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July 9 - An Instrument in His Hands · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:02
  Hey, how y'all doing today?
• 0:04
  I'm Paris and I got Corey here with me again.
• 0:07
  July 9th, an instrument in his hands, the stone.
• 0:12
  Humility is knowing that I am not the source, but a vessel.
• 0:18
  Ripple one, practical.
• 0:19
  Today, I will do what I do well without needing to take credit for everything.
• 0:25
  I will accept encouragement without inflating myself.
• 0:28
  And I will stay grounded by remembering that my role is to serve, not to prove myself.
• 0:34
  Ripple 2, spiritual.
• 0:36
  The Father works through willing hearts.
• 0:40
  Jesus lived in complete dependence, showing what it means to serve without self-promotion.
• 0:46
  The Holy Spirit shapes humility in me, reminding me that the work is not mine alone.
• 0:52
  As I surrender my shortcomings, I become more available for God to work through me in love and service.
• 1:00
  And we'll read the prayer later on like we always do.
• 1:05
  You know, when I read that, you know, first thought came to mind that, you know, God isn't looking for perfect people.
• 1:13
  He's looking for willing people, you know.
• 1:15
  And, you know, it talks about that on page 63.
• 1:20
  I mean, it's 76.
• 1:21
  But that seven-step prayer when it said,
• 1:24
  My creator, I am not willing that you shall have all of me, good and bad.
• 1:28
  I pray that you now remove me from every single defective character
• 1:32
  which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows.
• 1:35
  Grant me strength as I go out from here to do your bidding.
• 1:38
  Amen.
• 1:39
  You know, that prayer right there, man, is very powerful.
• 1:42
  Because when you talk about an instrument,
• 1:45
  I feel like my high power, which is God, I call today, is my instrument.
• 1:51
  You know, that's the person I get to go to when I need something.
• 1:55
  You know, of course, I can call someone else when I'm feeling bad or anything like that.
• 1:59
  But when it's a time that I want to communicate with my father, I feel like he's always there.
• 2:06
  And I'm knowing that I'm not the source.
• 2:09
  You know, when I become the source of an issue, of a source of a problem, you know, things can go real bad.
• 2:16
  You know, I talk about that path of discretion a lot because that's the way I've lead my life.
• 2:21
  I was going down the path of discretion all the time.
• 2:25
  And, you know, and I don't have to, I love how to say on the practical part where today I would do what I do without needing to take credit for everything.
• 2:34
  Man, you know, I used to be the guy.
• 2:37
  I used to be the guy that wanted to take credit for everything.
• 2:40
  I don't care.
• 2:41
  You know, it's like, oh, I cooked that meal right there.
• 2:44
  How you like it?
• 2:44
  You know what I mean?
• 2:45
  That was just me.
• 2:46
  I didn't care what it was.
• 2:48
  You know, it could be anything.
• 2:49
  I wanted to put my name on it as credit.
• 2:51
  Oh, how you get that little sack right there?
• 2:54
  Yeah, that was me.
• 2:55
  I brought it to you.
• 2:55
  You know what I mean?
• 2:56
  Like, that was crazy, the work I was doing.
• 2:58
  But now I see it in this recovery room.
• 3:00
  You know, I read with a lot of people.
• 3:02
  You know, I see a lot of changes in people's lives, and I see them growing.
• 3:06
  And I don't even, it's not that I don't care, but I don't never say, yes, that's my sponsor.
• 3:11
  Oh, yeah, I'm working with him.
• 3:13
  You know, it just, I love to see that growth in another human being.
• 3:17
  And it's all because of this program, man.
• 3:19
  And this stuff really works.
• 3:20
  Working these 12 steps has actually been a part of a, I want to say successful new beginning.
• 3:30
  I think it says that somewhere in the book.
• 3:31
  I'm not sure if you know.
• 3:33
  But it's a part in the book or somewhere where it talks about that, you know, the joy that's happening is free.
• 3:38
  And, yeah, that's where I met today.
• 3:41
  What you got on that?
• 3:42
  Quando você estava falando, você estava falando sobre a patho de destruição.
• 3:47
  Eu acho que você é errado.
• 3:50
  Porque, eu acho, se você pensar em uma vida de hoje,
• 3:55
  e você beat você up on a patho de destruir,
• 3:58
  mas hoje a passo é essa hope.
• 4:02
  E, você sabe, helping outros.
• 4:04
  Então, se eu, na página 53,
• 4:08
  It says, you know, when we became alcoholics, crushed by self in post-crisis, we could not
• 4:12
  postpone or evade.
• 4:13
  We had to fiercely face the proposition that either God is everything or He is nothing.
• 4:17
  So in that path of destruction has got everything, because God watched over through that and right
• 4:23
  now.
• 4:25
  So when I think about, like, what is God?
• 4:28
  And God's been with me through every bottle, through every bag, through every car wreck,
• 4:34
  through every jail time, through every sentencing,
• 4:37
  through everything I've ever been through right there beside me.
• 4:40
  You know, when I'm awake today to see that,
• 4:42
  that you have the spiritual awakening, right?
• 4:44
  When I'm awake to see that, every little piece of it.
• 4:47
  And, you know, the cool thing is we'll get to put the dots together
• 4:50
  because I'll never be able to explain a supreme being.
• 4:55
  And it tells me that I'm weird, Gnostic.
• 4:57
  But I'm more awake to see, hey, this happened and this happened.
• 5:00
  It's just more amazing to me.
• 5:02
  It's more, you know, when I get to watch that unfold through dudes' lives, like through your life, it's a great privilege.
• 5:10
  And I have been a vessel.
• 5:11
  And, man, I'll tell you, there's been times that I have been not into the vessel business.
• 5:16
  I've been in the results business.
• 5:18
  And God's brought me down every time.
• 5:21
  You know, man, I've sat and, you know, and maybe, you know, it's just what I need.
• 5:25
  I mean, maybe.
• 5:27
  It's just what I needed right at that moment.
• 5:29
  It always has been.
• 5:31
  God's put me in these positions.
• 5:33
  You know, God put, man, for the first year,
• 5:37
  I was back in the recovery rooms.
• 5:40
  Man, the amount of dudes I read the book with
• 5:42
  and God put in my life to read the book with is crazy.
• 5:46
  Man, like, you know, in the beginning of all that,
• 5:49
  I wasn't even, I wasn't working.
• 5:53
  So, man, I would meet up with a dude.
• 5:55
  I would meet up with dudes maybe twice a day,
• 5:57
  every day of the week, reading in this book,
• 6:01
  man, just hoping that I could give back some little glimpse of love in this world
• 6:06
  that maybe God could pay, you know, I could pay that God
• 6:10
  and the human back for all the problems and all the things I've done to him.
• 6:17
  But, you know, so when I think about vessel, though,
• 6:21
  and then it goes on to say,
• 6:25
  humility is not knowing that I'm not the source, but a vessel.
• 6:28
  and I got this tattoo on my back
• 6:31
  and it's the St. Francis prayer
• 6:34
  but I got
• 6:34
  you know because there's two different versions
• 6:36
  and I like the instrument version better
• 6:39
  and on page 99
• 6:40
  it says
• 6:41
  the 12 of 12 verse it says channel
• 6:44
  but it says
• 6:45
  Lord make me a channel of thy peace
• 6:48
  that where there is hatred
• 6:49
  I may bring love
• 6:51
  that where there is wrong
• 6:52
  I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
• 6:54
  that where there is discord
• 6:55
  I may bring harmony
• 6:57
  that where there is error I may bring truth
• 7:00
  that where there is doubt I may bring faith
• 7:02
  that where there is despair I may bring hope
• 7:05
  that where there are shadows I may bring light
• 7:07
  that where there is sadness I may bring joy
• 7:10
  or grant that I may seek rather to comfort
• 7:14
  than to be comforted
• 7:15
  to understand than to be understood
• 7:18
  to love and to be loved
• 7:20
  for it is self-forgetting that one is fine
• 7:22
  it is forgiving that one is forgiven
• 7:25
  and it's by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
• 7:28
  Amen.
• 7:29
  And so, you know, man, all I am is a vessel.
• 7:32
  All I am is a channel, an instrument for God.
• 7:35
  And when I do get in the results business,
• 7:37
  man, that'd be crazy.
• 7:39
  A friend of mine, and I'm not going to name his name
• 7:41
  because he doesn't want to be named ever.
• 7:43
  You know, they tried to write a book with him in it.
• 7:46
  They tried to put him on a TV show.
• 7:48
  And he said, you know, he told me about this stuff.
• 7:50
  And he said, man, how can I ever take credit for any of this?
• 7:55
  Because this is freely given to me, and this was given me from God.
• 7:59
  And this is, you know, this simple thing from this book, 164 pages.
• 8:04
  You know, it was freely shown to me.
• 8:06
  And, man, you know, I would never repay what's been given me,
• 8:09
  and that's what we're doing right here.
• 8:10
  I'm trying to pay back some of this.
• 8:12
  Yeah.
• 8:13
  I mean, that's the whole key to this thing.
• 8:17
  You know, I was looking at, you know,
• 8:20
  some of the words of this,
• 8:23
  where you go to the,
• 8:24
  what is it, the scripture part,
• 8:26
  I mean, the practical,
• 8:28
  I would have self-encouraged him
• 8:30
  without inflating myself.
• 8:32
  You know, you was just talking about that,
• 8:34
  you know, and that's the part of the program
• 8:36
  that I had to realize, you know,
• 8:38
  just because my past is my past
• 8:40
  and what I've been through,
• 8:41
  I can't talk down on that.
• 8:43
  Because that's a learning part,
• 8:44
  a learning stone to what I'm becoming to now.
• 8:47
  See, I had to go through that
• 8:48
  to get to this level I'm at today.
• 8:51
  You know, and it talks about humility, you know,
• 8:53
  when it says on page 70 to humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings.
• 9:02
  You know, that's in the 12 and 12 book, by the way.
• 9:05
  You know, step seven, because, man,
• 9:09
  there's a lot of defensive characters that I had that I didn't know
• 9:12
  that I had until I started to do this work.
• 9:15
  And I looked at it as, you know, why do I feel the way I feel?
• 9:21
  You know, why did I drink the way I drink?
• 9:23
  Because I was trying to hide myself from, you know, the world.
• 9:27
  I look at it and I'm looking at the spiritual part of this as well.
• 9:31
  And it reminds me of, you know, Romans 12, 2.
• 9:34
  You know, it says, do not be confronted to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
• 9:40
  That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
• 9:48
  Sin.
• 9:49
  That's all we're doing today.
• 9:51
  This is what we're doing today.
• 9:52
  We're transforming our minds.
• 9:54
  We're not the same like we used to do.
• 9:55
  We're trying to change that thinking our old thinking ways from what we used to do.
• 10:00
  Yeah, we thought it was good to go out and party, drink, do drugs, and be up all night.
• 10:05
  But now it's a different part of life we're in.
• 10:08
  We're transforming our whole life to the greater cause and to help another person.
• 10:13
  And when I read that, that only got me to this part where it's saying,
• 10:17
  the Holy Spirit shapes humility in me, reminding me that the work is not mine alone.
• 10:22
  See, this is this work.
• 10:24
  We're doing work together.
• 10:26
  I'm not doing this alone.
• 10:27
  You called me out the blue and just said, hey, meet me here.
• 10:30
  And here we are.
• 10:31
  We're speaking.
• 10:32
  We're talking.
• 10:33
  You know, I didn't know what's going on.
• 10:35
  I didn't ask any questions.
• 10:36
  You know what I mean?
• 10:37
  That's the work that God has put us in now to be able to, you know, piggyback off each other.
• 10:44
  You know, learn from one another.
• 10:45
  You are very knowledgeable in the AA book, way better than me, but I have learned so much.
• 10:51
  And some things I know, you may learn as well.
• 10:54
  So we always go through this part of process where we learn something new every day.
• 11:00
  And then I really believe this because I learn something new every day.
• 11:05
  You know what I mean?
• 11:06
  Like, I forgot what I learned new today.
• 11:09
  Maybe not been there.
• 11:10
  But, you know, the day is not over.
• 11:12
  It's only 5 o'clock.
• 11:14
  You know, I still got a long day to go.
• 11:16
  But, yeah.
• 11:17
  When I, you know, I'll tell you, you know, yeah, but, you know, this is the deal between.
• 11:21
  I can say for you, you know, what's really cool, I'm going to give you some credit, you know,
• 11:26
  here's a week, you're going to be celebrating one year sober.
• 11:30
  And that's really cool, man.
• 11:31
  And, you know, but I'll tell you this, and this is why this is the most important thing.
• 11:36
  It's on page 51 of the big book.
• 11:38
  It says, the show, when many hundreds of people are able to say that the consciousness of the
• 11:44
  present of God is today the most important fact of their lives, they present a powerful
• 11:49
  reason why one should have faith.
• 11:51
  And so, you know, when I look at that and I think, you know, I was just thinking about
• 11:56
  what you were talking about, you know, the presence of God is the most important thing
• 11:59
  in my life today.
• 12:01
  There's nothing else.
• 12:02
  You know, sometimes, you know, I can get, you know, led this direction or led that way.
• 12:07
  And, you know, think that something else is.
• 12:09
  And, you know, I get confused in that.
• 12:11
  And just like I got confused in some of this work on page 76, you know, because it says as I surrender my shortcomings.
• 12:18
  You know, and man, I'm glad July is going to be over soon because we're going to get out of this shortcomings.
• 12:25
  All this stuff because, man, I get so caught up in it and worrying about my shortcoming.
• 12:32
  But, you know, it talks about on page 76, it says,
• 12:36
  Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable?
• 12:43
  Well, what's objectionable?
• 12:44
  I'll tell you what's objectionable.
• 12:45
  It's really simple.
• 12:46
  I don't have to get into this 12 and 12 work and all this other stuff.
• 12:50
  It's when I'm selfish, dishonest, resentful, and fear, or, you know, self-seeking.
• 12:58
  Those words, when we went through this fourth step, right?
• 13:01
  Those are the things which block me.
• 13:04
  Block me from what?
• 13:05
  From God and you.
• 13:07
  And I've always been blocked from you and God.
• 13:09
  And you said, you know, you were drinking and doing all these things to hide yourself from everybody else.
• 13:17
  But for me, man, I was drinking and doing all these things to hide myself from me.
• 13:22
  Because I've always been the problem.
• 13:23
  You haven't.
• 13:24
  But I've always made you the problem.
• 13:26
  And so when I look at this, and so when I look at the shortcoming, as I surrender my shortcomings,
• 13:32
  I become more available for God to work through me.
• 13:35
  Well, God's working through me through everything.
• 13:38
  We've already talked about God is everything, right?
• 13:41
  He's either everything or is nothing.
• 13:43
  So God works through me through these defects, right?
• 13:46
  So it says, I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my use when it's to you and my fellows.
• 13:53
  Well, I asked God to take, you know, I didn't know what the good and bad was because my greatest defect has become my greatest asset today, right?
• 14:00
  So I don't know what's good and bad.
• 14:03
  And I'm not able to define that either.
• 14:05
  You know, I could be, you know, there's principles to live by.
• 14:10
  And, you know, I don't think anybody falls short in knowing what to do as a good person.
• 14:15
  For me, one of the main principles I had to try to live by my family is for me to keep my mouth shut.
• 14:23
  That gets me in a lot of trouble.
• 14:25
  If I just shut up sometimes and, you know, let other people think for themselves and live for themselves,
• 14:31
  man, you know, I'd get out of so much trouble I get into.
• 14:36
  But, you know, also, I think it's important to work through me in love.
• 14:43
  It says I become more available to God to work through me in love and service.
• 14:48
  And up here in the practical, it says my role is to serve.
• 14:51
  That's my only role.
• 14:53
  It's not for me to make this character in this video game that's perfect for me,
• 14:59
  to have this humility and to have this honesty,
• 15:02
  but not be honest about this stuff because I still like having sex with me
• 15:06
  and all this other stuff, right?
• 15:08
  Because for me to form me, who I want me to be,
• 15:12
  is not going to be perfect in God's eyes.
• 15:14
  God has developed, made us how God wants us to be.
• 15:19
  Yeah.
• 15:19
  I'm always fighting it.
• 15:21
  Yeah, I feel like I fight that too, you know,
• 15:24
  because it's a thing about wanting to be too perfect.
• 15:29
  You know, when I try to be too perfect and not working on the spiritual progress,
• 15:35
  you know, just take it one day at a time because I have to learn that,
• 15:39
  you know, this stuff don't come overnight.
• 15:41
  You know, even all the practices I'm doing about, you know, a lot of things, you know, it's not only just the alcohol that I'm trying to retain from.
• 15:49
  It's everything that I'm trying to get total abstinence.
• 15:52
  Y'all shouldn't talk about all that, you know.
• 15:55
  Yeah, but, you know, that abstinence is a good thing, you know.
• 16:00
  And a lot of people, you know, I had a conversation with someone.
• 16:04
  She was talking about, oh, so you can still smoke, though.
• 16:07
  I'm saying, no, I can't.
• 16:09
  Because if I go back to get my mind, once it starts to get my mind to feel a certain way, to change my ways and change how I'm feeling, that's only going to leave me too, alcohol.
• 16:20
  Would you not just think, you know, so, you know, this, we were talking about this before.
• 16:24
  Uh-huh.
• 16:25
  And I've talked to a lot of dudes about this.
• 16:27
  And I feel firmly in my position right now where I'm about to stand on.
• 16:32
  So if I look at defects and I think about alcohol was the greatest defect, right?
• 16:39
  God removed that.
• 16:40
  I'm only in the recovery rooms that I'm in for alcohol, right?
• 16:45
  And if I stand on that position on page 13 in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous said,
• 16:56
  my friend promised me, and this is a promise, right?
• 16:59
  When these things were done, I would enter upon a new relationship with my creator.
• 17:03
  I would have all the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems.
• 17:09
  I'm not worried about any of this other stuff today.
• 17:12
  Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty, and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things were the essential requirements.
• 17:23
  So, man, I can take all these other things and, you know, dive into them deeply.
• 17:28
  But one thing I do know is every time I take a drink, I want more.
• 17:32
  And when I get out of that jail, I still drink.
• 17:36
  Yeah.
• 17:36
  And all these other problems and, you know, these other little things.
• 17:40
  Now, you know, I agree.
• 17:42
  Don't get me wrong.
• 17:43
  I agree with you.
• 17:44
  I agree with you because I know when I went back out after doing living the way I was living,
• 17:49
  you know, for a good amount of time, sober.
• 17:52
  Yeah, man.
• 17:53
  The first thing I did wasn't take a dream.
• 17:55
  It was I took a pill.
• 17:56
  But man, you know, I justified that.
• 17:58
  I thought about it.
• 17:59
  I was like, man, you know, I took a pill.
• 18:00
  I can never take pills.
• 18:02
  Well, you know, the cool thing about all this is, is God, there's a promise on 85th.
• 18:09
  And do I trust in this promise?
• 18:12
  It says, we see that our attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part.
• 18:18
  It just comes.
• 18:19
  That is the miracle of it.
• 18:20
  We are not fighting it, neither we are avoiding temptation.
• 18:23
  We feel as though we've been placed in a position of neutrality, safe and protected.
• 18:28
  We have not even sworn off.
• 18:29
  Instead, the problem has been removed.
• 18:31
  It does not exist for us.
• 18:33
  We are neither cocky nor we are afraid.
• 18:35
  This is our experience, and that's my experience.
• 18:38
  I don't think about it.
• 18:40
  And that's the most beautiful thing that's ever happened in my life today.
• 18:44
  I do not think about it.
• 18:46
  And if something comes up and, you know, it's this like, it says it, you know, we talked about it in other.
• 18:53
  We, you know, we were cool from it as a hot flame.
• 18:57
  Well, I get a sharp, jolting knife shot to my liver.
• 19:02
  Yeah.
• 19:02
  And that's what I felt every morning when I was throwing up in the toilet.
• 19:07
  But, well, in this where the prayer ran it enough, I think.
• 19:12
  Father God, remove the shortcomings that keep me focused on myself.
• 19:16
  Through your Holy Spirit, make me a willing instrument in your hands.
• 19:20
  shape my life through the example of Jesus,
• 19:23
  and use me today for love and service.
• 19:25
  Amen.