Latest / The Daily Ripples Podcast / May 23 - True Health Begins Within

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May 23 - True Health Begins Within · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:06
  Welcome back to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:09
  This is Pastor Mike here, and I have my sometimes belligerent wife with me.
• 0:15
  And we're going to try something new and see how she does reading the Daily Ripple today,
• 0:21
  even though she was just giving me some grief about getting to read it.
• 0:26
  So please take it away, my lovely bride.
• 0:29
  For today, May 23rd, true health begins within.
• 0:35
  The stone, outward success can hide inward struggle.
• 0:39
  Real health begins beneath the surface where pride, ego, and self-reliance are addressed.
• 0:46
  Practical, today I will examine what is driving me.
• 0:50
  Am I seeking image, recognition, or control?
• 0:54
  I will choose humility over appearance and honesty over performance.
• 0:59
  Admitting weakness is not failure.
• 1:02
  It is the beginning of strength.
• 1:05
  Spiritual.
• 1:07
  As I come before the Father with humility, the Holy Spirit brings alignment within me.
• 1:12
  Following Christ, I learn that true strength is found in dependence on God.
• 1:19
  Over time, inner health begins to shape every part of life.
• 1:23
  And I grow in clarity, peace, and purpose.
• 1:27
  Did I do okay, Pastor Mike?
• 1:28
  Well, I mean, it is called the Daily Ripples podcast, and you didn't say Ripple 1, Ripple 2.
• 1:35
  You just said practical and spiritual.
• 1:37
  But other than that, it was probably 95%, you know.
• 1:41
  Thank you.
• 1:41
  Well, hopefully you have some committed and dedicated followers that understand the flow and so they could fill in the blanks.
• 1:51
  I mean, we'll see.
• 1:51
  And I guess that is a question.
• 1:53
  Did everyone understand the flow?
• 1:55
  You can respond to us directly at wave@dailyripples.com.
• 1:59
  Shoot me an email.
• 2:00
  Let me know.
• 2:01
  How did she do today?
• 2:03
  And I know that this is a Saturday, and probably not everybody has some things going on, and
• 2:09
  our listener stats show that people don't tend to listen a lot on the weekend, but they catch
• 2:13
  up come Monday.
• 2:14
  So when it gets around to Monday, I start getting my inbox flooded with responses.
• 2:19
  With all the satisfaction of having Cristi as part of the podcast for today?
• 2:24
  Right, right. Of course. Sure, sure. Yeah, that's what we meant. But what have you got for this other than backtalk here for me? What do you think about it?
• 2:37
  Well, I'm not seeking image recognition or control, even though maybe sometimes you think differently.
• 2:45
  Yeah, maybe sometimes we should.
• 2:47
  But I do agree that true health begins within.
• 2:52
  I often talk about and I think you guys as well talk about mental health and how, you know, when it comes to mental health, it definitely is something that starts within and then it grows outwardly.
• 3:08
  But this is something that's easier said than done.
• 3:11
  People struggle with this.
• 3:13
  They struggle with having it start inward because they're trying to portray something on the outside to the world.
• 3:21
  Right.
• 3:22
  And they're hiding sometimes the pain.
• 3:24
  So admitting weakness is not failure, but it's the beginning of strength.
• 3:28
  But again, that's easier said than done.
• 3:32
  It takes a great determination to put this into action.
• 3:36
  You know, being one of my favorite words, intentional.
• 3:39
  Oh, yeah.
• 3:40
  About trying to rise above what's going on inside and being honest with yourself first and then to others.
• 3:50
  And so yesterday we talked about community and being with like-minded people.
• 3:57
  But having that community, that safe space will help you and assist you with, you know, finding true health within where you may struggle.
• 4:11
  If you admit it out loud, then perhaps someone else can help you and meet you where you are and walk through that journey with you.
• 4:22
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:23
  It's funny because I was at a meeting just this past Tuesday, which was actually today as we're recording this.
• 4:31
  But anyway, we're doing the weird time thing where it's Saturday as you're listening, but Tuesday we're recording.
• 4:37
  Regardless, I was in a meeting on Tuesday.
• 4:40
  And after the meeting, I had a friend of mine there was asking me how things were going, you know, what I was, what my plans were, you know, after the whole, you know, city manager role that I had.
• 4:53
  last year and leading up to that. And I told him, I said, you know, I said, well, I'm going,
• 4:58
  you know, full-time into, you know, ministry that just kicks in formally, you know, July 1st.
• 5:04
  And he made the comment about that. It seemed like I had really been doing well with the tradition,
• 5:11
  with the transition. They didn't seem like it was, you know, weighing me down or, you know,
• 5:16
  he was asking, following up, you know, how I was doing with the transition. And it, it's ironic
• 5:22
  that this is the first one that we're talking about, you know, tonight, because at that time,
• 5:28
  and probably for, as you know, probably for a good three or four months after that all happened,
• 5:34
  you know, last November, I was definitely employing a lot of what the recovery program calls fake it
• 5:40
  till you make it, you know, the outward, you know, success, or in my case, not even success,
• 5:46
  but outward calm, you know, outward peace, hiding that inner struggle, because that happens too.
• 5:52
  But I knew that even though I was going through a struggle, I was not going through it alone.
• 5:57
  Correct.
• 5:57
  You know, number one, I had God, you know, my higher power there.
• 6:02
  And then a second number one, I won't call you number two, but a second number one was having my wife there with me.
• 6:07
  That safe space.
• 6:08
  Yeah, the safe space, the rock, you know, kind of during that time frame, you know, of going through that, kind of holding things down and continually providing, you know, kind of the comfort and the assurance that all would be well in the end and that we were in this together kind of thing.
• 6:24
  And that has proved to be true. I mean, we're like you often say, you know, we're we're still in the house. We haven't missed any mortgage payments. You know, we don't want you know, we don't owe a lot of people anything. And so truly the blessings during this period have continued to flow.
• 6:39
  And that being able to endure that time frame even recently is just another reminder again of, you know, that the real health is beneath the surface.
• 6:51
  Because I could still go through and be stuck on my, you know, self-reliance, my ego, you know, all those things.
• 7:00
  But I really had to take time out to examine, you know, what should I be doing?
• 7:05
  What does God want me to be doing?
• 7:07
  And how do I go about doing it?
• 7:09
  And if I had not had that shake up in that period of evaluation, then we certainly wouldn't be sitting here right now talking about this podcast.
• 7:17
  I certainly wouldn't be writing daily devotionals for people to read and interact with.
• 7:24
  And so it just proves there's a proverb in 4:23 that says, above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.
• 7:35
  And I've learned, you know, that sometimes guarding my heart means taking time to spend time, you know, in prayer and with my higher power to take a time to kind of reset, to be, you know, patient during seasons of turmoil, which, as you know, more than anybody, is not something that I do very well, the whole patience thing.
• 7:55
  You know, I'm not a very patient person, but this past season has just been proof that there are times when that slowdown period is needed, just to kind of, if nothing else, it kind of reaffirms what's important in life and what's not.
• 8:11
  Yeah, and you know, when the ripple two, is spiritual, and it says, as I come before the Father with humility.
• 8:19
  One thing I wanted to point out was, yes, you're a pastor.
• 8:24
  And we find in churches, in religion, that it's hard for spiritual leaders to have that humility sometimes and to show that weakness.
• 8:36
  Yeah, or to admit that we don't have everything together.
• 8:38
  Exactly. So I hope the listeners can appreciate the fact that you are sharing the fact that
• 8:48
  you reached a point where you're admitting it bothered you. You didn't have all the answers.
• 8:55
  Life affected you. Life got to you just like it does anybody else. And you have to put those
• 9:02
  practical. You know, we always like to speak so spiritual and high above everybody else,
• 9:09
  but it's those practical everyday things that you have to put into play and you have to look
• 9:18
  within yourself and looking within yourself sometimes is asking God or taking a moment with
• 9:25
  God, but it starts with looking within yourself, having the right people around you, having that safe
• 9:31
  space so that you can begin having good health. And when you have good health within, you have
• 9:40
  success. Success is not defined by the job, by the wealth, by these tangible things. Success is defined
• 9:51
  really by your mental and physical wellness. It is so important.
• 9:58
  Overall, I think about, you know, one of the, if you go back in the history of the Methodist church, and I'm sorry, I'm going to nerd out for a minute, so you'll just bear with me.
• 10:07
  Oh, I get the joy of this so often. Go ahead.
• 10:11
  We might need to cut that banter out. But anyway, we may not. You never know. But if you go back to the roots of Methodism, you know, the Wesley brothers, John and Charles Wesley and others, you know, in Oxford, and they started this process of Methodism.
• 10:27
  But they developed a band, excuse me, a method of spiritual or Christian formation that was centered around a small group, you know, a group of people that met together and held each other accountable.
• 10:43
  And they led each other, you know, in growth.
• 10:50
  I can take a pause here because I totally forgot where I was going with the nerd out comment.
• 10:55
  The community, the safe space, the practical finding the mental and wellness and starting within.
• 11:08
  Oh, yes. So they developed this, you know, the Methodist way of Christian formation, and it started with the small group kind of structure.
• 11:18
  And one of the ways that they would begin every one of their meetings or when they would greet each other is they would ask one another, how is it with your soul?
• 11:26
  And so I love that.
• 11:27
  Yeah.
• 11:28
  And they really wanted to know and they really shared what they had going on with each other.
• 11:33
  But that's what I immediately thought of when you were sharing that is that question.
• 11:37
  And maybe we need to incorporate that a little bit more either into our recovery meetings or our churches and asking people, you know, how is it with your soul?
• 11:45
  Because when you lay your head to pillow at night.
• 11:49
  Yeah, that's what you got to rely on.
• 11:50
  You got that right.
• 11:51
  Yourself and your God.
• 11:53
  And also in that meeting today, you know, the topic was about finding a higher power of our understanding, you know.
• 11:59
  And one of the things I shared and talked about was that I'm glad that even though I will never truly and fully understand my God, I am thankful and blessed that he fully and truly understands me.
• 12:12
  And that's the power of it.
• 12:14
  Amen.
• 12:15
  Amen.
• 12:16
  And he gives us what we need, and sometimes he even gives us what we want.
• 12:21
  That's right.
• 12:22
  And sometimes we don't think we want it, but it's what we need anyway.
• 12:26
  Kind of like this whole past season for me in life.
• 12:29
  You know, I would not have wanted it, you know, last October, November, but I think it's been needed, you know, as a reset, hitting that reset button.
• 12:38
  But, you know, it says that admitting weakness is the beginning of strength, not a failure.
• 12:43
  Correct.
• 12:44
  Do you really believe that in your life all the time or are there times when you really don't want to admit weakness?
• 12:49
  Oh, for sure.
• 12:51
  There are times that I do not want to admit weakness and it depends on who I have to admit it to.
• 12:56
  Yeah.
• 12:57
  But yeah, there is difficulty in admitting that even though I know now there again, it depends on who it is because sometimes it is needed to bring someone else out.
• 13:10
  Right.
• 13:10
  to give them the comfort and the insurance that they're not alone. And I've been in that space
• 13:16
  and shared my weakness. And then it has brought someone else out and it brought us together on a,
• 13:23
  you know, common ground. So again, it depends on who I have to admit it to. I'm definitely not going
• 13:28
  to admit it to you. Well, and that's true. And going back to, you know, all the way back to John
• 13:34
  Wesley, I'm kidding. I'm not going to go back there again. But one of the other ways that, you
• 13:39
  You know, in Methodism, we talk about the means of grace, and one of the means of grace is just as simple as, you know, Christian conversation is what they called it, which is just people of faith talking to each other about what they have going on in their life.
• 13:50
  Yes.
• 13:51
  But this has been a good conversation, even with my slip up and losing my train of thought, you know, halfway through something, which will probably make a really interesting post-pod scene here.
• 14:03
  But, you know, sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself.
• 14:05
  At least at the end, you know, one of those.
• 14:08
  But do you have any other?
• 14:09
  Any other thoughts for today or points that you want to point out?
• 14:12
  No, I think I wrote down that practical versus spiritual.
• 14:19
  They should actually go together.
• 14:24
  But again, you know, some of the leaders in the churches, they struggle with admitting weaknesses.
• 14:31
  But hopefully with a community of believers, that doesn't get in the way of where people are and they still can find their safe space and begin to heal and grow.
• 14:45
  Well, very good.
• 14:46
  Well, thank you for being on the podcast again yesterday and today.
• 14:51
  I think we're going to have you joining us again tomorrow with myself and Corey for the first time.
• 14:56
  Now, this is going to be interesting.
• 14:57
  That'll be a fun one.
• 14:59
  So y'all stay tuned tomorrow.
• 15:01
  I know that it's hard to get people to tune in and listen on a Sunday, but you'll want to tune in and listen tomorrow.
• 15:06
  We'll have one from the Bible, one from the big book, and then me.
• 15:13
  There you go.
• 15:14
  There you go.
• 15:15
  We'll have all we need, in other words.
• 15:17
  Our prayer.
• 15:18
  Yes, close us out with our prayer.
• 15:20
  Father, reveal what is out of order within me.
• 15:24
  Through Your Spirit, form true humility in my heart
• 15:28
  and guide me in the strength and example of Your Son.
• 15:33
  Amen.
• 15:33
  Amen.