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October 6 – Looking Honestly Within · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:07
  Hey everyone, this is MacKenzie and Steffani for the Daily Ripples, October 6th.
• 0:13
  Looking honestly within The Stone.
• 0:17
  Fear loses its power the moment I choose to face the truth instead of running from it.
• 0:22
  Ripple one, practical.
• 0:25
  Today, I will not let fear keep me from my honest self-examination.
• 0:29
  The hardest part is often taking the 1st step.
• 0:32
  What I imagine is usually far worse than what I discover when I face the truth with courage.
• 0:37
  Ripple 2, spiritual.
• 0:40
  As I follow Christ's invitation to walk in the light, the Holy Spirit gives me the courage to face myself honestly without fear or shame.
• 0:48
  The father meets my honesty with grace, replacing condemnation with the freedom that comes from living in the truth.
• 0:57
  So I want to begin with this scripture.
• 1:01
  It's Isaiah 4110 says, so do not fear, for I am with you.
• 1:06
  Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
• 1:09
  I will strengthen you and help you.
• 1:11
  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
• 1:16
  I want to begin by taking that scripture and applying it to every time that we've been afraid to face a conversation.
• 1:27
  Or, man, I have honestly a pretty good example.
• 1:33
  Um, I'm recently, I recently got engaged and not everyone is super excited about it.
• 1:42
  I'll put it that way.
• 1:43
  And there are some people within my family that I've had to confront or, I guess, a lack of confrontation and fear, a fear of having those conversations.
• 1:56
  And I think part of that fear is the story we make up in our head about the outcomes. And the reason we make those assumptions is to protect ourselves.
• 2:09
  We say, here are the facts, based on this truth, how might those facts disagree with what the reality is or what might happen or what might happen?
• 2:21
  Right.
• 2:22
  And so we think of all these outcomes or reasons why we shouldn't have that conversation or why we might delay that conversation because the outcome could mean the end of this relationship, the outcome could mean something that you don't want to betrayal.
• 2:40
  And so, I think for me personally, since I'm like actively having to figure out a way around that is through prayer.
• 2:50
  On the flip side of that, I also think that sometimes I'm personally afraid of prayer for the same reasons, and it's not for condemnation, but reasons that are, I have to now confront that conversation again in prayer.
• 3:06
  Right?
• 3:08
  So every time we pray, or let's say we have this conversation with someone, or we have it with ourselves, we have it at AA, and we seek prayer and we seek relationship with Christ, and in doing so, we have to speak about it again.
• 3:20
  And sometimes the frequency of it having to be on our mind can place a fear of, man, I do not want to speak about this again.
• 3:29
  I don't want to think about it.
• 3:30
  I don't want to feel it.
• 3:31
  I don't want to deal with it.
• 3:33
  Right.
• 3:35
  Yeah.
• 3:35
  And so we don't pray.
• 3:37
  Or, we put it out of sight out of mine.
• 3:41
  We don't read our scriptures or they drink or we drink.
• 3:45
  Or we dissociate from relationships, or we avoid, conversations, or we avoid people as a whole.
• 3:52
  Um, and we become introverts and we hide in our little safe space.
• 3:58
  Maybe that's the bar, maybe that's the bed.
• 4:00
  Maybe that's a toxic relationship.
• 4:02
  We can hide in anything.
• 4:04
  Hiding is usually in a place of familiarity.
• 4:09
  So whatever you are most comfortable in, like doom scrolling or I mean, I'll be honest, that's that's one for me is I, that's how I decompress sometimes.
• 4:19
  And there are better and worse ways to cope with those things.
• 4:22
  But I think ultimately, the best way to cope with it is to deal with it.
• 4:27
  Right?
• 4:29
  Because right now we're operating in assumptions and not the reality of the truth because you haven't brought it to light yet.
• 4:35
  Right. And I think up until you take it to the light and you take it to Christ and you put it out.
• 4:41
  Then you'll have the opportunity to face it.
• 4:44
  And I think facing it that way is a lot easier than facing it in our heads because of all of the reasons that it might not work out.
• 4:53
  But what about all the reasons that it will?
• 4:55
  But that's harder to consider because, oh, well, look at all these facts.
• 5:00
  Look at all of the reasons it could go poorly, right?
• 5:03
  And that's what we think on and that's what we ruminate on.
• 5:05
  And we don't give ourselves the opportunity.
• 5:08
  We get farther and farther away from facing it because of these fears.
• 5:12
  And so, I really pull back to that scripture, where it says, so do not fear, for I am with you.
• 5:22
  Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
• 5:26
  I will strengthen you and help you.
• 5:28
  I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
• 5:31
  Furthermore, I want to say, who are we to believe that we cannot go through something with God on our side?
• 5:40
  Right?
• 5:42
  Who are we to say, this isn't possible?
• 5:45
  When you have God in your corner.
• 5:48
  Right.
• 5:49
  So, you know, I mean, whew.
• 5:52
  Fear, yes.
• 5:54
  We, uh, as far as step 4 is concerned, it says we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, but just like what you pointed out, Mac, you know?
• 6:05
  Fear has a way of wearing certain masks.
• 6:09
  You know, it can be, um, anxiety for the future, for the unknown.
• 6:15
  And you're not living in the present because you're so fearful of what may happen.
• 6:21
  When in fact, the vast majority of the time, that is truly not the case. The 12 and 12 on page 49 says, you need not pass this way.
• 6:32
  And fear says, you dare not look.
• 6:35
  But the testimony of AA's, who have really tried a moral inventory, is that pride and fear of this sort turn out to be boogeymen.
• 6:45
  Nothing else.
• 6:47
  So, when I am working with another alcoholic, and we are doing step work.
• 6:54
  Step 4 is usually the The step that has the most fear around it, the most anxiety.
• 7:02
  Um, you know, it's, it's the parts of us that we don't want to take an honest inventory and we don't want to look at because of fear, what we might see.
• 7:10
  You know, some of this leads people to go back out and drink.
• 7:15
  Some of this brings people to their knees and they stop right where they are and don't want to go any further.
• 7:23
  For me, you have to back up to do a step three.
• 7:27
  The step 3 is made a decision to turn our will in our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
• 7:33
  This means that we have to invite God into our life.
• 7:37
  We have to ask God to direct our thinking and our actions.
• 7:42
  If we do this, then God is going to give us the security and the confidence to take a fearless moral inventory.
• 7:51
  And this may not be a one and done type of thing because it's kind of like peeling an onion.
• 7:57
  You take a 1st look at the things that pop up in your mind and you do a fearless moral inventory, but maybe you don't touch some things that are really sensitive.
• 8:06
  Like that sore tooth that you don't want to mess with.
• 8:10
  But as you go through this process, or as I've gone through this process, I realize that that fear is just that.
• 8:18
  It's a boogeyman.
• 8:19
  It's not real.
• 8:21
  I want to add to that.
• 8:23
  I think what's important to remember is what is the opposite of fear?
• 8:28
  The opposite of fierce courage?
• 8:30
  True courage is not the absence of fear.
• 8:33
  It is taking action even though you are afraid.
• 8:36
  In addition, love is the emotional opposite.
• 8:41
  Many thinkers and writers note that deep care, trust, and love help push fear away.
• 8:47
  This is the physical opposite is to be calm or safe.
• 8:52
  Your body relaxes and feels secure instead of entering a fight or flight stress mode.
• 8:59
  Ultimately, I think that finding a way to feel calm, to feel safe, to feel secure is how you diminish fear, I think.
• 9:12
  Exhibiting love, showing it to others, showing it to yourself as a way that you counteract that fear, and then having the courage to step against the things that make you afraid help.
• 9:27
  Make fear feel less big.
• 9:32
  And the prayer for today?
• 9:35
  Father God, give me the courage to face myself honestly today.
• 9:39
  Through your Holy Spirit, replace my fear with the confidence that comes from your grace.
• 9:44
  Shape me through the example of Jesus.
• 9:47
  Amen.