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October 17 – Daily Attention · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:06
  Hey guys, it's the Daily Ripples.
• 0:07
  It's Corey and it's October 17th.
• 0:10
  Daily attention.
• 0:12
  My spiritual life stays healthy through daily attention, not occasional repair.
• 0:17
  Ripple one practical.
• 0:19
  Today I will be in placing my life in God's hand, hands, instead of assuming I can manage it alone.
• 0:27
  Just as a vehicle needs regular maintenance to run well, my heart needs daily prayer, honest reflection, and faithful obedience.
• 0:34
  Small habits practice consistently leads to lasting strength.
• 0:39
  Ripple too spiritual.
• 0:42
  As I begin each day with the Father, the Holy Spirit prepares me for the opportunity and challenges ahead.
• 0:49
  Following Christ's example of seeking God's will each day.
• 0:54
  I discover that today's faithfulness is enough for today's journey.
• 0:59
  And you know, it's interesting because I was thinking about this.
• 1:03
  I was, uh, More thinking about, like, in different times of my life, what my daily things looked like.
• 1:14
  And, um, When I wasn't like, you know, so like when I was out there drinking my daily things looked like, uh, man, I'd wake up.
• 1:24
  This is when I was still working.
• 1:26
  Um, And I have a jacuzzi, bath, and I have a jacuzzi bath, and I would wake up just a little bit early and sit in the bathtub and sit there and sweat.
• 1:40
  Because I figured if I'd sat in this hot water for a long amount of time, I'd sweat out enough alcohol, to, uh, be able to go about my day and, uh, yeah, I don't know if any of that worked or not, but drink a whole bunch of water every day and I just felt miserable every morning until I couldn't even do that.
• 2:02
  But like, I, uh, so I was thinking about like on a small scale, like when I come into this.
• 2:08
  And, you know, I come into AA, uh, just talked about AA, when I come into AA, um, man, like, you know, I'm not, I hear all these people in these rooms talking about, like, prayer, meditation, and get on your knees and do this and this and, man, like, you know, at the time, like, you know, I was just praying to, you know, make it out of that hump, whatever that hump was.
• 2:35
  Oh, you know, and I started, you know, building upon that. And the big book, it kind of, I was thinking about, like, you know, people talk about, like, you know, the serenity prayer and the 3rd step prayer, the 7th step prayer.
• 2:49
  Man, I like all those prayers.
• 2:50
  I know, and I say, um, they have me, they have some meaning to each of them, to me today, and, you know, I know some other players as well, but, I think like on a small level, though.
• 3:03
  Like, like on page 47 of the big book, it says, when therefore we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.
• 3:12
  This applies to other spiritual expressions, which you find in this book.
• 3:16
  And so like, I kind of think like these spiritual expressions like to where they have meaning to me today.
• 3:22
  And so maybe that meaning to me today and all it means is me to wake up in the morning and say, please, and when I go to sleep at night, say thank you.
• 3:32
  And it's, you know, I think, you know, at a simple level, that's, that's all, that's all that's necessary.
• 3:37
  I don't even think that's necessary, you know, to make a beginning.
• 3:40
  Um, and it's what you believe, right?
• 3:44
  And if you're willing to believe in whatever conception you think about.
• 3:48
  Oh, I think that's right as well.
• 3:51
  I remember I was sitting with a, this is about a year ago, sitting with my significant other, we were talking about some things, and She was talking about some viewpoints she had as a, uh, somebody in AA, and like, you know, that's sponsoring women, and, um, I was in that moment, you know, I was thinking, well, you know, that's her conception of this program.
• 4:15
  And that's okay.
• 4:16
  And I think, you know, because like a friend of mine was talking about how like this program kind of keeps him in the bumpers and bowling.
• 4:25
  And, um, you know, so I have like the, I have this book, which tells me this is the, uh, our textbook for the, our texts are only text for the society.
• 4:38
  Well, it doesn't say only text.
• 4:39
  That's kind of the, uh, that's misleading.
• 4:42
  See, this is why I have to, I have to repage numbers and stuff because I don't like messing up what it says.
• 4:51
  It says on XI.
• 4:54
  It says, because this book has become the basic text for our society.
• 4:59
  So that tells me this book is our basic text.
• 5:02
  And so, I think like when I'm like out here doing like whatever and like, I need to come back to something, I can come back to this basic text and see if I'm like kind of in the line of that.
• 5:16
  Oh, and the reason, I mean, I believe in that is because it's words for me, and it's worked for 1000000s of other people, and it's, and it has that, like, there's not much to argue with.
• 5:29
  And so one of the things that it says in this book, which I, uh, man, when I started really, you know, tried to, because there was a time in my life, oh, I would pray.
• 5:41
  I would say, tell you, I prayed in the mornings, I did this, and did this, and, you know, really, I did.
• 5:47
  I prayed when I remembered.
• 5:49
  And it, you know, that comes into this thing of like, you know, if God was your girlfriend, would he be jealous?
• 5:57
  And like, so these good morning, like, you know, when I'm 1st talking to a girl and I'm sending like, good morning, beautiful, or have a good day and all this stuff.
• 6:07
  I don't miss, especially if I'm trying to like sleep with that woman.
• 6:10
  I don't miss.
• 6:11
  I don't miss a dad.
• 6:13
  I'll miss a moment to talk to him.
• 6:14
  Um, I'm making conversation and I kind of look at that my with my relationship to God.
• 6:20
  Oh, today, and it hasn't always been that way.
• 6:24
  So, but like, you know, where it started out for me in a consistent manner was I got on my knees every morning and just made a prayer.
• 6:33
  And then I learned the prayer.
• 6:35
  Now, I think I think I learned the, learned the 3rd step prayer.
• 6:39
  Then I started saying that.
• 6:40
  But, you know, on a basic level, right?
• 6:44
  I think you can just go to page 86 and it says on awakening.
• 6:48
  Oh.
• 6:51
  And when it says on Awakening,
• 6:53
  Underneath there, it kind of says, like, I consider my plans, but before all that, which is funny, because it tells me these things, and it says before that, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest and self-seeking motives.
• 7:10
  And I like how self-pity comes 1st because I don't know about anybody that's late listens to this, but like when I wake up, man, like, that time, if I, that's the reason my mornings, the things I do are so important because my mind starts going just, you know, from circus clowns to penguins to really more of the self-pity, though, like, you know, this person didn't do this for me.
• 7:36
  I'm not getting this, you know, I'm having to wake up early, whatever it is.
• 7:40
  Like, I'll start just, like, going into this thing, and that's why.
• 7:44
  Right?
• 7:46
  I don't like really wake up and go pee or do this or make coffee.
• 7:50
  I wake up and roll out of the bed and say a prayer.
• 7:53
  Get on my knees immediately.
• 7:54
  Um, I've heard, like, here are things like, put your shoes underneath the bed.
• 8:00
  Well, man, if I'm trying to, in the way I view this is I'm trying to give God the courtesy to come into my honor.
• 8:09
  If I'm going to do that, I might, like, I need to make an action.
• 8:13
  For me, like, and that that just makes sense to me.
• 8:16
  If it's not to you, that's okay.
• 8:18
  I'm not there's not a right or wrong thing.
• 8:20
  And that's where I go back to this book and it says, well, therefore we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God.
• 8:25
  This is this applies to other spiritual expressions, what you find in this book.
• 8:30
  And there's other spiritual expressions everywhere, right?
• 8:34
  I think my buddy Mike, you know, he says serenity prayer when he wakes up and he goes.
• 8:38
  Oh, I'm a very, like, I've, I come from a very unstructured way of living, and I found it that way of living doesn't work the best.
• 8:46
  So I had to find into a structure for me.
• 8:50
  And this book has, you know, everything I need to do within that structure.
• 8:54
  Oh, back on the, back on this thing, it says, today I will begin by placing my life in God's hands instead of assuming I can manage it alone.
• 9:07
  And so like, but like, for me, on page 53, for example, it's like, you know, gives me this example, is God is, God is either everything or God's nothing.
• 9:18
  And so, you know, to me, when I come into that, you know, the other literature's alive with that, you know, God's always been.
• 9:24
  You know, it's my perception of that.
• 9:27
  And so I might want to just change my perception and bring him in.
• 9:33
  So I can, like, if maybe that's, you know, just something that I like to do and that says, I kind of, you know, Pastor Mike's out here trying to, you know, do analogies, which is great.
• 9:45
  I think, you know, I like his view.
• 9:46
  He said, just as a vehicle needs regular maintenance to run well.
• 9:51
  My heart needs daily prayer, honest reflection and faithful obedience.
• 9:56
  And then it says small habits, practiced, consistently leads to lasting strength, and, man, like, you know, I, I'm, you know, pastor marks a buddy of mine.
• 10:06
  So like, you know, I think small habits practice.
• 10:09
  So I think that I think the things start out as small.
• 10:12
  Um, the little things I do here and there, but, um, I kind of practice this God thing, like I practice my drinking, right?
• 10:20
  I didn't start off drinking a handle a day.
• 10:24
  I didn't start off doing this and this and this and this when I was drinking.
• 10:30
  I started off small.
• 10:31
  But I'll tell you, I never really subtracted until the middle of that, right?
• 10:35
  I always grew.
• 10:36
  I was drank more, stayed out later, did more things, got more, more, more, more.
• 10:45
  And like, you know, for me, that's my relationship with God today.
• 10:49
  Oh, I need to, for me, there's a sense of, and I was talking to a buddy of mine about this.
• 10:55
  there's an urgency for me to do more.
• 10:57
  Oh, and, you know, that's just within me, I need to, you know, help more people.
• 11:04
  Like, because, I mean, like, we're only on this world for a certain amount of time.
• 11:09
  And what am I doing?
• 11:11
  You know, thinking about the what, who's wrong, me, and trying to arrange light to suit, suit myself, right?
• 11:17
  Like if I, uh, my life is in God's hands today.
• 11:20
  I want to be useful to God.
• 11:22
  And I want to be useful to God's kids.
• 11:24
  So when I come into that, man.
• 11:26
  Like, you know, it's a whole different thing.
• 11:28
  And when you go back to page 84 or step 10, and it's, I was thinking about this, so I've been, been reading, I've been reading some of John lately.
• 11:37
  And John, uh, the book of John is really cool.
• 11:41
  And I think about my day today.
• 11:43
  Oh, it's it.
• 11:46
  This is on verse... Book, uh, chapter 3, verse seven.
• 11:54
  It says, do not be astonished that I said to you.
• 11:57
  You must be born from above.
• 11:59
  The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you don't know where it comes from or where it goes.
• 12:06
  So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.
• 12:10
  And um, I was thinking about that.
• 12:13
  Like, you know, the wind comes, you know, and like I just, I was thinking about that in a sense of like, more of a river.
• 12:21
  Um, because like, so if I'm just like flowing with the rib.
• 12:25
  You know, flowing with it and something comes up.
• 12:30
  Well, I hit a rock or I, you know, stop.
• 12:33
  So I got this river fighting against me and all that.
• 12:35
  And I feel like that's these things that crop up in my life.
• 12:38
  Uh, when I'm dishonest or self seeking or I need to make amends to somebody.
• 12:42
  And that's kind of the prescription that it gives on page 84.
• 12:46
  It's like, you know, what it says is we ask God to remove this and once.
• 12:49
  So if I'm asking God to remove it at warrants.
• 12:52
  I uh, I'm bringing God into the situation.
• 12:56
  Then it says I talk to someone immediately.
• 12:59
  Make amends quickly if I've harmed anyone.
• 13:02
  So like, For me, if there, like, the way I think about that river, the wind and how that, the Bible kind of describes that, like, I feel like when I, this, these things crop up.
• 13:15
  I kind of stop a little bit on the river, but it asked me not to stop.
• 13:19
  It says, We continue to watch, right?
• 13:22
  Because I see he's finding anything or anyone.
• 13:25
  So like if I'm watching this river, I'm flowing with it, when things crop up, I'm still watching.
• 13:30
  I'm not putting a halt to my life and trying to fight against this current.
• 13:34
  I'm just flowing with it.
• 13:36
  But, man, I'm not perfect in this and I definitely put a, I put a lot of halts in the, on the river, right?
• 13:42
  You know, got a lot of water splashing over me at times.
• 13:45
  because I'm not perfect right?
• 13:47
  But then I like, you know, but where I do the prescribed method, which says talk to somebody, make amends quickly, like what I make when I make something right in between me and another person that, you know, hey, I call some disruption.
• 14:01
  So that disruption, when I make it right, I'm able to flow again.
• 14:06
  But for knife I don't, it tears me away.
• 14:09
  And like when we were talking, like, you know, if you put the boat in the water and like, that tears at me, right?
• 14:14
  And it blocks me off of this conscious contact with God.
• 14:17
  So I do these things in order to stay current with that.
• 14:21
  And so, and then it, it's cool because down here below John, in John 3 verse 20.
• 14:28
  It says, for all who do evil, hate the light, and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.
• 14:38
  So like, I like that.
• 14:40
  So like, for all who are evil, hate the light.
• 14:44
  So I could say, you know, man, there's a lot of times that I hated the light.
• 14:50
  And I would stay, I guess, ignorant to how I was living, maybe trying to be ignorant to how I was living.
• 14:59
  Um, so I did because I didn't want to feel that hole in me more and more and more.
• 15:05
  But today, you know, I find I find more like, you know, through reading and through seeking and all of a sudden talking to other people.
• 15:14
  I find there's still more I can do.
• 15:16
  And I hope there is, right?
• 15:18
  Because if there's not, this is it, like.
• 15:21
  Uh, that's cool too, but I mean, like, I don't believe that.
• 15:25
  Because if there's a higher power, and I believe in that higher power.
• 15:29
  Man, that higher power can take me from here to somewhere else too.
• 15:33
  And I've seen that proactively in my life.
• 15:36
  But it goes back to him, at the end of that, it says, on 20, verse 21, it says, but those who do not, for those who do what is true, come to the light.
• 15:49
  So for those who do what is true.
• 15:51
  What is true?
• 15:52
  Well, I imagine, just for me, straightening straight into some of the things out, right?
• 15:56
  with somebody else.
• 15:57
  And then it goes on to say, so that it may be clearly seeing that their deeds have been done in God.
• 16:05
  So then I'll be in a demonstration.
• 16:08
  And that's all I'm doing here, right?
• 16:09
  I'm being a demonstration of God.
• 16:11
  You know, how I live my life, and that's a really cool position to be on a purpose to give me.
• 16:16
  Because in the big book, it says a real purpose is to fit ourselves to be a maximum service guy for the people about us.
• 16:22
  So if I'm floating in that river, helping others, make it write these things, I have a better chance of flowing with the river, going with the wind and not worrying about which way it's taking me because I'm trusting in this God.
• 16:35
  And that's to me what this is saying and that's like, and the idea behind that is, man, just, uh, whatever these spiritual term mean to you.
• 16:44
  Like, I mean, I probably sound like a, uh, person that like, you know, they're like, man, I don't want to do all that.
• 16:52
  Well, it didn't start as all that.
• 16:53
  It started as a simple prayer on my knees.
• 16:56
  And then I added too.
• 16:58
  I always always told you, I always add too, you've never subtract, because I don't know what I'm subtracting.
• 17:03
  Because, I mean, It says, It has been repeatedly proven among us that appalled this simple cornerstone, and they're talking about the cornerstone of willing to believe of God, a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built.
• 17:19
  So that's what I'm building upon.
• 17:22
  And I hope that I can continue building always.
• 17:25
  And the rest of the ripple.
• 17:28
  I think, uh, it says, as I begin each day with the Father, the Holy Spirit prepares me for the opportunity and challenges ahead.
• 17:39
  Well, I think the opportunity and the challenges met with how God wants me to meet him, and I, you know, I think, um, it says on page 133 in this book, where there's challenges ahead, it tells me right here on 133, it says, avoid then the deliberate manufacture of misery.
• 18:04
  Well, I've done that for a long time.
• 18:05
  So let's try to avoid it now.
• 18:07
  But if trouble comes because trouble's gonna come.
• 18:10
  Cheerfully capitalize it as an opportunity to demonstrate his omnipotence, and his is capitalized.
• 18:18
  So let's talk about God.
• 18:19
  So I'm just trying to be a demonstration of what God can do for the next dude into the next dude.
• 18:26
  And hopefully you can too.
• 18:27
  So, I mean, this daily stuff is important.
• 18:30
  I mean, I find one of the most important parts of my day.
• 18:33
  Um, and I found out to be the truth with other people.
• 18:37
  And, uh, My sponsor, he's very picky and he, you know, says a lot of things to me.
• 18:46
  And so I mean, I don't really ever want to hear that either.
• 18:49
  I don't want to, like, you know, I said, I do, I do some writing in the morning.
• 18:53
  Now, kind of, my ego helps me out with this a little bit because I send it out to quite a few people every morning and I never miss.
• 19:01
  unless I accidentally miss a name when I'm going through the 60s and 70 people and texting, and if they get kind of out of order, I'll miss that because I got to individually send it.
• 19:11
  But, you know, I don't ever miss.
• 19:14
  Said I don't ever miss doing it.
• 19:16
  I don't ever miss sending it.
• 19:17
  Um, because who am I to talk about the way I view these spiritual terms in a very structured way and not do it and just talk about it.
• 19:29
  Bam, like I would feel like that would put a hole in me as well.
• 19:33
  Oh, but the let's see.
• 19:37
  I don't want to miss anything, buddy.
• 19:39
  I discover that today's faithfulness is enough for today's journey.
• 19:43
  Yeah.
• 19:44
  I think he did a good job here.
• 19:47
  Prayer.
• 19:49
  Father God, help my heart close to you today, through your Holy Spirit, guide my thoughts, my choices and my steps.
• 19:58
  Shape me through the example of Jesus.
• 20:00
  Amen.