Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / August 14 – Making Things Right

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August 14 – Making Things Right · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Hey guys, today is Friday, August 14th.
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  Making Things Right. The Stone: Peace
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  comes not from what others do for me, but from doing what is
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  mine to do before God. Ripple One Practical: Today
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  I'll focus on my own responsibilities rather than someone else's.
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  I cannot control whether others acknowledge their mistakes.
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  But I can take ownership of my own actions.
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  Freedom grows when I stop keeping score and start making
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  things right where I can. The ripple to spiritual:
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  as I take responsibility for my part without demanding repayment
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  from others, the Holy Spirit gives me willingness to
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  repair the damage I have caused and lay the result in God's
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  hands. The Father calls me in faithfulness, not fairness.
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  And Jesus teaches me what that looks like.
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  And man, yeah, I was thinking about this first
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  part. It says, peace comes not from what others do for me, but from what
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  is mine to do before God. And we were
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  talking about this on the last episode, right? Because if everything's God,
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  and not just the specifics, and I think it's
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  funny listening to some people and on both sides of the fence
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  of whatever they believe in.
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  And I start asking questions about, well, what do you think about God
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  and this? And I like to push some things to the side.
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  Some of these things I'm really passionate about and I forget them.
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  But I think the real true thing in this is on page 124 in the
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  big book, it says, we grow, and here's your word, Paris,
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  We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and
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  convert them into assets. The alcoholic's past thus becomes
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  the principal asset of the family and frequently is almost the only one.
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  So like me rectifying errors,
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  and I look at this in a lot of different ways. Number one,
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  am I being a demonstration of God and what God
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  can do in my life? Number 2, I happen
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  to be in this program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Can I be a demonstration for Alcoholics
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  Anonymous? And maybe from someone,
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  someone sees what I have and what they might want, or am I not?
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  Am I the dude with the circle and the triangle going 95
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  miles an hour down the interstate cutting people off and being a demonstration for
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  Alcoholics Anonymous that way? That's why I think it's best to keep
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  some of those things private. Um,
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  but in the Bible— oh, we're just jumping around some literature now.
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  Go for it. In Colossians 3:23,
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  whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working
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  for the Lord, not for men, since you know that
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  you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the
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  Lord Christ you are serving, Anyone who does
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  wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.
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  Man, I didn't like that last part, right? There is no favoritism.
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  Man, I thought I was his favorite. So when
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  I come into that, right? I was thinking about that one day. I was working
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  and I was like, man, I'm not working for this company,
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  right? I'm working for God. I'm not working for an individual.
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  I come into conflict with that.
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  Like, oh, I don't like my boss. Well, My boss is a child
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  of God as well. Yeah, we're all children of God. And, you know,
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  I think we talked a little bit about this before, but, you know, once I
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  come into more and more of that, you know, I start looking at life a
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  lot different. Would God, you know, would God want me talking
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  bad about him behind his back? Would, you know, any of these little things.
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  And, you know, we've, you know, that where it talks about,
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  you know, the 5th step, right? Searching out a closed-mouth friend.
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  Yeah. Right. So, and we talked about this one day, I was like,
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  you think, well, like, you know, because I think that closed-mouth friend thing is funny,
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  right? Because like, I didn't come
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  into this program being a closed-mouth friend by any
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  means. I don't care how like hood
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  I was hanging out with some dudes and like what principles they were living by.
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  I was not a closed-mouth friend. You get me around the right things with the
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  right concoction, my mouth is open wide. Telling everybody's business.
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  Yeah. And I'm excited about it too, because I think it's great.
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  So I come into here and then I think
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  that I'm going to be a closed-mouth friend. No, God has shaped me in
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  a way and put me in some positions and taken,
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  just torn away the ego, right?
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  From facing these things and rectifying my past.
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  That's where the ego's gone. Because when I looked the girl in the face and
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  I said, hey man, I did this and this and this to you.
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  What can I do to make that right? And those things that she didn't know,
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  you see that face, you don't ever like, you know,
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  that's a face that, you know, takes your soul. And it's not something that's
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  like, you know, when you wake up the next day and you shoot, they're going
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  through your text messages and finding that you were talking to someone. It's a completely
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  different thing because now I'm so clear-minded and I can
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  feel this and I feel this with God. And now I'm open to these feelings
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  and now I And I believe through
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  this work, you know, rectifying my past,
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  maybe I'm not going to hurt anybody again like I hurt them that way.
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  Yeah. Anyway, you know, I was looking at the
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  practical part on this, you know, and what it says today, I will focus on
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  my own responsibilities rather than someone else's.
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  You know, how fast is it that I can take
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  someone else's inventory and tell them, oh, what they're doing wrong
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  or how they need to fix this. You know
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  what I mean? But that's the part of cleaning up my own side of the
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  street. You know, back, I used to have a, it was an older gentleman that
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  used to walk my old neighborhood as growing up. And he used
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  to just walk the neighborhood and pick up things in the middle,
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  just on the side of the road. And I was like, man,
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  why does he do this every day? That's just a part of cleaning
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  up his neighborhood, right? Helping someone else. And that
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  kind of brings it back to what we doing today, to just be assisting and
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  help someone see their side and to clean their own mess up.
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  You know what I mean? And then I was looking at,
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  I went to the daily reflections on this and I was looking at it
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  and it said, we attempt to sweep away the debris. Which has
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  accumulated out of our effort to live on self-will
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  and run to show ourselves. See,
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  when I focus on my own self all the
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  time, you know, I get in a bothered situation.
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  I know Corey don't like me saying stinky thinking. And I get in
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  this situation to where I have to, you know, get out. And how
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  do I get out of there? I have to rely and depend upon God.
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  'Cause at the end of the day, this is faith and recovery work we're
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  doing. And that's what's so great about this, to be able to just
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  pause and get in my head and say,
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  Lord, let thy will be done, not mine. So I can instantly
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  deter it off of me and give it up again
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  with surrendering. That's the first thing that came to mind
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  on me on that. Yeah, but I love how it says, but I
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  can take ownership of my own actions. Because step 8
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  is into action. That's when we have to really
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  do the work. It's not into action just because,
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  you know, action is a— what is
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  it? It's a verb, right? Is it a verb? Action is a verb.
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  Yeah, I heard it. A verb is an action. Yeah,
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  by definition. Exactly. Well, vice versa.
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  I barely went to school, but I really didn't learn too much. But no,
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  anyway, um, but this is the part that we really have to put
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  action into. And, um, to make those amends, yes, it's going to be difficult.
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  You know, I don't— I didn't try making amends that,
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  you know, the other, the other party didn't want nothing to do
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  with, right? And that's still— but I have done my part,
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  you know. I have reached out, you know. Now it's
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  up to— now I got to put it in God for him to, you know,
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  level that out, you know. I think that said that right. Yeah. What you
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  got, Pastor? Well, I was thinking about how,
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  like, our, our eyesight, what we can see,
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  you know. And I remember
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  when I first needed— when I first realized I needed glasses was
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  as a result of having a conversation with somebody, and they
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  pointed out, hey, you may need glasses, right? Because I was in college
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  and I had been for a while,
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  I would pick the seats toward the front of the room so that I could
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  see the writing on the whiteboard better. And I was having headaches
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  when I was driving at night with the lights and things and having a conversation
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  with, at the time it was my mother, and she pointed out, she said,
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  well, it sounds like you might need glasses, like you might be a little bit
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  nearsighted. And so I had to get my vision checked. And of course I did
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  need the glasses and I'm I've had to use them ever since.
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  And I also think about eyesight in terms of people who have like a— because
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  I have this as well— an astigmatism, which is kind of like,
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  the best I can understand it, and I'm not an optometrist, of course, but is
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  almost kind of like a dark spot or a spot in one eye where
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  you can't really see around it, you know, things like that anyway, or it's the
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  shape of the lens, something like that. But I think about how, you know,
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  as these things develop slowly over the course of a lifetime
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  that form our eyesight, And we don't realize what we can't see.
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  And that's exactly the same type of thing that,
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  you know, Jesus was talking about in his Sermon on the Mount
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  in, uh, Matthew 7:3. You know, when he said, why do you look at
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  the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank
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  in your own eye? Exactly. It's because I've been living with this plank,
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  Jesus, for all my life, and I'm used to looking around my
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  own plank because I know I I may not even remember that it's
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  there until I see a mirror or have a mirror held up to me,
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  but I can see across the room to you. And so I can
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  see the speck that you have more because, like I said, I got glasses now
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  too, so I can see it even better. But it's just
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  that reminder for me of,
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  as it says, how could I say to somebody else, let me take the speck
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  out of your eye, when all the time there's a plank in my own?
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  Because I don't want to be that type of hypocrite, you know, that Jesus was
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  talking about in there. And that's why I
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  can only— and I've learned through the recovery program as well— that all
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  I'm in control of are my own actions. Yeah. Like, I can't control your actions.
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  And I know that because of my alcoholism,
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  if I try to control your actions and I come to you with expectations and
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  you don't meet my expectations, that's going to turn into a resentment.
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  That resentment eventually, if it's left un— mitigated
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  over time. You get frustrated. Yeah, I could be frustrated,
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  irritable, discontent. Over time, that could lead me to a relapse
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  or a drink because I've seen that happen to so many of our brothers and
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  sisters in the program. But so I have to
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  keep working on the plank that's in my eye. And to take that
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  plank out of my eye is what my job is. When I'm going about
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  the 8th and 9th step, I'm trying to get that plank pulled out of my
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  eye. I'm not trying to do that so that I can see the speck in
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  your eye, and I can't come with expectations because that's just premeditated
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  relapse, as they call it, in the program. And to you,
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  Paris, I would say anytime that you want to get
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  out of your stinking thinking, that maybe you should just think, think,
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  think, or maybe you should keep first things first.
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  Maybe you should take an attitude of easy does it. Did I
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  get enough of the wall icons at you, Corey, for you to get agitated over
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  there? You see what I did? Yeah. See,
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  I might not know the way this works because
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  I don't have as much time as Pastor Mike.
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  But see, my thinking though, as time passes,
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  right, because more and more on the plane is gone. I come
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  to rely upon that, my thinking. And I have
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  a— I think it's not in this book because
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  on page 80— yeah, it's in this book
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  on page 87. It says, nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes,
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  be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
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  And right beside, I have it written in, rely only on divine.
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  I rely on God. Not because I
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  don't call someone because I got some stinking thinking and I need someone to make
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  decisions for me. I rely on God. And I do rely on my thinking
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  today because how else am I going to get through life? And I
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  can call people all I want, but at the end of the day, I'm going
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  to make the decision. I can listen to people and there are I've
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  got moments and all sorts of things when I talk to people. I call my
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  sponsor frequently. But, you know, I do rely upon God and
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  that thinking today. Um, you know, I'll— you know,
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  I was thinking about on page 61,
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  you know, it says he may be kind. And, you know, let's talk about me.
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  It says Corey may be kind, considerate, patient,
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  generous, even modest, self-sacrificing. On the other
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  hand, Corey may be mean, egotistical, selfish,
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  and dishonest. But as with most humans,
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  Corey is likely to have varied traits. What usually happens,
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  Perry, is the show doesn't come off very well. Corey begins to think life
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  doesn't treat him right. Corey decides to exert himself more. I try even harder
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  at being really nice or really like, you know, being a passive-aggressive,
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  you know, butthead. Butthead. Yeah. Thank you.
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  Uh, since all of us have— we've done this long enough, I, I know when
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  you're on the cusp of the curse. Yeah. But, you know, then I
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  push further, right? And it goes on to say, you know, he becomes
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  on the next occasion still more demanding or gracious,
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  as the case may be, still that a play does not suit
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  Corey, admitting Corey may be somewhat at fault, just a
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  little bit. Corey's a little bit— that's what it says,
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  somewhat at fault. Corey is sure
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  that other people are more to blame. The house always wins.
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  Yeah. Right? That is why those words in there,
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  like resolutely, are in there, right? With determination,
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  I have to look and see exactly what I did because,
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  you know, and what a demonstration of God is,
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  you know, if when me and you get into an argument about something,
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  right? Which happens, you know, sometimes. Yeah. And say
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  you might have been in the wrong, Right? Yeah. But,
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  and I've said, you know, one little piece in there— this happens at my household—
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  maybe I said one thing in the middle of this thing, uh, you know,
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  in the first— but I'm the first one to make amends about that one
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  little thing. Maybe I didn't bring it on that time, right?
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  But that's a demonstration. And that, you know, I'll tell you what happens,
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  both people's perspectives change at once in that.
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  Because like, when you're not even, you know, the primary
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  offender, primary grenade thrower. Yeah, I like
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  that better than offender.
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  But you can say, hey, I'm sorry
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  for tripping you, whatever the example is.
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  I'm sorry for that. And come clean about it all.
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  Once you insert love into anything,
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  it takes away the anger, the fear, the resentment,
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  all that stuff. But the love has to be inserted,
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  and it's our jobs to insert the love. Love. The Bible tells
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  us we love because God first loved us. And the big
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  book, which is not our Bible, but it's a big book, which is great for
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  us, is on page 55. It says, we finally saw that faith
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  in some kind of God was a part of our makeup, just as much as
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  the feeling we have for a friend. Sometimes we had to search fearlessly,
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  but he was there. He was as much a fact as we were.
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  We found the great reality deep down within us. In the
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  last analysis, it is only there that he may be found. And it was so
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  with us. Yeah. I mean, I got one more. Yeah,
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  he quoting over there, ain't he? Yeah. I mean, one more thing, you know.
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  He got me thinking about it when he was talking about how today he sees
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  that, you know, he sees God everywhere and he's growing his faith and understanding in
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  God. And I mean, that comes— that's basically— I mean,
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  that's like a little promise in that chapter. There's a lot of promises in it.
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  Yeah. That I learned or that I read, you know, and it's on
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  the spiritual where it says, the Holy Spirit gives me the willing to repair damage
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  I have caused and leave the results in God's
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  hands, right? You know, see, we have to remind ourselves that we
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  wanted to go to any lengths to get this, you know, and it says that
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  on page 79. When we do find ourselves in
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  trouble, oh, do I want to make these amends? It says, we ask
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  that we be given the strength and direction to do the right thing,
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  No matter what the personal consequences may be. Yeah.
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  You know, sometimes those are tough. Exactly. You know,
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  but that's what it's about, giving it up in God's hands, surrendering. It don't matter
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  the consequences. That's right. Well, that's all I got. Man, to be able
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  to do that though, we gotta have and we gotta grow in willingness.
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  Yes, sir. And that's on Paris.
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  Father God, help me focus on what is mine to do today.
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  Through Your Holy Spirit, give me the willingness to make
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  things right and the humility to leave the outcome with You. Shape my
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  life through the example of Jesus and lead me into peace.