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August 7 – A Way That Works · The Daily Ripples Podcast

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  Welcome back everybody to the Daily Ripples Podcast.
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  Today is Friday, August the 7th, and Corey, can you
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  believe it's August already? That's crazy. It does not seem like it should be August
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  2026. But anyway, uh, here at the Daily Ripples Podcast, we are at
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  the intersection of faith and recovery. So if you're here for
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  only the recovery side and you hear some things about faith, We hope that
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  you'll listen along. If you're here for only the faith side and you hear some
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  things from recovery that can apply to you, also listen along.
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  But today's devotional is titled, A Way That Works. The Stone.
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  God offers more than rescue from my past. He offers
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  a way of living that works today. Ripple 1: Practical.
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  Today, I will trust the process instead of searching for shortcuts.
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  Lasting change comes through daily practice, not occasional
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  effort. I will take the next faithful step and trust that it matters.
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  Ripple 2, spiritual. The Father has not left me to figure
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  life out on my own. Jesus shows me a life rooted
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  in obedience, trust, and purpose. The Holy Spirit guides
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  me day by day, helping me walk a path that leads to freedom,
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  growth, and peace. We'll have our prayer at the end. But Corey,
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  as I'm reading this one again, you know, because we've talked
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  about this before, but Often, and especially at this point,
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  it's been months since I wrote these by the
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  time we're recording them to talk about them. Right? Right. And so they really
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  do kind of come to me fresh when I look at them again because
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  I'm not a good editor. So I haven't really taken time to go back and
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  try to edit these. So it's one of those things. But as
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  I was thinking about this, about especially the stone, it really popped
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  into my mind because it says, God offers me more than rescue from my past.
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  He offers a way of living that works today. And I know
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  there's a lot of stuff in the Big Book about this, but I specifically thought
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  back to this is— and the difference
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  of, I guess, opinion or practice on this in terms of from Christians
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  is what really kind of took me out of the faith for a
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  long time. You know, when I was 18 years old and I,
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  you know, got to college and left the church that I grew up in,
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  I thought I knew everything and I thought I didn't need God anymore. You know,
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  so I was atheist for about 16 or 17 years.
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  And I would argue with people about faith because,
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  and one of the big things was, well, yeah,
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  sure, God has saved you, Jesus saves,
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  but why are all these Christians still basically,
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  I'll use a nice term, still buttholes?
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  And it's because there's
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  this thing within our churches where a certain group
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  of people have been taught and believe that, well, it doesn't really, or they live
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  like, it doesn't really matter what you do as long as you got saved,
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  right? That you've been rescued from the past, you don't have to
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  pay the price anymore. In fact, I even heard people say in jest, well,
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  if I'm not sinning, then Jesus died for nothing. And that's
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  obviously not the way that I approach the life of faith, because what I get
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  by faithfully trying to
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  live my life by the example of Jesus is
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  a much more fulfilling life. It is a way that works.
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  And when I came back into
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  church, it got to the point, I knew it was God calling me back to
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  this life of faith because I was in the middle
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  of an argument with a person at work. This was back in, gosh,
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  probably 2010. So about 2 or 3 years before I ever
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  came into the rooms of recovery. And she asked me, she said,
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  well, what makes you think that you know more about this than the
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  billions and probably trillions of people in history that have believed in God? Right.
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  And that got my attention almost for the first time, you know,
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  and it made me really stop to think about that.
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  And what I found when I— and thankfully,
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  when I got back into a church, I found a church to get back involved
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  with, and it was Heartsong United Methodist Church out here on Houston-Levy in Cordova.
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  And one of the themes— they always said these neat little catchphrases, right?
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  These little mottos and different ways that their pastor had
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  come up with over the years to say things. And one of them was that
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  living life the way Jesus teaches makes life work.
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  And man, that stuck with me all these years. It's kind of like one of
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  my God is God and I am not phrases, right? Well, anyway, what, what,
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  where does it take you on this one today? So I
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  was thinking about what you were talking about. God, God offers more than rescue from
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  my past. He offers a way of living that works today.
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  Well, and I think about like what works today. And to
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  me today and throughout my journey,
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  what's worked for me is this design for living. And so
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  on page 15 of the Big Book, it says, many times
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  I've gone to my old hospital in despair. On talking to a man
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  there, I would be amazingly lifted up and set on my feet.
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  It is a design for living that works in rough going.
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  And so to me, that's what it said. That's what it's about. But what about
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  in good going? What if I just do that all the time? What about
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  not pray when things get bad? What if I pray
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  consistently all the time and spend more of my
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  time? And we've said this, I don't know how many times.
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  In one of my big books on page 87, it says,
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  if God was your girlfriend, would God be jealous?
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  And so I think about morning texts, like, you know, when you're first dating
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  a girl, right? You're saying good morning. You're saying, hey, how's your day?
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  You're saying, hey, did you have— Wake up and she's the first thing you're thinking
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  about. Right. Yeah. And is that my relationship with God today?
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  I can say yes today, but it hasn't always been.
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  And so I think that's the barometer almost.
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  That's like the thing that, where am I at with that today?
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  And then it goes on to say, And this, it says,
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  today I'll trust the process instead of searching for
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  shortcuts. And, you know, I've always looked
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  for shortcuts. Oh, me too. Pleasure Pursuer. Yeah, I've always, you know,
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  I remember me and my buddy were golfing about a year ago, a year and
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  a half ago. And man, I like, it was funny because I hit one tree
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  and then I hit another tree and then I hit this tree, then it landed
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  right beside the green. And He was like, man, you must have prayed
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  up this morning.
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  And I— but, you know, so I thought about that and I thought like,
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  you know, I kind of looked at it after that at a different angle
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  because I'm not doing this for effects,
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  right? I'm doing this because of the disciplines and
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  because it does work and I do get the effect. I like the effect produced
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  or I wouldn't do it, Michael, right? That's why we drink. So men and women
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  drink essentially because they like the effect produced from alcohol.
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  But so on page 88, the promises of this,
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  I would say what we talked about the other day on awakening or prayer.
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  And then, you know, what this looks like, it says on page 88,
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  humbly saying to ourselves many times each day, thy will be done.
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  We are in then much less danger of excitement, fear,
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  anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient.
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  That's pretty cool. We do not tire so easily, for we are
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  not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life
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  to suit ourselves. Because it's not about me, my problems, you know,
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  and that's the cool thing in the Third Step Prayer, right? It says, take away
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  my difficulties to bear witness to those I can help. Then in the Seventh
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  Step Prayer, it says, take away my defects that stand in the way of me
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  helping you and my fellows, right? It has nothing to do with me being
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  this, like, you know, cool dude. Yeah, right. And like you've
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  talked about that before, you're like, man, this isn't like— my ego has to stay
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  out. It has to be smashed completely. And my ego
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  is against me. Yeah, I'll tell you that. I think I'll believe if I look
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  at ego and I look like— look at the rebuilding of
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  ego and I think about my lack of proportion
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  of the insanity of the first drink because I've seen it happen.
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  Like, you know, when I look back, And I see this gradual thing.
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  I see what it was. It's the rebuilding of the ego.
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  My ego rebuilds and rebuilds. And for the alcoholic,
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  I think it was somebody that they
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  were talking about alcoholics' ego, they rebuild quick. And then my
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  book tells me within a week or a month, I forget about
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  the humiliation and all the self-destruction I caused. And then
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  I'm without the defense against the first drink. So that's my
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  ego rebuilding. So I got to do things I think
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  that are ego— I don't know, ego killers
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  almost. You know, I was thinking about how I, I'm, I'm so thankful
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  to God for the gift of mistakes, right? You know, if I never made a
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  mistake, man, you couldn't tell me nothing.
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  Or if I didn't think I ever made a mistake, you know, right? And so
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  I'm, I'm thankful for the gift of mistakes. What is on
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  Proverbs? I think it's Proverbs 11:2. Do you know that?
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  Not without looking it up. Oh, I didn't know if you were, uh— I'm not
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  a, uh, a, a memorizer like that.
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  Proverbs 11:2 says, uh, it says,
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  when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with
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  humility comes wisdom. And so when pride comes,
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  when my ego comes, then I get— it doesn't say
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  if either. No, it says when. That's exactly right. And so I get
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  cut down and brought back to the off the mount. Yeah. And because when I
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  get— I can get on that mountain and I don't think I'm useful on the
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  mountain. I think I'm more used, you know, like we— like I read earlier,
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  you know, where my feet are planted with God's kids.
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  And the way why this program works is our connection with
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  each other. And so anything that becomes a barrier between me connecting with you is
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  not going to draw me to you. Yeah. And I think it's better to meet
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  people where they're at. About, as you were sharing, Corey, I thought
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  about how you,
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  you, you must be approaching these things different this time
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  than you have in the past because you've had, you've had part
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  of your story has been relapse and trying to get— you've shared that on here.
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  I, I don't have that experience, you know, and I don't say that
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  as a pride or ego thing, it's just that, but I think it's important for
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  people listening to know that Even
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  if you have relapse, it's not the end of your story. That's just another mistake
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  that God's going to use in your story, but it could give you growth.
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  But it could be. So that's the other thing. You can die and still be—
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  God would still be using you. Oh, sure. So I think
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  very hardly about this because I've
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  got an example comes to mind right now of that. Because if I'm
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  powerless, powerless means I'm without power.
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  When I take a drink. That doesn't mean I have power to go
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  to jail. That doesn't mean I have power to die. That doesn't mean I have—
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  it'll be on the corner. Yeah, right. I don't know what
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  that progression— I just know that there's a big progression and
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  I know it's fast. But what it made me think of, especially with this one
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  today about this is the way that works, is that God
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  offering a way of living that works today is I have to learn
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  from you and others like What are you doing differently
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  this time around that makes you more successful? And you talk
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  about it all the time. It's your morning routine. You're working
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  with sponsees, not just working with a sponsor yourself so that you get filled,
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  but then taking what you've been given, that,
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  dare I say it, that cure for herpes, and then turning around
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  and sharing that with the others around you. Yeah, I should
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  probably just drop the stone right there at that one.
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  What else you got to do? But seriously, the difference is this,
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  is, man, if you do this and if you want to
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  live a spiritual life, I think in this deal or not in this deal,
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  in what we're in and what we're not, regular people too.
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  Am I going to abandon myself to God? Because I have. And I've done it
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  to my best ability. I do it every day. And so am I willing to
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  do that? And man, if that looks like
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  willing to do that looks like, oh, you got to go help somebody,
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  do something, whatever. I don't know what that is, but I'm
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  best used with people that are like me. That's why
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  we do have this common problem, common solution. And I'm not going to be able
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  to help a murderer. I'm not. I haven't done that.
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  Yeah. And the only challenge to that is that, well, not challenge,
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  I don't mean challenge, but The only expansion I have on that,
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  my perspective is I have a common
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  problem and a common solution with everybody on God's green earth, and that
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  is as simple as sin. So I can take
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  it all the way back to that. But in terms of for what we're doing
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  here, yes, in recovery, that is exactly why it works so
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  well is because we can reach other people when
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  nothing else can. Right. And we can meet them where they're at. Exactly. Because if
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  I You know, man, I've battled
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  with this for years, this whole addict, this,
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  this, all these different terms. And I've been at different places.
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  I've been at places where, man, I'll help anybody.
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  Where I stand right now, I'm pretty firm on the
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  primary purpose, what I'm in right now, just because,
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  man, I'm pretty deep off in the traditions right now. But you know this.
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  And so Yeah, I don't. And someone told
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  me one time, they said, you know, Corey, if someone
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  came into a meeting where you're at and
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  you were to say you had the cure for, rather than point them
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  in the right direction of people more like them, you could
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  be saying you could be either killing them or saving their life.
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  And I took that to heart because I, I've seen it. In either case,
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  you're in some aspects taken on the role of God,
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  right? And then be— so when I, when I
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  look at that, and then I thought about like sponsorship and this
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  stuff, because like, you know, at the same time,
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  like, you know, me helping somebody and me
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  thinking that I— if I'm just putting my hand out, I have any— I can
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  say, you know, I mean, I'm a pretty— we were talking about this, I'm pretty
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  passive. I'm like, I'm kind of— can be a Uh,
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  a-hole sometimes. Yeah, but I'm not trying to be.
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  But like, so I'm just— I'm kind of a smart— I'm, I'm smart aleck.
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  Smart aleck. And I was looking for the right word. I'm a smart
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  aleck, man. And my— oh, look, I grew up in a missionary Baptist home where
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  cussing was not a thing, so I knew all the almost cuss words. Okay.
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  But you know, at the same time, like, if I'm putting my hand out to
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  you just to read with you, yeah. And just to be there
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  and be an ear for you so you can talk to.
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  No, I'm kind of going to get you drunk. You're going to go get yourself
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  drunk. Right. I don't, man, you know, the way I used to live,
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  someone coming to me like the way I am today is
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  the furthest thing that's going to get me drunk. I'm just going to go get
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  drunk because that's what I do. That's what I do. Yeah.
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  I don't, you know, so I think a lot about the,
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  you know, the results business and we kind of bled into this.
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  And yeah, we talked about that a lot this week about that we're
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  not in the results business because the results are up to God. But what I've
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  been meaning to say all week about that topic is we're not in
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  the results business, but we're clearly called to be in the service business. Oh,
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  absolutely. So yeah. And that's what you're
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  trying to do. Well, our prayer for today Father
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  God, thank you for giving me a way of life that works.
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  Through your Holy Spirit, help me walk faithfully in it today. Shape my
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  life through the example of Jesus and remind me that you have a purpose
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  for me. Amen.