Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / July 23 – Trusting God's Work

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July 23 – Trusting God's Work · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:04
  Well, welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:07
  I'm Pastor Mike, the co-host to Corey, who's here with me, the co-host to Pastor Mike. Hey, guys.
• 0:13
  That's a Corey-style intro if we ever heard one, right?
• 0:17
  But today is Thursday, July the 23rd, and we're going to be talking about our
• 0:23
  Daily Ripple entry today. It's called Trusting God's Work, and we're going to
• 0:26
  kick it right off with the stone.
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  I trust God to decide what needs to change in me and when.
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  Ripple 1 is practical. Today, I will stop trying to manage my own growth.
• 0:39
  I will not pick and choose which issues I want to deal with.
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  I will stay honest, willing, and patient, trusting that real change does not
• 0:46
  happen on my timeline. Ripple 2 is spiritual.
• 0:50
  The Father knows what stands in the way of my usefulness. Jesus shows me what
• 0:55
  it looks like to trust without controlling the process.
• 0:58
  The Holy Spirit works within me, removing what hinders and shaping what helps.
• 1:02
  As I release control, I begin to trust that God is doing the deeper work I cannot see.
• 1:09
  And as always, we'll save our prayer for the end of the episode.
• 1:12
  Now, before we get too far into our episode today, I'll...
• 1:17
  Let's go ahead and give everybody a little sneak peek about what's coming up
• 1:20
  tomorrow on July 24th, because as many of you know, we've kind of shared a little
• 1:25
  bit about our kind of production process of this podcast.
• 1:27
  We usually get together, Corey and I do, about once a week, you know,
• 1:31
  when it's a good week, and we'll record a run of episodes and then schedule
• 1:34
  them out to come out every day.
• 1:36
  And as always, you know, the daily devotional ties loosely to the AA Daily Reflection
• 1:42
  for the day is kind of the original source material.
• 1:44
  But sometimes there comes a time where one of these entries just really grabs
• 1:50
  a hold of one or the other of us. And that happened with Corey for tomorrow.
• 1:53
  And so he was recording a solo episode for tomorrow.
• 1:57
  And all of a sudden when he got done, he realized it was now,
• 2:00
  how long was it again, Corey, the unedited audio? 40 minutes.
• 2:03
  40 minutes. Yeah, exactly.
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  And if you guys, those who know me in person, you know, sometimes I get a little
• 2:09
  bit OCD about the process and, oh, we can't have one that long.
• 2:13
  But after I listened to it, I realized that it's just a really good deeper dive,
• 2:20
  no pun intended, we use water language
• 2:21
  here a lot, but deeper dive into a certain chapter in the big book.
• 2:27
  And it's really good stuff. And it tied so well to tomorrow's devotional that
• 2:33
  we're going to run with it.
• 2:34
  And we've been talking about for a while, doing some longer format episodes
• 2:38
  anyway and calling them waves because, again, playing with the water language
• 2:43
  and imagery, the stone of truth dropped in the water of our lives and it ripples
• 2:47
  out in practical and spiritual ways.
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  And then if you get deep enough, you might run into some of those waves,
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  you know, as you get further out.
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  And so, and then going forward, we got a plan for that too, don't we?
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  About wave episodes. What are we going to do with them next?
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  Well, I think what we should do is like, instead of putting them out with the
• 3:04
  morning, well, they can come out like after the morning or at the same time,
• 3:07
  it doesn't matter, but call them something different. Yeah. Because...
• 3:11
  You know, man, I take a lot of dudes to this book, and I think it's important
• 3:14
  to bat it, what that looks like, because, you know, you're just not reading.
• 3:19
  You're explaining what everything means and definitions.
• 3:22
  Definitions in 1930s and 1860s and all that stuff were a lot different than they are today.
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  And when you go through there and you're able to talk about the history and
• 3:31
  talk about how all the—I'm a big parallel person, right? So I like connecting the dots.
• 3:36
  And I've, you know, in this book, it's all connected and all the pieces are connected.
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  And I like to show that because like, you know, to prove the text.
• 3:45
  The text proves the text, right? So you can go through there and show it all.
• 3:49
  And I think that's important. So what we're going to start doing when I have
• 3:52
  time, and I'm not going to be able to do this all the time, but sure.
• 3:55
  You know, once a week or once every other week, we'll put out like a book study
• 4:00
  type thing And I'll go through a chapter and, or do it half a chapter.
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  Cause it'll take me, I don't know.
• 4:08
  It takes about an hour and a half, two hours for me to go through a chapter. Yeah.
• 4:12
  When you're sitting down with guys. Yeah. When I was sitting down with a dude,
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  it takes me an hour and a half or two hours to explain this book and talk about it.
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  And so they will be longer and there will be labeled wave.
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  And like, so if you're not, if you're listening on here that like,
• 4:24
  you just like the daily ripples and that connection, that's cool.
• 4:28
  But Friday will be the one that it's a little bit shorter. It's only 40 minutes
• 4:32
  to me. That's not that long. I listen to my wall. Yeah, and there's plenty of
• 4:36
  podcasts way longer than that. Absolutely. Yeah. But in the future,
• 4:40
  they'll be separate. So I think that'll be cool.
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  So tomorrow, if you don't quite get through the entire episode on your drive
• 4:46
  or commute into work, then just listen to the rest at lunch and pick it right back up.
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  But today we're talking about trusting God's work for this stone.
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  It says, you know, I trust God to decide what needs to change in me and when. And that.
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  For me to even be able to write that, man, that's growth in my life,
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  because there was a time when I definitely did not.
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  You know, I felt like I knew everything. I felt like anything that I had in
• 5:13
  my life, you know, was my own accomplishment.
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  And it took, you know, getting to my rock bottom, you know, with my alcoholism
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  to even get me to—we've been talking about humility all month, right?
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  And I had to have that humbling experience, you know, of my rock bottom for
• 5:29
  me to be able to even step back and look up, you know, to kind of see where
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  God might be at work in my life.
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  But Corey, what have you got for us? I know you're well studied on these things
• 5:40
  and you always prepare for our episodes. So let's see where we're going.
• 5:44
  I don't know where we're going, but, you know, I think, you know,
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  when it says I'll stop trying to manage my growth and I, man,
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  like I don't even know if I can manage my own growth.
• 5:53
  Right. I don't think I had that ability, you know, my life has shown that.
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  And, and this, you know, I was kind of thinking about some things and in this
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  book on page 62, it talks about this dude, or it talks about someone like me,
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  egocentric, self-centered.
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  And it goes on to say, it says, Yeah.
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  He, the minister who sighs over the sins of the 20th century,
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  politicians and reformers who are sure all would be utopia if the rest of the world would behave.
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  And so when I think about that, I think about like, you know,
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  if everybody would just act right, well, what if I would just act right too?
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  And I would manage well, because it goes on to say on that same page,
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  Michael, it says that other people, he, he becomes to do where we,
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  he is not really a self-seeker. even when trying to be kind?
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  Is he not a victim of the delusion that he can wrest satisfaction and happiness
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  out of this world if he only manages well?
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  So if I only do good, man, like it'll all be all right. And you will be too.
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  Cause I know what's best for you.
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  Of course, as you do what I need you to do, everybody will be happy.
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  And so, but when I look at that and that and think about this,
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  I think about what's right here, what's right now.
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  And that's love right here now. And I'm so focused on getting this and doing
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  this and, you know, having this good job. And, you know, I lose track of what's
• 7:19
  here now. And what's interesting to me is really cool.
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  I know I'm just jumping around in the literature, but that's okay.
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  On page 16 in Bill's story, it says, most of us feel we need no further for Utopio.
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  We have it with us right here and now. Each day, my friend's simple talk in
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  our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and goodwill
• 7:42
  to men. So that's right here and now.
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  And I think if I'm not practicing and looking at it like that,
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  I get lost in the different things of,
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  I'm not getting this or I deserve this and all these things when God's taking
• 7:55
  care of me my whole life because I wouldn't be sitting here if he hadn't, right?
• 8:00
  Right. And, you know, in different circumstances and every little piece of the
• 8:03
  puzzle, man, and I can't even see the puzzle, but it's true.
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  And, you know, I think it's an amazing thing when I don't, but how hard it is
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  for me, because I want to pick it, you know, I'll get $5, but I'll say I want
• 8:15
  it in all pennies. You know, I want to make, I want to make a decision on how
• 8:19
  I want my stuff, how I hit it. Right.
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  And I just think, you know, when I can let go of that and I don't know,
• 8:25
  man, you know, really when I'm spiritually fit, I'll tell you when I'm like,
• 8:29
  and you probably understand this, like when you're going through your day and
• 8:32
  you're prayed, then doing some things and like, man, you just feel good.
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  You know, you feel like one with God, but you know, some other days I'm not.
• 8:41
  Yeah. I'm not always on top. I'm not always, you know, right there at it.
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  So I got to search out and ask God, hey, what can I do to, you know, unblock this?
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  And there are days that I wake up and I've learned, God has taught me,
• 8:54
  I guess you could say, that,
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  I don't always know where my day is going to go whenever I wake up in the morning.
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  And when we talk about, you know, trusting God's work or God,
• 9:05
  you know, doing work and growth in us, I just have to compare where I am.
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  And even what I did, you know, on that Tuesday, a couple of days ago to what
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  I would have been doing on a Tuesday, you know, 13 and a half years ago,
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  because on a Tuesday back then I might've been already drunk by the afternoon, you know?
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  And so God has done work in me and continues to do so.
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  And I can always see that in retrospect. And the trust comes in by learning
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  from where God has been with me in the past, trusting that he's with me now
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  and will carry me forward.
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  And that ties into the verse that I kind of pulled up as kind of a grounding
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  for this thought today is from Philippians, the first chapter, verse six.
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  And it says, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will
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  carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
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  Well, that's no more than God's grace continuing to work in my life.
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  You know, that God's grace was there at my lowest. And when I turned up,
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  you know, looking back toward God, because God never looked away from me,
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  but I looked away from God.
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  And he was there throughout all of my time in recovery so far through working
• 10:17
  the 12 steps, and he's with me even now.
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  And that's just, as this verse says, that's just the beginning.
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  He who began a good work will carry it on to completion. So there's no telling
• 10:27
  what I might be doing tomorrow.
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  You know, Proverbs 3, 5, and I'm sure you know this, this is probably a pretty big verse in the.
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  It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding
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  and all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.
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  And you, and you kind of alluded to that, right? You know, cause my,
• 10:51
  my, what it shows in my past that God's taken care. Right.
• 10:56
  And, you know, just going through these things, you know, and I don't,
• 11:00
  you know, it's funny, you know, cause like I, I have to come to present sometimes.
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  It's like, you know, I was talking about some days I'll be off,
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  but I got to come back to one.
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  And I, you know, me and my significant other, you know, she was having a couple off days the other day.
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  And one thing we do in my house is if me or her has a ball, like a kid's ball
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  or whatever it is, we're sitting there and one of us throws it at the other,
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  like to catch it. Yeah. We just start throwing it back and forth and we don't stop.
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  And it's like, you know, I'll be like, hey, are you going to stop anyways? But it's this moment.
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  So, man, she was going through, and it was funny, you know, because I threw
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  this ball that was sitting beside me at her, and she was in the middle of crying.
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  And she looked at me with this face, and she tossed it back,
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  and I tossed it back. But, you know, she goes, man, like, what did this,
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  what happened with this? And I said, that's called meditation.
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  And it's coming into the present, because you're not thinking about anything
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  besides that ball or your breath or your prayer.
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  And when I can come back to one with things, because I get out of sorts all
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  the time, but when I come back to warmth, And that's right now,
• 12:03
  right here. And that's, you know, that's utopia. That's happening right here, right now.
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  You know, and everything else like that comes, you know, that's just part of
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  it. And I think that's the amazing thing because without that part of it,
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  right, that bad, we wouldn't know good. And without the good, we wouldn't know bad.
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  So, well, and backing up a little bit into the practical ripple today,
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  you know, it says I will not pick and choose which issues I want to deal with.
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  That was tough for me, too, because I will retreat from like if a problem or
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  issue arises and I don't want to look at it, I'll just retreat instead of,
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  you know, just facing forward.
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  Like, you know, but I've seen where my life works better if I,
• 12:47
  when the Holy Spirit promised me to do something, I do it, you know, right away.
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  And when I can do those things, and it's easier to do when it's helping someone
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  else. I'll be honest with that.
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  Sometimes the Holy Spirit prompts me on something and it's something just for
• 13:00
  me. I might delay it even a little bit still.
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  But if it's for others, I know that it's the true voice of my higher power,
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  you know, speaking to me because that's what God wants. God wants love of him
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  and love of other people.
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  So I just, I have more peace when I do that.
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  Well, the prayer is, Father, I trust you to do the work in me through your Holy
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  Spirit, remove what stands in the way of my,
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  usefulness, shape my life through the example of Jesus and teach me to trust
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  your timing and your will. Amen. Amen.