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May 14 - Free to Be Myself · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Hey guys, this is, uh, Corey and Bill, and, uh, today is May 14th,
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  free to be myself, the stone, humility, humility is not humiliating.
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  It is the freedom to see myself clearly and accept what is true without exaggeration or denial.
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  Ripple one practical today. I will stop trying to be more or less than I am.
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  I will not hide behind image or comparison. I will be honest about my life with
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  someone I trust, knowing that truth leads to freedom, not shame.
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  Ripple too spiritual as I stand honestly before the Father. The Holy Spirit
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  forms a steady identity within me.
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  Following Christ, I no longer need to prove my worth or hide my flaws.
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  Over time, I learned that I am fully known and still deeply loved. That is enough.
• 0:56
  I don't know. When I was thinking about this, I was thinking about page 24.
• 1:00
  Yeah. And it talks about, it says, we're unable at certain times to bring into
• 1:05
  our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and the
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  humiliation of even a week or a month ago where without defense gets the first drink.
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  Then on page 30, it says something along those lines as well.
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  It says, thought about still less control, which led in time to a pitiful and
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  incomprehensible demoralization.
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  So these things that i was doing out there man they were humiliating to some
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  i guess i mean maybe not to everybody but because it says up here at the top
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  it says humility is not humiliation,
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  but when to me when i lived my life the way i lived it to an outside person
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  there would be a lot of humiliation to me right i don't know that's what i was
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  thinking about the beginning Yeah.
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  So when I got into the rooms,
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  I would absolutely say I was humiliated, but I understood that as being embarrassed
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  of my actions, which were certainly embarrassing.
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  And, and, but I didn't have any other way to live.
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  And for me, when I think about, you know, what have, what have the 12 steps
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  done for me and deepened my faith and my dependence and reliance upon my creator, I've gone from,
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  being humiliated to humility.
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  And for me, when I think about it from the perspective of taking that,
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  you know, what I thought to be the worst thing in my life that has now turned
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  into the best thing in my life and the thing that my life is completely centered
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  around, which is my relationship with my Creator,
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  That humiliation, I just don't feel humiliated anymore. I feel grateful for it.
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  I was thinking about this at some point in time, not because of what we're doing
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  today, but just in general.
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  You know, is, you know, when Christ called Peter, James, and John,
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  and they were on the lake or the Sea of Galilee fishing,
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  and he said, put down your nets and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
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  And for me, I think in one of the Gospels, it says entanglements as opposed to nets.
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  And for me, I think about that. So Peter was entangled.
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  He was fishing on days that he wasn't supposed to fish.
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  He was not paying taxes or at least being dishonest on the amount of fish he
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  caught. So he would have to pay less taxes and doing things that the Romans were not happy with.
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  So that put him in a situation where he was entangled in things that would keep him from serving.
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  The Creator. And He told them all. He said, put them down.
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  And you look at it. I like to look at whenever I read the Bible,
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  and especially when I read the Gospels, is that Christ talked and used words
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  like that, nets or entanglements.
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  And they really have kind of a dual meaning as opposed to, sure, they were fishermen.
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  But think about that as if somebody came up to you, you're a,
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  what is that, an electrician of some sort, something like that will let you say.
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  If I came to you and I said, Corey, put down the electrician's stuff and follow
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  me and don't do it anymore,
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  the first thing that would come to your mind would probably be some fear.
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  Well, how am I going to support myself?
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  How am I going to support my family? How am I going to support that?
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  And, you know, that wasn't important to them. They were called,
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  you know, they were called as disciples.
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  And to put that down, he would have had to take a lot of risk and a lot of that
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  would have been problematic for him, for his family, especially for Peter.
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  But from the humility perspective, so I think you have a 12 and 12 over there.
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  Yeah, I know you usually carry that with you because you're still working on
• 5:02
  mastery of the big book, but we're here.
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  You're on page 58? I'm going to page 58. You're right.
• 5:07
  Oh, it looks like you got it highlighted. I think I highlighted this for you.
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  Humility, a word often misunderstood, to those who have made progress in AA,
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  it amounts to a clear recognition of who and what they really are,
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  followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be.
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  So, really, it says here, therefore, our first practical move toward humility
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  must consist of recognizing our deficiency.
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  So, where's the next place I'm going to go, Corey, from there?
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  I mean, I would imagine you were going to hop over to 73 or 74.
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  You'd be wrong. Really? Absolutely incorrect, Corey.
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  Well, so, you know, when you were talking about, you know, what does that look like?
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  And, you know, what am I willing to do when God asks me to do something?
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  You know, directing, and I think we talked about this a little bit,
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  but you're, you know, with the church, you know, the separation of,
• 6:03
  well, not the separation, but like,
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  you know, if God at one point to ask me or if I got led to drop everything I'm
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  doing with an Alcoholics Anonymous, right.
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  And go completely fully into the church. Yes. It's been all my time and essence there.
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  You know, would I be trusting? Would I know when that moment is?
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  And would there be fear behind that, right?
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  I mean, to me, there would be. And I don't know if there would be fear to you,
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  because it's dropping this thing I know that's worked for this many years, right? Sure.
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  And then dropping it and doing something completely different.
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  When I found that that humility was really, the humiliation was really humility.
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  And I feel like, you know, from going, being involved in another spiritual fellowship like church.
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  What I've learned, though, is that, for me, the practical application of Christ's
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  message is embodied in the 12 steps of recovery.
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  And how, you know, we talk about this and people say, well, just choose Jesus.
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  Well, a guy like me, simply, if I could just choose Jesus, that would be,
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  That would be but one part of the problem, right? So when we think about it,
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  we think shipwreck, brotherly and harmonious action, common problem,
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  common solution, right?
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  And those people have common solution, right, which is seeking to grow towards our Creator.
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  They don't necessarily have the common problem from alcoholism or drug addiction
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  like maybe some people in recovery do.
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  What they do have, though, is the ultimate separation from God,
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  which is the whole problem, as we see it.
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  But I believe that God, number one, I don't believe for a second that God makes
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  anything that he doesn't intend to use to his purpose.
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  And I think there's a passage in Acts that kind of covers up Paul.
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  Paul kind of talks about that.
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  But everything that he's going to, everything that we do is meant to be used
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  towards his good purpose and nothing else.
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  And because of that, I go back to the humility part, which is knowing who and
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  what I really am with a sincere desire to become what I could be, right?
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  So you were trying to guess what page I was going to go to from page 58,
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  and that from the page 58, I'm going to go to page 28.
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  And I think this is reflective of who and what I am with a sincere desire to become what I could be.
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  And so Bill writes,
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  if what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all,
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  means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color,
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  are the children of a living creator with whom we may form a relationship upon
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  simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.
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  And at the end of that, it says, those having religious affiliations will find
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  here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies.
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  There is no friction among us over such matters.
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  So if I look at that paragraph from the 12 and 12 version, you know,
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  humility is who and what I really am, right?
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  So who and what I really am is.
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  Is a child of a living creator and who I can be sincerely is a form of relation,
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  form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as I am willing
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  and honest enough to try. So that's the sincere desire, right?
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  Willing and honest enough to try, right? And I think we were at book study.
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  We'll go to 13, right? We were at book study.
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  Well, you're, you're going to the, you're going to, hey, you're going to the
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  four elements is where you're going, right? So yes, absolutely.
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  So you look at that, right? And those four elements being there, right?
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  Because the belief in the power of God, which is the cornerstone,
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  then the willingness and the honesty.
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  So for me, the way I work that formula out is if I believe in the power of God
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  and I'm willing and honest enough to try to enter into that relationship,
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  I will develop the quality of humility.
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  That's the formula. You're like, belief in the power of God, parentheses.
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  You know, I look out like an Excel formula, like equal belief in the power of
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  God, parentheses, willingness and honesty will ultimately equal humility.
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  And that's just kind of how I approach that topic, you know,
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  from humiliation you know i mean i think that the 12 steps and certainly our philosophy for life,
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  changes what i thought was humiliation into what i now believe is the whole
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  entire basis of the wonderful life that i've been given or if we prefer a design
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  for living that really works,
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  We'll end up with a prayer, Bill. Okay. Prayer. Father, help me accept who I
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  am with honesty and humility.
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  Through your Spirit, free me from comparison and shade me into the person you
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  created to be in Christ. Amen. Amen.