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June 7 – Hope That Endures · The Daily Ripples Podcast

• 0:02
  Well, welcome back, everybody, to the Daily Ripples podcast.
• 0:06
  I am Pastor Mike, and we have our co-hosts here with us today as well.
• 0:10
  That's Corey.
• 0:11
  And Corey, I have to say this, and I apologize for any of those out there listening who have
• 0:19
  to endure my lame dad jokes from time to time.
• 0:23
  I can't help it.
• 0:24
  You know, I'll be 50 this year, so what do you expect?
• 0:26
  But anyway, today is episode 99, which means that we've got 99 episodes and day off ain't one.
• 0:35
  So that's the best I could do for a day, Corey.
• 0:39
  You'll have to forgive me.
• 0:41
  On that note, our Daily Ripples devotional for today, June the 7th, is titled Hope That Endures.
• 0:47
  The Stone.
• 0:49
  Desires are not wrong, but when they control me, they lead me away from what is good.
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  Clarity comes when I see them honestly and bring them into balance.
• 1:05
  Ripple 1. Practical.
• 1:07
  Today I will examine what is driving me.
• 1:09
  Am I expecting too much from people, success, or comfort?
• 1:13
  I will adjust my expectations and focus on what is right, not just what feels good.
• 1:18
  Perspective brings stability.
• 1:20
  Ripple 2. Spiritual.
• 1:22
  As I walk with Christ, the Holy Spirit brings my desires into alignment with the Father's will.
• 1:28
  Hope begins to grow when I trust that God is shaping my life over time.
• 1:33
  What once felt restless becomes steady, and what once felt uncertain begins to take on meaning and direction.
• 1:40
  And as always, we will save our prayer for the end of the day.
• 1:45
  You know, Corey, as I was reading this one again, it's funny, you were mentioning, I think, just yesterday about how sometimes the timing just lines up between what we're sharing, what we've got going on in the rest of our lives, what else we may be studying, reading, doing.
• 2:00
  Well, I've just started with actually just starting today, June the 7th, really, and
• 2:07
  honest, because today is Sunday, starting a new sermon series, if you will, at my church
• 2:12
  at Braid Mason and going through the middle of July, at least.
• 2:16
  And, you know, I was calling it, you know, making Paul plain or basically trying to understand
• 2:21
  the writings of Paul, the apostle in plain language, and specifically studying in on the
• 2:27
  book of Romans in the Bible, which is, you know, the first epistle letter in the Bible. It comes
• 2:33
  right after Acts, and you get the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then you have Acts, and then
• 2:37
  you have Romans. And, you know, the Apostle Paul, who was featured prominently in the book of Acts,
• 2:44
  that's where we get the story of his road to Damascus experience. Are you familiar with that one?
• 2:48
  Yeah.
• 2:49
  Yeah, where he was essentially on his way to go persecute all the Christians, and the resurrected
• 2:54
  Christ showed up on that road and turned his whole life around. But I've been reading the book of
• 2:58
  Romans, and it ties into this today. And I was reading it just today, and I read this verse today,
• 3:04
  and I had to write it down and make notes. And in the fifth chapter of Romans, Romans 5, verses 4 and
• 3:10
  5, says, Perseverance produces character, and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame,
• 3:17
  because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given
• 3:21
  to us. And where that one comes into play for me in terms of today's daily devotional is that
• 3:28
  we're talking about that hope begins to grow when I trust that God is shaping my life over time.
• 3:34
  Well, how do I get to that place of hope? Well, Paul just told us, I get there by starting with
• 3:39
  perseverance. In other words, kind of even going back to yesterday's episode where we talked about
• 3:44
  we have to be willing and not perfect, you know, keep being willing to show up and do the work.
• 3:48
  Well, that's the perseverance. Perseverance just means that I keep my willingness to do what God is leading me to do. And then he promises that over time, if I keep doing that and I keep showing up one day at a time to use recovery language, that my character begins to form.
• 4:05
  And Paul in other places writes about the transformation of the renewing of our minds.
• 4:10
  And as my character begins to reshape because I keep doing the work, then I get to that place
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  where that hope is just an everyday part of my life.
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  There's nothing that could happen today that would make me completely hopeless about my future
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  because I've seen where God has taken me before, and that gives me trust and hope of where God
• 4:29
  will take me again in the future.
• 4:30
  But that was my initial thought going into this one.
• 4:33
  What have you got for us today, Corey?
• 4:35
  Man, I was reading this, and it was,
• 4:39
  As I walk with Christ, the Holy Spirit brings my desires in alignment with the Father's will.
• 4:45
  You know, it's interesting on page 76, the seven-step prayer, and we've read it before on here,
• 4:52
  but it starts with these two words.
• 4:54
  It says, My Creator.
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  And, you know, I don't know if you were in the book study that one day that we were talking about this,
• 5:02
  But it's interesting that it says my creator.
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  Because at that point, I've done a fifth step, right?
• 5:08
  And we've talked about some defects of character.
• 5:11
  Now we're like, hey, God, take these away.
• 5:14
  Just where they're being, you know, not take them all away.
• 5:17
  It's not even saying take them all away.
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  Just where I could be more of use to you.
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  Right, right.
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  And my fellows.
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  And so when I think about that, and I've talked a little bit about this,
• 5:28
  but through the work, I find that everything's hindsight.
• 5:32
  So when I'm thinking about my character defects, I'm usually thinking about, well, amends.
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  Let me go, let's go clear the, let's go clear the slate up until, you know, because most
• 5:45
  people didn't walk around and hurt people in their lives.
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  And, you know, I'm just trying to get back to that kindergarten, Corey, just try to be,
• 5:52
  you know, in line with everybody else to give it a fair shot.
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  And, you know, for me, I got to go face those people because I can't walk around in a lie.
• 6:02
  And if I'm walking around in a lie my whole life, you know, I'm probably not going to keep on doing anything right anyways.
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  What would the point be anyways, right?
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  I'm already taken from people by lying and not being honest here.
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  We're not paying this money back.
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  So the money in my pocket's really not even mine.
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  But when I start getting on that even kill, you know, closer to like what God would want me to be, you know, I start finding my real purpose.
• 6:27
  And my real purpose, like we always talk about, is for sure to serve God.
• 6:31
  And so when my desires, you know, it's hard for me, it's hard for me to let up.
• 6:39
  You know, after I got done, you were, when I was talking the other day at that birthday thing,
• 6:46
  someone came up to me and they were like, hey man, you know, what's different today versus then?
• 6:54
  And I said, you know, well, today my drive.
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  So you said, you know, we're the drive.
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  It says desires are not wrong, but when they control me, they lead me away from what is good.
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  And I think about that drive.
• 7:07
  Well, my drive today is a service in my homes with the people I can be most helpful to.
• 7:13
  Usually that's an alcoholic.
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  That's my drive.
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  And, you know, before that was probably an afterthought.
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  That was a thought that, you know, hey, I'm having a bad day.
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  Let me check on somebody kind of thing.
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  And, you know, I just kind of used it in that manner.
• 7:28
  But today, I don't ever want to let up because God, for some reason, just like you put in here, it says,
• 7:36
  my desires, the Holy Spirit brings my desires into alignment with the Father's will.
• 7:42
  And I believe that today because the Father to me, my God, Jesus Christ, would want me to be loving.
• 7:51
  And for me to be loving, be of service.
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  And it's the most simple concept for a complicated person.
• 7:59
  Yeah, I have to keep reminding myself and people that I speak to as well that love is not just a noun.
• 8:06
  It's not just a warm, fuzzy feeling.
• 8:08
  You know, love is a verb.
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  Love is something that we do.
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  I can be loving to you, Corey, even if I can't stand you.
• 8:15
  And that's not the case here, obviously, but this would be a grueling process if we didn't like each other on some level.
• 8:21
  But, you know, I can act in love and give loving service to you, be there in your time of need.
• 8:27
  And my feelings about you don't matter about anything.
• 8:31
  That's just being faithful and showing up, you know.
• 8:34
  And you talked about a little bit, and I'm glad that you brought up about, you know, when you were sharing your story, you know, in that birthday meeting the other night.
• 8:41
  Because I think a lot of times, and we're referring to in our home group, at the end of every month, they have a birthday meeting where they celebrate people who reach milestones in recovery, and we call those birthdays.
• 8:54
  And then we have a big party or celebration at the end of the month, and there's usually a guest speaker who comes to share their experience, strength, and hope.
• 9:02
  And I know, Corey, you had the honor of sharing your experience, strength, and hope at the end of May.
• 9:08
  But I think that it ties in, you know, directly with what we're talking about here is that that hope aspect of our stories is probably the most important aspect.
• 9:18
  That question that you got after the meeting and after you spoke about how is your life different today?
• 9:25
  You know, because that's where people hear the hope that comes through.
• 9:28
  You know, I can get up in front of a room of 50 people and share my experience for an hour, hour and a half.
• 9:35
  But if I never get to what my source of strength is, and if I never get to the hope aspect of it, then all I'm doing is telling my old war stories, you know, with a lot of people who probably had exactly the same war stories and can relate.
• 9:46
  And sure, some of mine might be funny, you know, they might be funnier than somebody else's and what have you.
• 9:51
  But I'm driving toward, whenever I'm speaking in that setting, I'm driving toward where is the strength and the hope.
• 9:58
  And for me, the strength comes through working the steps, including the step that we'll be focusing on a lot this month, which is the sixth step, you know, working through the steps and gaining strength, not of my own doing, but it is that character, if you will, that God is forming in me whenever I am persevering in doing the work.
• 10:20
  And the hope comes from the fact that I do have a much better life today than I had in the past.
• 10:27
  You know, I don't have the same calamities today that I had whenever I came into this program, you know, 13 plus years ago.
• 10:35
  I have a peace, you might say a peace that surpasses all human understanding, you know, as our scripture tells us.
• 10:42
  And that is not something that comes from within me on my own as a human being.
• 10:47
  It comes from the spirit of the living and loving God dwelling within me.
• 10:52
  That was kind of confusing, and I'm not trying to mess with your words, but you said that doesn't come within me, but that comes from the spirit deep down within me.
• 11:01
  Yeah, I'm saying it doesn't come within me from my own human capacity or my own thoughts.
• 11:07
  It does come from the spirit dwelling in me.
• 11:10
  Feel free to correct me any time there, Corey, or say, hey, you're speaking that confusing preacher talk, buddy.
• 11:16
  You need to break it down for the rest of us.
• 11:18
  Trust me, if Christy were on here, she'd call me out for stuff like that in a heartbeat.
• 11:22
  I think she enjoys it probably as much as you do.
• 11:26
  Oh, my significant other, you know, she is, yeah, she's good with her vocabulary.
• 11:32
  And even like language arts and, you know, I never even, you know, attempted to try any
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  of that stuff when I was in school.
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  So I don't know any.
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  I'll be talking and she goes, what are you saying over there?
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  Or my handwriting?
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  You've seen my handwriting.
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  Which is actually surprisingly clear.
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  The fact that I can read your handwriting is pretty good.
• 11:55
  And speaking of, I mean, we might as well bring this on to air and into the atmosphere as well,
• 12:01
  is that for those listening, and if you follow along with the daily devotionals at dailyripples.com,
• 12:07
  We're about, you know, an inch close, about this close to getting Corey to post his notes from his daily meditations and study of the big book onto the website as well.
• 12:17
  So that those who want to kind of follow along with his studies and insights into the literature can do that also.
• 12:23
  So that is coming soon, if not already, we hope.
• 12:27
  Yeah, no, that'd be good.
• 12:29
  Well, I was thinking about this and one more little thing.
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  It was talking about today, I'll examine what is driving me.
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  And the big book talks about on page 62, it says, so our troubles we think are basically of our own making.
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  They arise out of ourselves.
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  And the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run right, though he usually doesn't think so.
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  And that though he usually doesn't think so is probably one of the most important parts to me.
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  Because when I'm being driven by something of, I guess, human experience, I can't even see that.
• 13:11
  I can't see when this thing over here is driving me and I'm not seeing it because I can justify A, B, C, and D, E, right?
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  Because I've already got this just, well, I'm doing it for the family.
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  Well, I'm doing it for this.
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  But really, I'm off the rails.
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  And everybody knows it.
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  But have you ever experienced that?
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  Oh, yeah, yeah.
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  At times when I'm not thinking logically or linearly or in a straight line, in other words.
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  In other words, times when I'm a little bit insane.
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  And it's usually the people closest to me that can spot it first.
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  But the people closest to me aren't always around me all day, every day either.
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  So that's where I can get in those moments.
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  If I don't have somebody around to check me and bring me back in line, man, I can really
• 13:59
  go too far with it.
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  But normally, whenever I start to go a little bit too far with it, that's when that still
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  small voice kind of speaks up in the back of my head.
• 14:08
  And it's come through practice and through showing up.
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  And like we've been talking about, persevering in the work time and time again.
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  I know when a conversation reaches the point where I need to just shut up.
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  And that's usually the Holy Spirit giving me that little nudge, you know, on the side saying,
• 14:23
  hey, you got nothing to prove here. And that usually reminds me, oh, I'm getting into ego
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  too much and I need to just step back and I might actually have something to learn from this person
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  who's annoying me right now. Yeah, I get it. Well, with that, let's close out with our prayer for
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  today. Father, bring my desires into alignment with your will. Through your Spirit, give me lasting
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  hope and guide me into a life shaped by truth and purpose through your Son. Amen.
• 14:54
  Amen.