May 11 - Finding Where I Belong

You can be surrounded by people and still feel completely alone. This episode is about what actually closes that gap — and it's not proximity. Belonging grows where honesty lives. As long as I hide what is real, I remain on the outside, even when I'm surrounded by others. Pastor Mike opens with Ruth 1:16 — "where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay." Not a verse about God, technically. But the way he reads it, it becomes exactly that: a promise that God goes with him wherever he is, which means he never has to prove he's special or exceptional to earn his place in a room. That shift — from needing to be exceptional to being willing to just belong — is what recovery gave him, and it didn't happen overnight. Corey takes it street level. After everything he'd been through, he was scared to go back out into the working world. Got on his knees one morning, asked God to help him find a job so he could be of service to his family. Put out his first application. Heard back in two hours. Went in, undersold himself on salary, told them his past — and they offered him more money than he'd asked for and said he deserved another chance. He cried in the car on the way home. Then comes a moment worth the whole episode: Corey pushes back on one of the oldest clichés in recovery — "we'll love you until you can love yourself." His argument: he's always loved himself. His whole disease was about himself. What actually changed things was when he started loving somebody else. Mike disagrees — draws the Greatest Commandment straight from the text, love your neighbor as yourself, meaning self-love is the starting point, not the destination. Corey holds his ground. Mike holds his. They agree to disagree. And somehow that honest disagreement between two people who clearly trust each other is exactly what the ripple is describing. Bill's old question gets the last word on belonging: "Corey, do you want to feed — or do you want to get fed?" Find every daily entry at dailyripples.com. Reach out anytime at [email protected]. Be sure to answer the question of the day from the episode! Are you Team Corey or Team Pastor Mike? Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.