm thinking about it in my mind because I look at me as a sick individual and I
• 13:15
  look at everybody. And, you know, today I could see, you know, obviously probably mostly through
• 13:21
  this work, what I've done to others. And usually when someone does something to me, man, I've done
• 13:26
  something 10 times worse than somebody else. But I want to get cocky about it and I want to get mad
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  because they did this little thing to me because I'm a real man. And that was the most important
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  part. And, um, when I went through the work with Doug, he, uh, he was like, you know,
• 13:46
  Corey, what's a real man to you? And I think me and Kevin kind of talked, talked to his
• 13:51
  sponsorship tree. They kind of get, they don't do the things out of the book. So we're not
• 13:55
  going to talk about that. But, um, but he, you know, he says, you know, like, you know,
• 14:00
  they, they, I think he does something of the nature of right about what a real man is to
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  you. Well, a real
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  man was Mr. Michael
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  across the street.
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  And he would ride his
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  lawnmower. He would
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  have a beer in his hand and
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  I'd shoot fireworks at him.
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  And he taught me how to break into a
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  house because we got locked out.
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  But he knew how to break into a house,
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  Michael. Whoa.
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  Man, he was...
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  And then, you know, but that was
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  a real man to me then. And, you know,
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  today, you know, he was, you know,
• 14:34
  like cocky and this and this, but, you know, to me, a real man is different today. A real man,
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  like, you know, and I think this is, you know, an understanding person because, you know,
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  to me at that time, a quick tempered person, that's how you needed to be because I could tell
• 14:50
  people what I really thought. But, you know, to me, man, that is not what a real man is.
• 14:55
  It is more of an understanding person, a loving person, a compassionate person. And, you know,
• 15:01
  So I think, you know, but that's what it would be, I guess, from a perspective of more.
• 15:07
  Man, it's funny because I had forgotten all about that I used to live across the street from you.
• 15:12
  No, I'm kidding.
• 15:14
  I'm not the Mr. Michael he was referring to.
• 15:19
  Anyways.
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  Why don't you close us out with our prayer for today, Corey?
• 15:24
  That'd be great.
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  Father, slow me down when I'm quick to react.
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  Through your Spirit, help me see situations with clarity and respond with patience.
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  Following the example of your Son, amen.
• 15:38
  Amen.
• 15:39
  Amen.