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October 28 – Staying True to the Mission · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:03
  Hey guys, this is the Daily Ripples. And today is October, October 28th.
• 0:11
  Staying true to the mission. The stone.
• 0:14
  A life with a grape clear purpose accomplishes far more than a life pulled in every direction.
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  Ripple one practical.
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  Today I will keep my attention on the work
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  God has placed before me instead of becoming distracted by everything else that demands my attention.
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  A focused life leaves a deeper impact than a scattered one.
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  Faithfulness grows when I remember what matters most.
• 0:37
  Ripple 2 spiritual.
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  As I follow Christ, when an undivided heart, the Holy Spirit keeps drawing me back to the Father's purpose.
• 0:46
  Whenever I begin to drift, by remaining faithful to the mission he has given me.
• 0:51
  I discover the strength that comes from a life centered on his will.
• 0:55
  And Pastor Mike, you know, on tradition 5 in the 12 and 12.
• 1:01
  It says on 151. Under these compulsions are self-preservation, duty and law, it is not strange that our society has concluded that it has but one high mission.
• 1:13
  To carry the A message to those who do not know there's a way out.
• 1:18
  You know, what's interesting about that word, a way out, is because it references a way out on page 17 in the big book.
• 1:25
  Now I don't know if you know this, but a way out.
• 1:28
  was originally what the big book was going to be called.
• 1:32
  But there was already 12 other books at that time called A Way Out.
• 1:36
  Oh wow.
• 1:37
  So they're like, hold on on this.
• 1:39
  But you know, and that's what we're offering, though.
• 1:41
  A way out of complete destruction, the gate, you talked about it yesterday, the gates of insanity.
• 1:46
  Um, death.
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  Hell.
• 1:48
  And so that's what we're offering here.
• 1:50
  But, you know, I I view the traditions, and I try to align the traditions within my life.
• 1:57
  Um, because I do believe, you know, God put me in a position today, and for me not, why would I not?
• 2:04
  You know, we've talked about, we always talk about,
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  I always thought I've been talking about common problem, common solution for a while.
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  But if I'm not doing that, and I'm aimlessly helping, you know, you put it in here right here.
• 2:17
  far more than a life pulled in every direction.
• 2:20
  Man.
• 2:21
  And, you know, if I'm not focused on what I need to be doing.
• 2:24
  Like, I think, you know, and that goes into my home occupation's in a phase too, right?
• 2:29
  Because it gives me clear cut directions of where to do this and how to do this.
• 2:33
  Um, to be loving.
• 2:36
  And we, man, I love the, I love the analogy, not analogy, but, you know, the simplicity of this, because I hear it in all these meetings I go to, well, I don't know what God's will is.
• 2:47
  Well, it's a very simple.
• 2:49
  it's a very simple thing once you get it down.
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  God's will.
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  Well, I would imagine God would want me to be loving.
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  Well, how do I show love?
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  Be of service.
• 2:57
  It's a very simple ordeal that we're looking at here that I believe has diminished and has gotten lost in these discussion meetings about character defects, this, and the word powerlessness, oh, and power, because it tells me in my book, and I don't know what you've seen in your book, but it says, I got a new power and direction.
• 3:23
  And that's going through me.
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  You know, I've come to rely upon that power.
• 3:27
  And so when I'm doing that, man, and I'm living a life that's focused and in a direction of being a loving of service to God's people.
• 3:35
  And I can do that, you know, anywhere.
• 3:36
  But when I know exactly what I'm doing, because it tells me also, in the big book, And I know Pastor Mike gets by, because, like, you know, you'll, I'll get to talking and, you know, I'll, I'll start flipping because...
• 3:51
  that's how your mind works.
• 3:52
  And, you know, but it tells me because on page 18 of the big book, says, but the ex problem drinker who has found the solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcohol in a few hours.
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  I think it takes less.
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  until such an understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished.
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  So establishing that and establishing that anywhere in life.
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  Like if I'm at work.
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  Well, let's find the common problem, and then we'll find the common solution.
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  But without a common problem, with no common solution.
• 4:24
  Man, you put it in, that's a life pulled in every direction.
• 4:27
  What was your thoughts?
• 4:29
  I was thinking about that connection that you establish with somebody new coming in that God nudges you in some way to nudges me in some way, I'll use myself.
• 4:41
  You know, like when a new person comes in and God's nudging me to either talk to an after meeting, you know, exchange numbers, you know, whatever the case may be, to be there for somebody and be of service to somebody.
• 4:52
  I think about how important those 1st impressions are, you know, in that situation.
• 4:58
  If I'm To, to, to use the, the title of this, if I'm staying true to the mission, you know, that God has called me to, then, and if my mission is to be of maximum service to God and to those that he places about me, then I have to realize that 1st impressions are everything, you know, especially when you meet somebody.
• 5:20
  And what I mean by that is if I walk into a meeting and every time I walk into the meeting, I'm going through it and I'm down and I'm depressed and I'm -and I'm sharing about all these problems and me, me, me, and I'm only talking about the problems that come with alcoholism and even the problems that come to me in recovery, and I'm never talking about the solution and never giving hope.
• 5:42
  Well, I have to think about what is that impression that I'm leaving on somebody who's new or has just recently come in?
• 5:49
  Or even somebody who's been around for a while and is in a position where they need, you know, a new sponsor or something like that, then if I'm always living in recovery, as though I'm struggling every day, and that's what I'm giving off, then who wants that?
• 6:08
  Where's the hope in that?
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  You know, that that's not a that's not a life that anybody aspires to.
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  And that's not the life that I get to experience today.
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  I mean, the life that I get to experience today is a life of joy, you know?
• 6:18
  I like it when I walk into a room and I see friends, you know, not just people that I have this common problem with, but people who have become friends.
• 6:26
  And but staying true to the mission, you know, I was thinking about that, you know, even when you were sharing is that.
• 6:33
  What, you know, every corporation, every organization has a mission statement, right?
• 6:39
  And like, if I had to give my mission statement for my life, you know, what would it, what would it be?
• 6:45
  And for me, what just came to me just now was that one of my missions is to give more than I take away.
• 6:56
  You know, because it's kind of like, you know, there's all throughout scripture, it talks about, you know, God loves a cheerful giver, it talks about it's better to give than to receive, you know, the book talks about the only way to keep this deal is to give it away.
• 7:09
  And so that develops for me into the mission of, well, let me give more than I receive. Because receiving plays into all those things, you talked about the people share in meetings all the time.
• 7:22
  shares into, it feeds into all my character defects.
• 7:25
  It feeds into my sense of selfishness and even over time can lead to self-righteousness, you know, which I try to avoid like the plague, you know, I mean, Jesus didn't want any of us to be like the scrabs and the Pharisees.
• 7:37
  Well, I could turn into one of those in a heartbeat, man, you know, thinking that I know everything.
• 7:41
  And but that's not the way to give the hope that I have and to stay true to this mission that I have, but and not to put you on the spot, but if you had a mission statement for your life, what do you think it would be?
• 7:54
  To be of service to others.
• 7:56
  Yeah.
• 7:57
  I mean, you know, but that also goes into Matthew.
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  Matthew 624, right?
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  Because if it says no man can serve 2 masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he will hold to the one and despise the other.
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  He cannot serve God and Mammon.
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  I don't even know who Mammon is.
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  Mammon is just a word.
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  It's like a replacement for you.
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  You know, some interpretations use the word money, but Mammon is basically the, the, the physical materialism of this world.
• 8:30
  Right.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, so if I think about that, I can't serve me and serve God.
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  So like, and but we come into this crossroads too.
• 8:40
  And I like, and I man, I don't know where it is from, but I heard it, maybe I'll listen to a lot of things during the days, and it says, it's not the real problem, though, the way we're absolutely powerless to get of the longing for God.
• 8:56
  You know, is my life not been always the power of sense for the longing of God, and I've done that through alcohol, and I've done that through other things.
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  But see today I have, and it goes back to page 46, right?
• 9:07
  Or 46, it says, I don't know why I usually just know this, but that's okay.
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  It says, we found that God has not made too hard a terms for those who seek him.
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  And if I'm seeking in the longing for God.
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  And that, that, that's going through service and doing these other things that we do.
• 9:28
  Man, my, I'm filling that hole to a degree.
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  But I mean, I'll tell you, man, I can do that without AA, without God, without all these things, with temporary fixes.
• 9:40
  I can do that with sex.
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  I can do that with money.
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  I can do that with alcohol, can do that with all of that.
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  Because I'm feeling that long.
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  And I think the closest thing that I can get to a spiritual experience for me being an alcoholic is getting drunk.
• 9:53
  But a spiritual experience through this work and through these steps and through this process, man, is greater than getting drunk.
• 10:00
  And the promise goes into that, right?
• 10:03
  Because it says at the end of we agnostics.
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  It tells me when sanity has returned, seemingly, he could not drink even if he would.
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  God had restored his sand.
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  So when I come to that place of sanity.
• 10:16
  Why would I drink?
• 10:18
  Because this longing for God is being filled through the service of God's kids.
• 10:23
  Yeah. It tells me in even that verse that you read, you know, from Jesus' teachings about you cannot serve, you know, both God and Mammon.
• 10:33
  And we see guidance along those lines, you know, all throughout the psalms and the proverbs as well.
• 10:40
  Psalm 86 and 11 says, teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness, give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
• 10:49
  And the word fear in the Old Testament, especially was more awe and reverence, actual fear of God.
• 10:56
  I didn't know that growing up.
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  All I heard was fear, you know, that that God was wrathful and vengeful, but what I've learned is what you have said repeatedly from the big book, you know, that God does not make too hard a terms with those who seek him.
• 11:08
  And I've seen that through my own experience as well.
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  On page 100, you know, in the big book, it says that when we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were far better than anything we could have planned.
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  And that's my daily reminder of, Don't make my own plans, you know, reach out and try to figure out what God's plans are for me.
• 11:29
  You know, that doesn't mean that I have no plans, but it means that my plans should be God's center, you know, that if I'm keeping God at the center of my life, if I'm staying connected, you know, through prayer, meditation, through study, through community, if I'm staying connected to God in those ways, then I can more accurately make my plans can have them be God centered and God directed versus my own.
• 11:52
  And, you know, you mentioned all those things that you can chase after to get that higher to get that spiritual experience, you know, all the substances that we have.
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  You know, I'd categorize all those in that category of mammon as well.
• 12:01
  that I'm just serving myself, you know, at those times and not serving anybody else.
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  But the problem with those is that they never satisfy because when the high passes, when the feeling passes, when the drunk passes, then my thought immediately turns to number one, the problems that I have, they crash in like a freight train, and then how can I escape these the next time?
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  So it's always that cycle and it's a downward spiral.
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  either.
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  But it gives us an option.
• 12:30
  Yeah, not a good one.
• 12:32
  Yeah, but like, you know, you've heard me say this, like, man, like I've come into this position when I was out there of, you know, I knew my, I knew my problem.
• 12:42
  Yeah, and I tell people, you know, people in AA, because it does say I'm working with others.
• 12:48
  If you have disturbed his drinking.
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  Well, man, y'all really disturbed my drinking.
• 12:52
  Yeah. But I'll tell you, I can, you can drink past that.
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  Of course you can.
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  People relapse and do it all the time.
• 12:58
  And it's not, and you can be out there going with the wind, and man, and but, and I was talking to a friend of mine about the longing for God.
• 13:08
  And we were talking about that and, um, I told him, you know, it kind of reminded me of page 25 that says, you know, we were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and we had passed into the region from where there was no return through human aid.
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  But here's the, here's my option we had, but 2 alternatives.
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  One was to go the better end blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could.
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  And here's the, here's the other one. And the other is to accept spiritual help.
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  Right?
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  But, you know, so either I'm going to long for God through blotting out the consciousness of my intolerable situation or just accept spiritual help.
• 13:47
  Right.
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  And man, I've seen that that process for some people become very great.
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  And uh, man, it sucks to watch.
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  What you said, though, that that option that you talked about, yes, that option is out there.
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  What I've learned is that the better option is to live the life directed by God.
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  And through the 12 steps through reading and studying or what have you.
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  For me, it's been a better option because today, I'm not chasing that next thing, today I'm waiting for God to reveal the next thing.
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  And that is a key distinction.
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  That has made all the difference because that posture gives me peace, whereas the prior posture, the prior option that I lived in for so long led me to the place of complete and utter moral, whatever the word is in the big book.
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  A conundrum, if you would.
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  Conundrum, if you will, enigma.
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  I've been trying.
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  I've been trying to use enigma and I found that like as I'm using it.
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  I'll be like, you know, an enigma, and then I'll use conundrum to define enigma.
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  So I'm double wording it.
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  You know, it just doesn't have a place in my vocabulary.
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  Okay, I got another one for you and that is, oh, gosh, what is, I'm drawing blank now.
• 15:05
  It's another word that I've started using instead of um, instead of the word hypocrite.
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  Another one, it's that word for 2 things that exist in the same place that shouldn't.
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  Paradox?
• 15:18
  Paradox.
• 15:18
  That's exactly it.
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  So I started referring to humans as paradoxes.
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  instead of Hippocris.
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  Well, our prayer is, Father God, help me remain faithful to the purpose you have given me.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, Kimar, focus on what truly matters.
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  Shape me through the example of Jesus.
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  Amen.
• 15:36
  Amen.
• 15:38
  And I got to give you props for pulling that paradox word off that I couldn't think of.
• 15:43
  That was that was pretty impressive right there.
• 15:45
  Yeah.
• 15:45
  That's good.
• 15:46
  That shows that you really, you don't just look up definitions to study them on the podcast that you are actually interested in all that.