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April 9 – Breaking the Tyrant Within · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:02
  Hey guys, this is the Daily Ripple, and we got Michael's out, but we got Zach and Bill
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  joining it today, and for the next few days.
• 0:13
  So, today is April the 9th, and we'll get this thing started.
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  This is Zach, reading Mike's Daily Ripple, April 9th, breaking the tire within the stone.
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  Whatever masters me, confines me, pride, indulgence, resentment, obsession, any one of them can become a quiet irer.
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  Freedom become begins when I admit I am not as independent as I pretend.
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  Ripple 1. Practical.
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  Today I will identify what tries to rule my thoughts and habits.
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  I will not treat it casually.
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  I will choose disciplined action over indulgence, truth over denial, obedience over impulse.
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  Freedom requires vigilance.
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  Ripple 2 was spiritual. As I walk in the freedom Christ secured, the Holy Spirit strengthens my
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  resolve. The Father does not merely unlock the prison door. He teaches me how to remain free.
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  Over time, surrender becomes strength and liberty becomes a daily practice rather than a distant
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  hope. Yeah. Do you need your notes now? I wanted to see the first part of it because it says,
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  Whatever masters me confines me.
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  And any of them become a quiet tyrant.
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  Freedom begins when I admit I'm not as independent as I pretend.
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  And I don't know, but I was thinking about page 66 in the big book where,
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  because it says, I'm like taking ownership of the things, right?
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  And that's the flip.
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  And we realized that people who were on this were probably spiritually sick.
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  Maybe I'm spiritually sick too.
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  Maybe everybody's saying this.
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  But I think, you know, when it says on two pages before that,
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  when it's like, hey, so my troubles are basically at my own making,
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  and that's like responsibility of my actions.
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  And I've never taken responsibility of my actions.
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  And when I started looking at it, you know,
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  I was talking to a guy on the phone earlier.
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  I was like, man, like, you know, because he's going through his inventory.
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  And I was like, your first thing when you look at this
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  is going to be you're going to want to run away from.
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  And just like I ran away from my problems my whole life, and I never looked at them.
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  And then I got to write on a piece of paper.
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  Anyways, that's what I was thinking about the first part.
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  Yeah, I mean, I think it says, I mean, you know, he's touching on, you know,
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  if you wanted to look at the things that kind of cover up the concept of God,
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  that fundamental idea of God, you know, you would point to.
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  I mean, the very specific part that I would probably point to would be page 55,
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  where it says, you know, had we not variously worshiped people,
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  sentiment, things, money, and ourselves,
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  and those things that kind of block us obscure, right?
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  Because that's the word Bill uses.
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  It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things.
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  But in some form or another, that freedom is there, right?
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  And that's what we're talking about is being free from the prison of, what, resentment or whatever masters me.
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  I can get down with that.
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  I like this, well, the last line in it that says, I am not as independent as I pretend,
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  which to me, in efforts to prove independence or ultimately is like acting by self-propulsion.
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  So in the context of the four-step where it talks about fear and we get into a fear inventory,
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  it suggests that we live by self-propulsion and there is in fact a better way
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  and that these efforts to be independent, I'm trying to supply my own natural instincts,
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  which ultimately puts me outside of my realm, right?
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  As a creature who's been created and intended to have my natural instincts supplied by God,
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  for me to go out and try to get them for myself,
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  I'm instantly into this state of not enough and can't fulfill my needs.
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  And the freedom for me is to kind of take in that responsibility off my hands,
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  where being able to rely on God on a daily basis for security,
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  a place among my peers, affection, and that sort of thing.
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  Yeah, and I think one of the ones we did when we were in Gatlinburg,
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  I kind of talked about these verses out of Matthew about where the seeds land,
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  and it was talking kind of about in this parable.
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  Well, he's explaining the parable of the sower,
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  because in the Bible, Jesus has to talk in parables
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  because otherwise they would come and arrest him
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  if he came right out and said what he was trying to say.
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  But in one of these, it says,
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  the one who received the word and at once receives it with joy,
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  but since has no root, he lasts only a short time.
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  And when trouble or persecution comes
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  because of the world, he quickly falls away.
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  So like when we get this message that we can be free,
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  but it does require effort on our part.
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  You know, it does require us to be vigilant.
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  I mean, I think that's one of the words he uses later.
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  It says freedom requires vigilance.
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  It does require vigilance and intention.
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  But if the root doesn't set and it's not an objective practice, it's a subjective practice,
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  which means I only do it when, like, I want to get something or I want to feel some way about a particular situation that I may not agree with.
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  Cytle Hill's experience outside of Winchester Cathedral, right?
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  The fertile, the soil was fertile in that moment.
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  Like any of us who've been in any sort of predicament where we need it out quick, right?
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  You know, I would willingly commit my life to anything.
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  And then when, you know, the world and its activities is back on me, you know, the fertile, the soil is no longer fertile.
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  And so I have limited fruit, right?
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  And no prolonged growth of this proverbial plan like that's suggested in Matthew.
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  Well, you know, it says like I would choose discipline to action over indulgence, right?
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  And I think, you know, about discipline to action and that started, you know, when I started, you know, every morning.
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  Every morning, like, you know, it doesn't matter how it feels, doesn't matter whatever's going on.
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  Like the other morning, I decided that if I took a shower the night before that I'm not going to have enough time to take a shower.
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  But I had to do my morning self too.
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  And that's okay.
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  It's weird for me.
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  I like showers in the morning.
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  But I think the discipline of that,
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  it doesn't matter how it feels,
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  doesn't matter about any of that,
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  but doing it regardless of anything and anyone.
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  And we've talked about it before.
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  I remember I was going to go sleep
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  at the Lowe's parking lot one night.
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  And I was all pissed off.
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  I called Bill and he was like,
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  make sure to get your book
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  so you can do your morning things.
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  You don't miss your morning meditation.
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  tomorrow. That's the only thing I say, but I didn't, and I understood how important it was.
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  So try to burn it down if you want to, and make sure and take your daily reading with you.
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  Yeah, I mean, I literally had that experience on Sunday morning, because we were at Mass from,
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  because our Mass on Easter vigil is long, because you have all the people that are being baptized and
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  being confirmed and all that stuff is going on.
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  It was three hours.
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  So we didn't leave the church until 11 o'clock.
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  We had to get up in the morning
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  and drive three hours to Arkansas
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  for some good old time religion
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  at the Baptist church on Sunday morning.
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  And we got up a little bit late.
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  And my wife has a prescribed period of time
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  in which she needs to get ready
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  and she can maneuver that as necessary.
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  But I must go and do my thing.
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  I can't, I don't even know
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  what it would be like to not do it.
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  It's been so long since I've not done it, you know.
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  And I went up and I did all my stuff.
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  And then I got down and got all the rest of my stuff done.
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  But that's got to be for me.
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  It's intentional every morning that I get up and make that contact.
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  I would say me too, just to cruise over that and move into like the rest of the day
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  and the vigilance throughout the day that requires me to acknowledge
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  if I'm being driven by the tyrant within
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  or my selfish thinking, trying to supply my selfish ends,
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  or am I being directed by this contact with God
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  that I tried to create in the morning?
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  And it registers, if I'm in discomfort, it's likely happening.
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  And it's an easy barometer for me these days.
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  If I feel agitated, afraid, less than, insecure in any way,
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  then it's likely that I'm not being vigilant for, you know,
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  the time within that pride, indulgent, resentment, obsession that it suggests,
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  you know, which we have other words that we use in Alcoholics Anonymous,
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  but I can identify all of the same things we discuss.
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  Selfishness, self-centeredness, and fear align very easily
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  with pride, indulgent, resentment, and obsession.
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  Obviously, resentment and obsession are easy for coming from AA teaching,
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  But just throughout the day, the necessity of recognizing my thought process and how that leads to finding myself in this being overwhelmed with insecurity or self-pity, which I think the next topic is self-pity.
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  But that vigilance throughout the day, which we have an easy thing that I say has become a mantra for me is ultimately just I will be done in that.
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  And that's for me the antidote to that kind of arising throughout the day.
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  So the vigilance doesn't end with just take your book to the Lowe's parking lot.
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  It's like midday, afternoon, and throughout the day.
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  I thought this was in Romans 6, 14.
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  It says,
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  Your sin shall no longer be your master, because you're not under the law, but under grace.
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  And I was thinking about that because, like, you know, if you went under driven or, you know, self-will or riot,
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  and that's a state.
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  I've been in that state before, and I think, you know, when I'm in that state, but, you know, it's another state, too, to be in that grace, right?
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  I think, you know, we could say it's subjective with a feeling, but it's a feeling involved with it as well, I think.
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  Some days.
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  Some days it might.
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  Not because I'm, you know, continuously, you know, I think about it like the meditation.
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  And we've talked about this probably.
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  But, like, if I'm meditating and I'm doing the breath thing or whatever and I start thinking about this over here and then I come back into that breath, right?
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  It's like I can get out of sorts a little bit, but I come back, too, to the little prayers and all the little things that I say throughout the day when I got things going on.
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  And it brings me back to warm.
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  Oh, I'm, you know, so I say rosary every morning.
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  And before that, I was using a mala to stay focused because my brain, you know, when I'm praying, and generally that's, you know, with the rosary, it's a more prescribed prayer.
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  But with the mala, it was more just, you know, praying for friends and praying for friends.
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  But my brain will go, shh.
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  And it'll be off down the street, you know, while I'm sitting there and I'm like, hey, you didn't come back here.
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  So for me, having something like in my hands helps me recenter in that breath.
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  but I think like so to you know fear anger you know less danger of excitement fear anger worry
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  self-pity or foolish decisions is what is what the 11 step promises tell me I will be if I'm
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  intentional right if I'm intentional with my prayer life and my contact with God that those
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  are promises that will come true and for me like I just personally and this is how I approach it
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  is, you know, I get up and I set an intention to make contact with a being that we have agreed
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  through the philosophy of AA and certainly through Christian worldview and other religious
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  theologies is that, you know, God is omnipotent, you know, and if I'm going to get up in the morning
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  and I'm going to make prayer and I'm going to say, you know, direct my thinking, divorce it from
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  self-pity, self-seeking motives, then, you know, I think it's safe to say that anything after that
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  request to an omnipotent being is what's that omnipotent being would have me be and sometimes
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  that's not i make a lot of mistakes you know but but but from our philosophy from facebook that
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  would say that my my my mistakes are actually my assets you know now i know i'm not supposed to go
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  out and you know rob banks you know per se but you know i mean i'm certainly capable of being
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  short-tempered with somebody or impatient, mostly at home, is where it usually starts first,
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  and then it translates into work and other people. But yeah, I mean, I'm pretty convinced that when
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  I ask for something from God, that's where I'm getting. It took a little while. I was praying
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  the third step prayer, like suggested in a lot of AA sponsorship trees or whatever. And I don't know,
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  I was just doing it, expecting a change, needing a change, needing to feel different and wanting to feel different.
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  And then there was this perspective shift one day.
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  I just was like, what the heck?
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  Maybe he's really doing it.
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  Maybe it's really happening, you know?
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  And I think that's kind of what this ripple to in this, the spiritual part of this is talking about is recognizing that moment where it feels like freedom for a little while.
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  And for me, having not had any experiential knowledge with conscious contact with God and the power of prayer and the results and all that, it took a little bit, you know, and then like having that weight lifted, even really just the perspective shift of saying, if I'm asking for this, maybe it's actually happening, was a start to start to feel that freedom in my daily life, you know.
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  And like you mentioned as the illustration of meditation, bringing your mind back to whatever your center is, whether it's the feet on the floor or the feeling the breath move in your lungs as you breathe in or at the tip of your nose, however you have experienced that, like that being that center of the day that I recognized that it's possible that if I ask these things that they're happening, you know, just that little C.
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  So you mentioned Romans, and you mentioned the law and grace, and what Paul's talking about there is the law being the old covenant prior to Christ.
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  And the spiritual ripple, you know, as I walk in the freedom that Christ secured, and Christ secured the freedom by death on the cross for us.
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  and then his resurrection is what secures us as Christians,
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  secures us as, as for myself, I'm speaking for myself,
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  secures that concept of grace that can...
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  Is it going to work for us too?
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  It can, it absolutely...
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  Well, no, no, yeah, so, I mean, I don't want to assume that
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  because I try to be respectful, but, yeah, I mean,
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  my belief is it helps every now and then it does.
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  Sure, man.
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  But I definitely believe that.
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  Like, I don't even believe, like, I believe you don't even have to believe in Christ to be a participant in the grace that is happening currently.
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  Right?
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  Now, if you're planning on going somewhere else, then maybe you need to have a conversation about that.
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  But just our existence on this planet is grace, you know, and because we're all created beings, you know, created in the image of our creator.
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  Father, guard me from the habits and desires that seek and rule me.
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  Through your spirit, keep me alert and faithful and help me welcome your freedom your Son has made possible.
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  Amen.
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  Am I supposed to read the edits or skip over the edits?
• 16:37
  Skip over the edits.
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  I'll start over.
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  Scratch that, Mike.
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  Thank you.
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  Type 2.
• 17:11
  Thank you.