The Daily Ripples Podcast

Corey opens with a barbershop debate in Ohio about who holds the door for whom — and admits his own door-holding wasn't exactly selfless back then either. That's the honest thread of today's episode: what happens when you finally notice the motive underneath the good deed. He and Pastor Mike work through the Big Book's insistence that faith without self-sacrifice and unselfish action isn't much of a faith at all, plus Bill Wilson's own uncomfortable example — five dollars for a drunk in public, a quarter in the basket when nobody's watching. Along the way: why sitting down with a newcomer counts as giving even when they go back out the next day, William James on first-born and second-born souls, and Jesus' plain instruction in Luke to lend without expecting anything back. The stone for today: Real giving expects nothing back. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Giving without expectation | motives and ego | service and sponsorship | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | anonymity and humility | Big Book study | Luke 6 | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery

Sundays belong to Pastor Mike now, and this one opens on what he calls a God wink: the devotional written months ago and the Matthew 13 parables from this morning's lectionary landed on the same day saying the same thing. The practical side starts with the Seventh Tradition — every group fully self-supporting — but pushes past the basket to the harder question. Who made the coffee? Who unlocked the door? Who's been treasurer for six years because nobody else would? From there it turns to the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price, and the detail that changes everything: the man sold all he had in his joy. Not grim math, not clenched teeth — just someone who finally saw what something was worth. The spiritual side follows the Trinity through a mustard seed that behaves more like a weed, yeast worked into fifty pounds of flour, and a net that catches every kind of fish while the sorting waits for shore. The stone for today: I show what I value by what I am willing to give. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Valuing what matters | giving without holding back | Seventh Tradition and self-support | parable of the pearl | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | casting the net wide | Big Book study | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Corey kicks off the new Saturday solo format with the Big Book's plainest marching order: your job is to be where you can be of maximum helpfulness, so never hesitate to go anywhere — even the most sordid spot on earth — if you can be useful there. From there he works through what it means to genuinely believe everyone in the room is just as sick as he is, why the real demonstration of these principles happens in homes and occupations rather than in meetings, and the exhausting arithmetic of a double life spent reshaping his personality to fit whatever might get him what he wanted. The harder turn comes with page 96's warning about chasing someone who cannot or will not — and Corey's honest admission that he's spent too much time on guys out of ego, likely denying someone else the chance to live and be happy. It lands on a Christmas Eve meeting where nobody showed up but one man with fifty years sober, who'd once had every reason to rescue his own daughter himself and instead trusted the program to do what he couldn't. The stone for today: I stay strong when I stay connected to those who still need help. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Carrying the message | maximum helpfulness | we are all spiritually sick | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sponsorship and service | letting go of ego | Big Book study | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

This is a Wave — a longer-format deep dive into the Big Book, running about 40 minutes. Settle in, or listen in two sittings. Corey takes the mic solo for the first Wave episode, walking line by line through the Big Book's "Working With Others" chapter — the one that argues nothing will insulate you from a drink quite like helping someone else get sober. He works through the practical mechanics the book actually lays out: how to approach someone still suffering, why you lend him the book instead of preaching at him, and why you're never there to be his banker or fix his life. Along the way come the stories that shaped his own understanding — a sponsor's blunt drink test, a serenity prayer carved into a bunk in Hot Springs, and a friend who taught him you can learn from other people's mistakes instead of making every one yourself. It lands on page 102's plain instruction: your job is to be of maximum helpfulness, and the outcome was never yours to manage. The stone for today: My life changes when I shift my focus from myself to others. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Working with others | service and sponsorship | carrying the message | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | half measures | Big Book study | self-centeredness | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Pastor Mike and Corey open with a look ahead — the first of a new longer-format series they're calling "Waves," a deeper dive into the Big Book arriving tomorrow — before settling into today's harder question: what happens when you stop trying to manage your own growth? Corey works through the Big Book's portrait of the self-seeker who thinks everything would be fine "if he only manages well," and the counterpoint from Bill's story that utopia is already here, right now, in ordinary moments. Pastor Mike anchors it in Philippians' promise that the One who began a good work will carry it to completion — and in the plain evidence of a Tuesday spent in ministry versus a Tuesday spent drunk thirteen and a half years ago. Also: an unexpected lesson in meditation involving a kid's ball tossed across a living room. The stone for today: I trust God to decide what needs to change in me and when. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Trusting God's timing | letting go of control | spiritual growth | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | staying present | meditation and prayer | Big Book study | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Corey flies solo today with a meditation on what it actually costs to hand God everything — not just the parts that feel good to give. Working through the Big Book's line that "lack of power was our dilemma" and the Seventh Step Prayer's ask to have all of us, good and bad, he lands on an uncomfortable truth: we rarely know which is which. The defects we're most ashamed of often become the very thing that lets us help someone else, while the things we're proud of don't always hold up under honest light. Along the way — why he stopped drinking selfishly in "good times," what it means to get out of the outcome business, and how being of service is rarely convenient but almost always the point. The stone for today: Real change begins when I give God all of me, not just the parts I like. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Surrender and honesty | giving God all of me | Seventh Step prayer | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | service over self | defects as assets | Big Book study | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Cristi steps up for another solo episode today (I know, what were we thinking??), and she doesn't shy away from where peace actually gets tested — inside a former marriage marked by broken promises and a chaos she couldn't control no matter how hard she tried. From there, the episode turns practical: peace isn't something that arrives once life calms down, it's something built by learning to control only yourself and surrendering the rest. Leaning on Philippians 4:6-7's promise of a peace that "surpasses all understanding," Cristi makes the case that talking honestly to yourself — encouraging instead of spiraling — is one of the most underrated spiritual disciplines there is. The stone for today: Peace is a gift that grows as I learn to surrender. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Peace and surrender | letting go of control | healing after hard marriages | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | anxiety and trust | Philippians 4 | sobriety devotional | faith and freedom | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Paris steps up to the mic solo for the first time today, and brings a message that turns "self-improvement" on its head: the real work of transformation was never ours to manage in the first place. Walking through Step Five's hard truth that secrets kept buried have a way of pulling people back toward relapse, Paris traces the shift from white-knuckling change to simply becoming honest enough for healing to begin — leaning on Philippians' call to "work out your own salvation" alongside the promise of a new heart replacing one of stone. The takeaway lands simple and freeing: the question isn't "how do I fix myself," but "God, what do you want to do in me today." The stone for today: My role is not to fix myself, but to humbly ask and trust God to do the work. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com  — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected] . Surrender and transformation | letting go of control | honesty and Step Five | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | trusting God's timing | Big Book study | recovery community | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Corey opens with his son's Little League pitching dreams — and the kid's reflexive "I know" every time a coach tries to correct his form — before turning that mirror on himself: how many times has "I know" been his own answer to people trying to help? Working through the Big Book's description of the alcoholic as an actor playing a part he never learned, the episode traces what actually happens when the performance stops — in a Fifth Step, in sponsorship, in the daily work of staying teachable instead of certain. It closes on a hard-won distinction: knowing how to help someone isn't the same as knowing when to just keep your mouth shut and let them walk it out themselves. The stone for today: False pride keeps me from receiving the help I need. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. False pride and humility | staying teachable | sponsorship and service | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | letting go of ego | Big Book study | recovery community | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Flying solo again, Pastor Mike makes the case that gratitude isn't a mood you catch — it's a decision about where you point your attention. Drawing on the Big Book's promise that "God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves" and Paul's charge to give thanks in all circumstances rather than for them, the episode walks through why entitlement is just unchecked comparison finally opening its mouth, and why contentment has to be learned rather than assumed. Along the way: a candid nod to still needing meetings 13 years in, a reminder that even Jesus taught provision without ever denying the hard road ahead, and why dependence on God is steadier — not weaker — than self-reliance ever was. The stone for today: Gratitude keeps me grounded in humility and aware of what God has already given. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Gratitude and dependence | contentment in all things | letting go of entitlement | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | daily reprieve | trust and provision | sobriety devotional | Big Book study | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Corey takes the mic solo today, and he's not afraid to turn the word "surrender" over like a soldier weighing whether to lay down arms — asking honestly why anyone would ever wave the white flag on something that's still working for them. Drawing on the Big Book's blunt line about people who "want to run the whole show," he traces his own path from full self-propulsion to finally admitting the old way had run its course. Along the way: what it actually means to be "a part of" a recovery room instead of just showing up to one, a hard-won lesson from a late friend about learning from other people's mistakes instead of making every one yourself, and the surprising fact that the word "surrender" never once shows up in the Big Book itself. The stone for today: Freedom grows when I stop demanding and start surrendering. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Surrender and freedom | letting go of control | self-will run riot | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | humility and pride | Big Book study | recovery community | sobriety devotional | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Today, flying solo, Pastor Mike makes the case that humility doesn't increase the pain, it's what starts healing it. Walking through Ripple One and Ripple Two separately, the episode traces what it looks like to quit playing God with our own outcomes, and then follows all three persons of the Trinity through how each one meets us differently in that surrender — the Father in release, Jesus in shared weight, the Spirit in the strength to actually stay in the room instead of running from it. The stone for today: Humility does not increase my pain. It begins to heal it. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Humility and healing | surrender and control | trusting God in difficulty | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | Trinity and daily life | letting go of fear | sobriety devotional | Big Book study | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.        

Pride and self-pity look like opposites, but they're running the same con — both are just "look at me" in different costumes. Today Pastor Mike and Corey trace that thread through the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the difference between working the Seven Deadly Sins and practicing the Seven Heavenly Virtues, and the Step Seven Prayer's blunt ask: take all of me, the good and the bad, because I can't tell which is which anymore. They also get honest about how humility rarely arrives as a decision — more often it shows up as a gift of time, or as the people closest to us gently pointing out what we can't see in ourselves. The stone for today: Pride keeps me stuck, and humility sets me free. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Letting go of pride | humility and self-pity | Seven Deadly Sins | Step Seven prayer | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | ego and surrender | sobriety devotional | Big Book study | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

There's a reason pilots call it "attitude" and not "altitude" — it's not how high you're flying, it's whether you can still see the horizon. Today Pastor Mike and Corey take that idea and run with it: what steadies a life isn't circumstance, it's orientation. They dig into the difference between agape love and eros love, why chasing to be understood instead of understanding keeps us stuck, and how honor that's God-given looks nothing like the honor the world hands out. Along the way, a hard-won reminder that some of life's most humbling moments end up being the ones that steady everything else. The stone for today: Humility brings balance and steadiness to my life. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Humility and surrender | agape love | honor and shame culture | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | service over self | sobriety devotional | perspective and attitude | Big Book study | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Real humility doesn't show up as a decision — it shows up as a byproduct of finally letting go of the wheel. Today Pastor Mike and Corey dig into what it looks like when the "director" instinct kicks in — needing everyone else to hit their marks like actors in your scene — and why relinquishing that control is where the actual peace shows up. They work through the Big Book's Doctor's Opinion (and briefly lose track of exactly which doctor wrote it — leaving the mix-up in, because that's kind of the point), land on the Twelfth Tradition's case for anonymity as a guard against ego, and end up somewhere unexpected: sometimes the most humble prayer you can pray is for yourself. The stone for today: Humility is not something I achieve. It is something that grows when I stop living for myself. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Humility and surrender | letting go of control | recovery anonymity | 12-step faith | Christian recovery | ego and service | sobriety devotional | prayer and meditation | Big Book study | addiction recovery Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Life gets a lot lighter the moment you stop trying to run the whole show. Today Pastor Mike and Corey dig into what it actually looks like to step off center stage — Corey tracing it back to the years he had to stay busy just to avoid sitting still with himself, and Mike drawing the line to Jesus, who could have entered Jerusalem as a conquering king and chose a donkey instead. The conversation moves through John the Baptist's "He must become greater, I must become less," the pull of chasing likes and attention in a divided world, and why church — for all its flaws — still offers something AA can't: a place to worship. Also: what recovery fellowship at its best actually looks like when nobody's arguing about whose meeting is better. The stone for today: Life works better when I stop trying to be the center of everything. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Humility and recovery | letting go of control | ego and self-will | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | dependence on God | sobriety devotional | faith and fellowship | serving others | addiction recovery | AA and faith Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Humility isn't something to survive. It's something to want — and there's no better proof of that than getting called out for your own homework mistake right before the mic turns on. Everything changes when humility becomes something I want, not something I resist. We open with Psalm 51:6 — behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom — a favorite verse, tattooed in a circle around a cross. The comfort in it: this work was never meant to be done alone. In the Methodist tradition, it's called sanctifying grace — the slow forming of a person back into the image they were created to be, one honest day at a time. The 12&12's page 58 definition anchors the discussion: humility as a clear recognition of what and who we really are, followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be. Big Book page 64 follows — searching out the flaws in our own makeup that caused our failure, and the honest admission that most of what we've spent years running from turns out to be ourselves. The practical side gets real: being honest without defensiveness is one thing, but taking feedback from someone else without getting defensive is the actual test. A story from nine months sober — going out of the way to make a newcomer feel welcome, not realizing until much later it wasn't the normal routine — and a story from three years in, when growth felt like a burden and a friend with thirty more years of sobriety gave the correction that was needed: stop complaining and get some more program in you. Sometimes growth requires someone else's honesty before it becomes our own. 12&12 page 124 closes it: true ambition is the deep desire to live usefully and walk humbly under the grace of God. As that shift happens, joy, freedom, and peace begin to take root in my life. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | humility | sanctifying grace | Psalm 51 | staying teachable | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected]  Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Peace doesn't wait for everyone else to change. It shows up the moment we take responsibility for our own part and let the rest go. Peace grows when I take responsibility for my part and release the rest. We open with page 55's reminder that the great reality is found deep down within us — and if that's where God is, then the resentments, fears, and grudges we carry are down there too. Page 64's flaw-searching and page 145's list of alcoholism's greatest enemies — resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear — give language to what's actually underneath the surface disturbance. A personal story about being adopted, born to alcoholic birth parents, and coming to believe the spiritual malady was there from the start grounds the whole discussion in something real rather than theoretical. Page 84's instruction to watch for what disturbs us and page 77's reminder that this is not a selfish program tie together with a story about a double-booked speaking slot at a treatment center — driving away frustrated, only to get a phone call minutes later from someone in tears after helping an elderly woman for the first time. Page 15's promise that we've been lifted up and set on our feet by simply talking to another person closes that thread. Philippians 4 and Psalm 51:10 — create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me — anchor the spiritual side, and page 28's line about a "flimsy reed" proving to be the loving and powerful hand of God brings it home: peace isn't found in the solution being perfect. It's found in surrendering the problem. As I surrender my defects, even if the situation does not change, something in me does. That is where peace begins. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | humility | taking responsibility | letting go | Psalm 51 | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

You don't have to be the source. You just have to be willing to be used. Paris and Corey sit with what it means to be an instrument rather than the point of the whole show. Humility is knowing that I am not the source, but a vessel. Today opens with the seventh step prayer — my Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad — and calls it exactly what it is: powerful. Our higher power isn't just a concept, it's a relationship, someone we can go to specifically when we need something. And knowing we're not the source changes everything about how we shows up in our own life. Romans 12:2 anchors the transformation — do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind — and page 51's promise that the consciousness of God's presence, once it becomes the most important fact of your life, is itself a powerful reason to have faith. Page 76 closes the loop: surrendering the shortcomings that block him from God and from the people in his life, so he can be used instead of getting in the way. As I surrender my shortcomings, I become more available for God to work through me in love and service. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | humility | instrument not the source | Saint Francis prayer | 7th step prayer | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Freedom isn't found by looking inward. It's found by moving outward — toward God, and toward everybody still stuck in the version of the story you used to live. Paris and Corey spend this one on what it means to actually be useful. Freedom grows when I move out of myself and toward God and others. Corey opens with Big Book page 124 — Henry Ford's line that experience is the thing of supreme value in life, if you're willing to turn the past to good account. The alcoholic's past becomes the family's principal asset, and often its only one. He reflects on his own dad, a genuinely good man who never had to go through the things Corey put himself through — and how God used every bit of that self-made wreckage to position Corey to help someone else. Page 18's "ex-problem drinker" who is promptly armed with facts about himself can win another alcoholic's confidence in a few hours, no fees, no lectures, no attitude of holier-than-thou. Just a sincere desire to help. That's the fifth tradition lived out: carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers, one guy Corey's actually been where he's been — not the whole world. Paris brings page 15's practical answer — when all else fails, work with another alcoholic — and page 89's promise that life takes on new meaning watching people recover, watching loneliness vanish, watching a fellowship grow. Corey threads in pages 67, 68, and 70, the three-part fourth step response to being triggered: this is a sick man, how can I help him; ask God to remove the fear and direct my attention to what He'd have me be; and when it gets hard, throw yourself harder into helping someone else. Page 84's six-point watch-list ties it together — and page 85's image of the hot flame, paired with page 24's warning about the hand that won't stay off the hot stove, grounds why this isn't optional. The episode closes on qualifying who you can actually help — Corey's honest about only being useful to the guy who's been where he's been, not the guy who robbed a bank — and page 85's promise that when you've carefully followed direction, you begin to sense the flow of His spirit into you. The great obsession of every abnormal drinker, page 30 calls it. Freedom starts the moment that obsession gets pointed somewhere outward. The Holy Spirit helps me step outside of myself and live with purpose. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | freedom in service | working with others | Big Book page 124 | carrying the message | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Peace shows up the moment you stop demanding and start trusting. Paris and Corey dig into the surrender underneath acceptance — and why willingness is the only key that opens the door. Peace comes when I release my demands and accept what I cannot control. Paris opens on acceptance — a word he fought for a long time, because he didn't want to accept anything or anybody. It was a rough stretch of his life. But doing the work changed it: acceptance became step three, turning his will over to God, admitting that on self-will alone he can't control what he's doing, so why not surrender and let a higher power give the directions — which he only gets through prayer and meditation every morning. Corey brings the Big Book's page 60-61 actor passage, read with his own name swapped in the way his sponsor taught him: if Corey's arrangements would only stay put, if only people would do as Corey wished, the show would be great. Kind, considerate, patient, generous when he's getting his way — egotistical, selfish, and dishonest when he's not. And when the show doesn't come off well, Corey starts thinking life isn't treating him right. Page 62 is the promise on the other side of it: our troubles are basically of our own making, arising out of self-will run riot. The answer is bringing God in — the 12 to 15 different places the book asks God to come into our lives. Paris ties it to the 12&12 on step three — the door you open with the key of willingness, the way he twisted the knob that morning not knowing if it was locked, and it opened. Page 36: the more willing we are to depend on a higher power, the more independent we actually are. Proverbs 3:5-6 anchors the spiritual ripple — trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding — and Corey lands it on the humility Bill Wilson described in Language of the Heart: those little glimpses that come every time we get knocked down and get back up surrendering, again and again. Real peace is found not in getting what I want, but in trusting the One who leads me. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | acceptance | surrender | self-will run riot | willingness | Proverbs 3:5 | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

The problem is rarely what's on the surface. Pastor Mike and Cristi close out their run together with an honest look at the fear that hides underneath our irritation, anger, and control. What if the real problem is not what I'm feeling on the surface, but what I'm afraid of underneath? Cristi opens with her own pattern — burying irritation to spare feelings or avoid conflict, letting it sit until it finally boils over into something bigger than it needed to be. Nine and a half times out of ten, she admits, once it comes out and they talk it through, she feels better — so why not start there? Mike gently presses: what's the fear underneath? You can almost always find one beneath whatever we're hesitant to name. For her it's not wanting to create unnecessary conflict when she loves where they are. For him, he's honest that his fear is often just selfish — not wanting to be bothered, not wanting to have to do something in the moment he'd rather not. But he names the recovery truth: the meeting that means the most is the one you didn't want to go to. He tells the story of a season about ten years ago, struggling and pulling back, when a friend with 43 years of sobriety called to check on him and told him to come back to the meeting and take the cotton out of his ears and put it in his mouth. He did. And less than a year later, that cleared path led him to Cristi. Psalm 34:4 anchors it — I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Mike unpacks seeking as both prayer and meditation — speaking and listening — and, through Matthew 25, as service: sometimes seeking the Lord means lacing up your shoes and going to be of use to someone else. Cristi lands the run on peace — not earned by doing, but a gift from God to experience, the thing that opens up the capacity to do more and be more. And Mike's close says it all: why didn't you just tell me, Jesus? Oh, wait — he did. I was just too stubborn. Fear loses power when it is brought into the light. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | naming fear | what's underneath | prayer and meditation | seeking through service | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

The problem isn't always a lack of strength. Sometimes it's strength aimed in the wrong direction. Pastor Mike and Cristi bring humor and hard-won honesty to what it means to let God redirect what's already in you. The problem is not always lack of strength. Sometimes it is strength aimed in the wrong direction. Mike opens with the assumption he carried for years — that alcoholics and addicts were simply weak, that they just needed a stronger will. Then he lived it, and learned the truth the Big Book names on page 45: our human resources, as marshaled by the will, were not sufficient. It was never about a lack of willpower. It was willpower pointed at the wrong things. Recovery is realignment, not weakness. Cristi makes it personal. Early in their marriage she was trying to be the man and the woman in the relationship — putting all her effort into proving she was strong, that she didn't need anyone. What she had to learn was that the strength was real and had carried her through seasons when she genuinely had to hold everything up alone — but coming out the gate with "I am woman, hear me roar" only created conflict that didn't need to be there. She connects it to her own past assumptions about mental illness and thoughts of suicide as weakness, until she experienced them herself and understood: it has nothing to do with weakness. Then the honest turn — her children telling her they finally see happiness on her, that she's finally let a man lead and complement her life instead of overtaking. Not control, Mike is quick to clarify — Scripture's requirement for the husband is not to rule by iron grip. Leadership by example. As Cristi puts it, if a man has to say he's the head of the household, he's already lost. You follow because he's already walked the path. In Christ, even my stubbornness and drive can be shaped into perseverance and faithfulness. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | redirected strength | willpower and surrender | marriage and recovery | mental health | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Faith isn't always built from scratch. Sometimes it was there all along — buried, ignored, waiting to come back to life. On Independence Day, Pastor Mike and Cristi talk about the faith that awakens from within. Faith is not always created from nothing. Often it is uncovered. What has been buried or ignored can come alive again. Cristi opens with faith born of desperation — raising two boys with times where all she had was faith the size not of a mustard seed, but a watermelon, because she needed something to move, and it did. She learned not to dismiss what she couldn't explain, because it was real to her, and that faith carries into her daily life today. Mike grounds the theme in Big Book page 55 — deep down in every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God. We're created for communion, born with an idea of God already in us. He connects it to the childlike faith Jesus calls for, and to his own story: a faith he was born with, then tried to bury under relationships and alcohol, that began to reawaken when someone asked him the question he couldn't answer — why do you think you know more about this than billions of people who've ever lived? That, he believes, was God getting the attention of his rational mind. Cristi shares as a preacher's kid who never physically strayed from church but whose actions didn't always match — and the God who kept whipping her back into shape, reminding her you still belong to me. The season of watching siblings flourish while she struggled, and the lesson that landed: get your eyes on the right thing, and He'll take care of the rest. When she did, everything else was taken care of. Romans 6:23 closes it — the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And a word for anyone not there yet: be patient with yourself, don't compare your walk to anyone else's, and know you aren't where you were yesterday. Over time, faith becomes as natural as breathing, steady and sustaining. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | faith awakens | childlike faith | born with God's idea | testimony | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Truth doesn't become real until you live it. Pastor Mike and Cristi bring warmth, laughter, and hard-won honesty to a conversation about how experience teaches what thinking alone never can. Understanding grows through experience. Truth becomes real when I live it, not just think about it. Cristi opens where she opened yesterday — with music, one of her love languages — and the truth that experience is a good teacher, but only if you learn from it. If you don't, you're destined to repeat it. She's honest about her own path: two previous marriages where the mistakes weren't only on the other side, and the self-evaluation that made her a better companion the third time around. Growth came through doing, learning, and adjusting along the way. Mike takes the faith angle to actions and consequences — something recovery taught him. Take the right actions and the consequences tend to be neutral or good; take the wrong ones and they rarely are. Not prosperity gospel, just the abundant life Jesus spoke of: a peaceful, full life, the peace that surpasses understanding even when tragedy strikes. James 1:22 anchors it — do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves; do what it says. You can make a verse mean anything when you only read it. The truth comes out when you try to live it. Cristi adds a pointed word on letting your kids experience the ups and downs rather than shielding them — you won't always be there to save them. And Mike shares, with real vulnerability, how last October during a hard detachment period, it was Cristi — physically present, real, standing there loving him — who kept him grounded when his own thoughts weren't things he could live out. Learning by living, both directions. A team effort. Following Christ is not about constant certainty, but steady trust. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | learning by living | faith and action | marriage and recovery | James 1:22 | abundant life | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Growth doesn't require complexity. It requires honesty, willingness, and openness. In her first solo episode, Cristi brings warmth, humor, and some butt-ugly honesty to the simplest — and hardest — of the essentials. Growth does not require complexity. It requires honesty, willingness, and openness. These simple qualities shape a strong and steady life. Cristi opens on honesty — a 70s girl at heart, she frames it through Billy Joel's classic, then gets real about what it means to have someone in your life who'll tell you the butt-ugly truth. That kind of honesty is a treasure, and it's not supposed to be complicated. It should come naturally, without heavy lifting, if it's something you truly value. Then she gets personal and lives out the practical ripple in real time: a successful IT career built without a degree, and the honest reckoning that led her back to school later in life — uncomfortable, challenging, but a conscious decision she's proud of. Being honest about where she is, and taking the next right step anyway, even when it's hard. She grounds the spiritual side in Romans 10:9-10 — confess with your mouth, believe in your heart — and ties it to the accountability at the heart of recovery: admitting what has taken over, being open about it, and letting God meet you where you are. Honesty doesn't require a lot from you, she says. It just requires the best of you. It's a daily walk, a mantle you carry at all times, and it shapes every part of life. You don't even have to accept hard honesty in the moment. But at some point you will — and when you do, it brings about a change for the better. As I come before the Father with honesty, the Holy Spirit begins His work within me. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | honesty | willingness and openness | keeping it simple | Romans 10:9 | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Progress over perfection — but not as an excuse. Corey closes out his solo run drawing a hard line between spiritual progress and using "I'm an alcoholic" as a license to keep hurting people. Progress is not about perfection. It is about doing what is right today and trusting that it is enough. Corey opens with the line he's heard misused in too many rooms — page 60's we claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection — and pushes back hard. Having a drinking problem doesn't give anyone a checkmark to harm others and shrug it off with "I'll make amends." He's not blaming anyone anymore. He's been the problem his whole life, and page 62's our troubles are basically of our own making is a lot simpler than making it everyone else's fault. His order of operations, straight from his sponsor: home first, occupation, then his affairs — and he doesn't get to treat the people closest to him badly because he has a spiritual malady, because he has steps to work through it. From there he builds a remarkable literature thread: page 86's nightly review and the warning not to drift into morbid reflection, Colossians 3:23 — whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord — page 75's fifth-step promise that the drink problem has disappeared, the 7th-step prayer and its "my Creator" because God is recreating his life, and page 62's truth that we can't reduce our self-centeredness on our own power — God does it. He traces "faith without works is dead" across pages 14, 76, and 88, and connects the spiritual experience of page 75 to the amends of page 79. Page 28 lands the close: what seemed at first a flimsy reed has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us — or if you prefer, a design for living that really works. I do not need to see the finished result. I need to trust the One who is shaping me. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | progress not perfection | spiritual malady | faith without works | the 7th step prayer | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

What you give up for the sake of others is never lost — it's an investment in something greater. Corey closes out the month on sacrifice, service, and what it means to be a small part of a great whole. What I give up for the sake of others often strengthens what matters most. Sacrifice is not lost. It is an investment in something greater. Corey opens with Big Book page 97 — helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery; a kindly act once in a while isn't enough, you have to act the good Samaritan every day if need be. Then the promises of Step 12, the version that doesn't sound like a promise at first: it may mean the loss of many nights' sleep, interruptions to your business, your phone jangling at any hour. His sponsor has done every bit of that for him — police courts, late-night calls — and now Corey's job is to do it for someone else. The way to thank him is to pass it on. From there he goes deep into the traditions — the benign dictator who has to start something, the elder statesman and the bleeding deacon, the group conscience that meets in the middle, and Tradition One in its long form: each member is but a small part of a great whole; our common welfare comes first. When he went back out for four years and came back, the group was still there, the same people still in the room. The realization that dawns: he's just a small part of something with a primary purpose — carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers. He ties it home through the book study he and some friends started, now becoming a meeting, and the podcast itself — how Pastor Mike's invitation came right as he was first opening the Bible, and how this work has pushed him deeper into Scripture, and his son along with him. Page 46 lands the close: God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. Seeking looks different for everyone, but if it were him starting out, he'd start with prayer and meditation and go from there. The Father uses surrendered desires to build unity and lasting strength. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | sacrifice | service | the traditions | group conscience | small part of a great whole | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected]  Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

You don't have to force impact. A life lived well sends out its own ripples — the ones you'll never fully see. In this solo episode, Corey sits with the quiet, steady kind of influence that doesn't announce itself. Impact does not require force. Real change spreads naturally through a life that is lived well. Corey opens by appreciating the show's own metaphor — the stone that hits the water and makes ripples — and 1 Thessalonians 4:11: make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your hands. He remembers his old friend Doug, who taught him to help someone and not tell anybody about it — to keep his own glass full — and a friend in the recovery field 25 years deep who wants to quit some days, until someone stops him in the Kroger to tell him what he meant to them. The God shots that put him back in the work. Big Book page 130 anchors it: heads in the clouds with God, but feet firmly planted on earth — because that's where our fellow travelers are, and that's where the work must be done. Corey gets honest about the warning a friend gave him once: you sound like you're talking from a place of spiritual arrogance. He never wants to be that. At the end of the day, he's just a drunk trying to stay sober and lead a good life. The teaching high point: page 84's six instructions for when selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear crop up — watch, ask God at once to remove them, discuss them immediately, make amends quickly, turn to someone we can help, and the sixth he'd never connected before, because the paragraph starts with and — we have ceased fighting anything or anyone. Not a promise. An instruction. He closes on his sponsor's Sunday dinners — taken in when he and his significant other might as well have been homeless, shown how to eat like humans, how to pray — and the chance to be that example for someone else now. Consistency speaks louder than words. The Father creates a ripple effect through simple faithfulness. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | quiet influence | leading by example | God shots | page 84 | love and tolerance | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected]  Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Small things, done consistently, become the whole thing. In this solo episode, Corey walks through what daily faithfulness actually looks like — and why he's a little scared of who he'd be without it. Lasting impact is built through persistence. What begins small can grow into something powerful when it is carried forward with determination. Corey opens with his morning: out of bed onto his knees, a prayer before anything else, coffee on a timer, readings and writing, a prayer book of people he prays for, and the Litany of Humility his sponsor gave him a couple weeks back. Then Big Book pages 85–88 — the promises of the daily practice, the warning that it's easy to let up and rest on our laurels, and the line he keeps coming back to: what we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Fit spiritual condition, he says — and how do you get fit? You work out. You condition. Every day. He's honest about the cost of being the guy who studies the literature this hard — a woman once cussed him out in a business meeting and called him a nerd — and weaves in a thoughtful, real-time reckoning with anonymity and not over-representing the program. Galatians 6:9 anchors it: let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Page 100's both you and the new man must walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress — it was never one through eleven alone; it's you and someone else, every day. The promise on page 100 lands the close: when we look back, the things that came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned. Consistency over time creates results that cannot be rushed. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | persistence | daily practice | morning routine | spiritual condition | daily reprieve | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Doing the right thing used to feel like resistance. Then, slowly, it became something Corey actually wanted. In this solo episode, he walks the Big Book to show how that shift happens — and why it was never something he could force on his own. Lasting change happens when doing what is right becomes something I want, not something I resist. Corey opens with the set-aside prayer and a reminder that he's no one special — just a normal guy and an alcoholic who happens to love how the literature connects to his life. From there he builds the framework that anchors the whole episode: Big Book page 25, where deep and effective spiritual experiences revolutionize the whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe — mental, physical, and spiritual, the three sides of the disease. Page 64's spiritual malady, page 62's hard truth that his troubles are basically of his own making, and the self-will run riot he couldn't even see while he was in it. The turn comes where it always does for Corey: page 62 again — neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help. He can't do it alone. He's tried and tried and tried to be a better Corey, and it never held. But page 63's new employer changes the math: God as director, principal, Father — the keystone of the arch through which a man walks free. And the promise that follows — new power flowing in, peace of mind, the loss of fear — because it was never about being a better Corey. It was about getting out of the way and letting the Father's grace change not just his actions, but his heart. He closes with a teaser: next time, willingness — because he'd argue it has to come first. Over time, obedience becomes willingness, and willingness becomes joy. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | self-will | spiritual malady | the arch we walked through | God's help | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — contact us at [email protected]  Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

The harder you chase it, the further it slips away. What you build slowly grows stronger over time. Pastor Mike and Jason close out their week together on patience, process, and what it actually takes to get this right. In this episode, Jason names the difference between his three attempts head-on: the first two times he was part of the fellowship of the program, not the program of the program — hearing it go in one ear and out the other, never getting a sponsor, never working the steps. This time he did something different. A month-long treatment instead of a quick detox, and the day he got back, he raised his hand and asked for a sponsor. Bill F. — who wasn't even supposed to be at that group — walked over, told him where to be and when, and that was it. Now he's through his fifth, sixth, and seventh steps, working his eighth, chairing meetings, and about to sponsor someone himself. Mike brings the "you can't BS a BSer" truth — how the rooms spot someone working the program for the wrong reasons a mile away — and contrasts it with the newcomer who said the five words that change everything: I want what you have. He tells his own two-Starbucks story: skipping meetings to smoke cigars, only for God to put a recovering alcoholic at the first patio and his future sponsor, Steve Davis, rumbling up on a motorcycle from an AA meeting at the second. A God grab, not just a God wink. The close is the question for everyone listening, in recovery or in the pew: are you living your life in such a way that people want what you have? What is built slowly and rightly grows stronger over time. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | patience | spiritual growth | working the steps | I want what you have | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Grace is free, but it isn't passive. Pastor Mike and Jason dig into the difference between receiving forgiveness and actually walking it out — and why transformation was always meant to be a partnership. In this episode, Mike draws the Methodist understanding of faith as walking hand in hand with God: we're saved by grace through faith, not by works — but right after that, Scripture says we're created to do good works. Not to earn anything. As a response of gratitude for what we've been rescued from. That's why he works with newcomers — not out of obligation, but out of gratitude. Jason brings his sponsor's teaching that lands the whole theme: the second you tell someone about the good you did, it stops counting, because now it's about you. It's the things you do when no one's watching. He takes aim at performative charity — the guys recording themselves handing food to the homeless — and Mike adds the careful nuance: sharing your experience to encourage another person in recovery isn't bragging; it's testimony. The line is whether it's about look at me or look at God. Then the heart of it — Jason's road back to church. More than 20 years adamantly against organized religion after a Southern Baptist church refused to marry him and his wife, and how AA and his relationship with his higher power opened the pathway back, not just to God, but to Jesus Christ. Stronger faith in the rooms, both of them agree, than they often see in the pews. Simple things to do — but that doesn't make them easy. Forgiveness is not passive. It is received and lived. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | grace and works | living your faith | testimony | back to church | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

You don't have to have it all figured out to begin. You just have to be willing to learn — and to stop pretending you already know. In this episode, Pastor Mike and Jason dig into the humility that recovery and faith both require. Jason reflects on watching guys with 20 and 30 years in the rooms while he's working on his first — and how that gives him hope rather than discouragement. He gets honest about why this attempt has stuck when the first two didn't: this time he got a sponsor, and he's actually working the program instead of just paying it lip service and showing up for meetings. Mike brings the recovery truth that we stop maturing emotionally the moment we start drinking heavily — coming into the program at 36 with an 18-year-old's view of the world, and the lifelong catching-up that follows. But Jesus affirms that posture in Matthew 18: unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Not immaturity — humility. The willingness to be taught. Jason shares the God-winks he notices now that sobriety has cleared the clutter, and how he finally learned what a relationship with the God of his understanding actually feels like, after years of paying it lip service. Faith the size of a mustard seed, Mike reminds him — that's all it takes to move mountains. Progress starts when I admit I still have much to learn. Growth begins with humility. I only need a willingness to learn. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | humility | teachable heart | mustard seed faith | emotional sobriety | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Trust isn't blind, and it isn't naive. Pastor Mike welcomes first-time guest Jason to dig into what it means to trust wisely — and why your expectations of other people might be the problem. In this episode, Jason joins for the start of a multi-day run, and the two land immediately on a recovery truth: expectations are premeditated resentments. Mike owns how easily setting a heavy expectation on someone becomes an attempt to control the people he loves — and how love and control don't belong in the same sentence. Jason gets honest about his own double-edged struggle: not just placing expectations on everyone, but having a very low tolerance for other people being human, something he fights daily, 200 days into the farthest he's ever made it. They weave it through the program — pause when agitated, progress not perfection, one day at a time — and Jason shares trusting his higher power through his son Jake's job loss in Montana, only to watch a better one open two days later. Mike brings Big Book page 84 and the Step 10 watch-list: selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear — the things that creep in the moment he stops trusting God and starts relying on his own power. Page 63's third-step prayer lands the close: God, I offer myself to Thee, to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. When I'm trying to control outcomes, I'm forgetting that God is God and I am not. Trust is not blind. When I see clearly, I can trust wisely. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | trust | expectations and resentment | letting go of control | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Surrender sounds like giving up. It's actually where freedom begins. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis close out their week together on the truth that ties the whole run together. Corey grounds surrender in Big Book page 164 — abandon yourself to God as you understand God — and the relief of finally admitting the problem was never everybody else. It was him. And that's good news, because a problem of his own making is one he can actually do something about. Mike draws the line between acceptance and resignation. Resignation gives up and goes negative. Acceptance relinquishes control while staying engaged — choosing to be a peacemaker instead of a get-my-way maker. He opens up about the breakdown last fall, when fear over family relationships pushed him to the edge, and how God met him there and showed him he was trying to control what was never his to control. The fear isn't gone, but it no longer runs him. Memphis lands the heart of it with the most honest surrender story of the run: whether his partner comes home at night or not, he's learned his role was never to control the outcome. His job is to love well, do what God would have him do, and leave the rest to God. I surrendered the role that was never mine to play. That, he says, is how you become free. Page 103 seals it — we had to stop fighting anybody or anything. When we cease fighting, the freedom comes. Acceptance is not giving up. It is choosing peace over constant struggle. Freedom begins where control ends. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | surrender | acceptance | letting go | serenity prayer | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

June 21 - Choosing Faith Over Fear Faith isn't the absence of fear — it's the decision to trust God in the middle of it. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis work through what that choice actually looks like in the moment. Corey opens with a friendly disagreement — 12&12 page 34: faith, to be sure, is necessary, but faith alone can avail nothing. When fear hits, he doesn't just believe his way out; he acts. Page 84: we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. After a blow-up at home, instead of reacting, he walked out front and called a guy who was struggling — not to unload his own problem, but to help — and the fear lost its grip. Mike adds the missing context to the entry's "choice made in the moment" line: today he can choose faith in the moment, but he couldn't early in recovery, before he had the spiritual toolkit. He brings the storm in Mark 4 — Jesus asleep in the stern while the disciples panic with God literally in the boat — and the grace that comes from realizing fear is part of the human condition, but God is with us even when He seems to be sleeping. Memphis lands the heart of it: the pause button. Not just for anger — for everything, because God has to be part of all of it. The voice was always there. He just wasn't quiet enough to hear it. Corey closes with his breath prayer and page 85's promise that we become God-conscious and develop this vital sixth sense. Step 11 seals it — prayer and meditation, not, as Mike's addled brain first read it, prayer and medication. Trust is not the absence of fear. It's the decision to rely on God in the midst of it. Fear may always visit, but it does not have to take over. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | faith over fear | conscious contact | prayer and meditation | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com  — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Courage was never the absence of fear. It's what you do in spite of it. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis dig into where real courage actually comes from — and it isn't from you. Memphis grounds it: for most of his life, trained in the Marine Corps, he thought he didn't fear anything — until he realized that what he'd called courage was actually fear directing him to overreact and overcompensate. Real courage came later, built through little wins and a developing trust in the God of his understanding. Today he can feel the fear come over him and still trust the outcome, because he trusts the guidance. Mike brings As Bill Sees It page 61 — the two-part problem of fear: attain all the freedom from it you can, then find the courage and grace to deal with whatever remains. He owns his own version of false courage — the puffer fish, all hot air, combating fear with his tongue. Corey takes it deepest: the 12&12's chief activator of our defects is self-centered fear, and his honest account of how he used AA as an institution that got him only so far, until he had to go further — into prayer, meditation, and a real relationship with a Higher Power. Page 63's new employer, who provides what we need if we keep close. And page 46's God who does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. Mike lands it: when I'm crippled by fear, nine times out of ten it's because in that moment I'm not trusting the God who loves me and is with me. I have courage today not because of me, but because of Him. Fear may not fully disappear, but it does not have to control me. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | courage over fear | facing fear | trusting God | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

The word "surrender" sounds like losing. In recovery, it's the doorway to everything. Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis unpack the paradox at the heart of the whole program. Mike opens with a confession his wife would appreciate — how he came into their marriage determined never to be controlled, and had to relearn, all over again, the surrender that recovery had already taught him. Memphis shares what may be the most impactful moment of his recovery: years of saying the words and doing the actions without ever truly surrendering, until he reached the point where there was nothing left he could do, and finally asked God to show him how to love without getting his way. As a Marine, he'd been trained to never surrender — but this was a different kind. Surrender to God's will. And it changed not just one relationship, but all of them. Corey walks the Big Book's approach to a newcomer — page 96, page 64, page 75 — building an arch through which a man walks free, and the cornerstone and keystone of steps two and three. 12&12 page 21 anchors it: only through utter defeat are we able to take the first steps toward liberation. Mike closes on the hardest line in the practical ripple — today I will be honest about where I need help — and turns the question on his co-hosts. Surrender is not defeat. It's the foundation that carries you. What feels like defeat can become the beginning of strength. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | surrender | letting go | strength through weakness | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Free from what — or free to what? Pastor Mike, Corey, and guest Memphis dig into the difference, and why real freedom was never meant to leave you on your own. In this episode, Corey and Mike discover they'd independently prepared the exact same grounding verse — Galatians 5:13: you were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another in love. Memphis grounds it with a story: a friend's significant other ran out of gas, and the pure joy of being free to just get up and go help — no sobering-up period, no waiting — and realizing how much active addiction had quietly stolen that ability. They weave the Big Book through it: page 26's free man who can go anywhere other free men go, page 151's subjects of King Alcohol who withdrew from life itself, and page 77's real purpose — to be of service to God and the people about us. Corey takes it to the wreckage that blocks conscious contact, and how getting honest and cleaning up the past is what clears the wires. Mike closes on the paradox of his own full schedule: more activity than ever, all of it pointed outward, and he's never felt more free. John 8:36 seals it — if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Freedom isn't the absence of control. It's the presence of purpose. True freedom does not isolate. It draws people together. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | freedom in recovery | service and connection | Galatians 5:13 | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

What you're searching for isn't as far away as you think. After a lifetime of chasing the next thing, Pastor Mike turns the search around — because the deepest truth was never out there. In this solo episode, Mike traces the endless outward search — the next job, the next achievement, the next bit of recognition, the next drink — and why none of it ever reached the place that was actually empty. He remembers John Kilzer, a mentor in faith and recovery, and the truth Kilzer carried: we're all born with a God-sized hole in our hearts, and we try to fill it with everything except God. Big Book page 55 anchors it: we found the Great Reality deep down within us...therefore, search diligently within yourself. A remarkable thing to find in a book about getting sober, when the whole world is screaming look out there. Jesus said the same in Luke 17 — the kingdom of God is not coming with things you can observe; it is within you. Near. Here. Already present. Psalm 46:10: be still and know. Not be busy and know. Not be productive and know. Be still. And the prophet Elijah, who found God not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire — but in the still, small voice. Mike closes with the night he first heard "follow me" — reading the Gospels in a house about to be foreclosed on, a year into sobriety, and the awe that set him on the road to ministry. The more he's quieted down, the closer God has gotten. Or maybe God was always that close, and he just finally got quiet enough to tell. Often, the deepest truth is found not outward, but within. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | stillness | meditation and prayer | God-sized hole | kingdom of God within | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Some of us walked in with our minds slammed shut, locked, bolted from the inside. Pastor Mike opens up about the angry atheist he used to be — and the one question from a coworker that cracked the door. In this solo episode, Mike traces how openness changed everything: the church that made the news for opening its doors to its Muslim neighbors, the place where an angry, locked-up atheist found his way in off the street, and the new appointment this July that shares a parking lot with a Jewish synagogue — and why his first goal is to go find the rabbi. He walks through the Wesleyan understanding of grace — prevenient, justifying, sanctifying — and how God's grace went before him, working through a coworker's question, long before he ever believed. The key guardrail: open-minded doesn't mean your brain falls out. Openness isn't abandoning truth — it's leaving room to learn and grow. As Bill Sees It calls the realm of the spirit broad and roomy, never exclusive. Romans 15:7 lands it — accept one another, just as Christ accepted you. And Christ accepted Mike when he was still arguing with everybody. The acceptance came first. The most closed-off version of me was also the loneliest. The more open my heart, the more connected I've become. Growth requires openness. When I remain open, new understanding becomes possible. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | open-mindedness | atheist to faith | prevenient grace | Methodist recovery | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Faith isn't static. The faith you have today shouldn't be the faith you had when you walked in the door — and if it is, something's gone untended. In this episode, Pastor Mike and Corey explore how faith starts as small as a mustard seed and grows through experience, trust, and willingness. Mike shares how 13-plus years of relying on his higher power has changed his faith into something stronger, and why what you get out of it is tied to what you put into it. Corey takes it to the rawest place yet — sitting alone in a cell with nothing but the information already inside him, realizing that seeking is a constant hunger he hopes never goes away. They land on Mark 9 and one of the most honest prayers in scripture: I believe — help my unbelief. Mike reflects on being taught not to question God growing up, and how admitting doubt is actually where faith starts to grow. Psalm 34:18 anchors it: the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. And the Big Book reminder that God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. Progress begins with simple trust before deeper conviction develops. You don't have to understand it all to take the next step. Faith does not often arrive fully formed, but grows through experience, trust, and openness. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | growing in faith | mustard seed faith | doubt and belief | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

June 14 - Steady in the Storm Anybody can stay calm when life is easy. The real test is what you do when everything goes sideways at once — and whether the tools you've learned actually hold. In this episode, Corey and Pastor Mike unpack how recovery becomes a design for living that works in rough going (Big Book p. 15). Corey shares the 12 spiritual principles of the steps he recites on his morning walks as a moving meditation, and Mike tells the story of an employee collapsing in his boardroom — and the difference between the person running down the hall in a panic and the person calling 911 and reaching for the AED. Same crisis. Different preparation. They dig into the AA triangle — recovery, unity, service — and the three-legged stool that keeps you steady, plus an honest look at what church gives you and the one piece it can miss: identifying alcoholism as an illness, not just a sin. John 16:33 lands the close: in this world you will have trouble, but take heart — I have overcome the world. Reacting out of faith instead of fear. That's the whole design. Strength is revealed not in calm moments, but in how I respond when everything feels uncertain. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | steady in the storm | emotional sobriety | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living | faith over fear | daily reflection Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

Saying sorry isn't the same as making amends. Real recovery is proven over time, not in a single conversation — and for many of us, "living amends" was just a way to avoid the harder work. In this episode, Pastor Mike and Corey get honest about Step 9 — the difference between a genuine living amends and using that phrase as an escape hatch from direct, face-to-face accountability. Corey breaks down his index card system for working through the amends list, why going to any length (Big Book p. 79) means exactly that, and how sponsoring others through the steps keeps revealing new cards to add to the pile. Mike brings in Matthew 5:21-24 — Jesus stopping a worship service cold to say: go fix the broken relationship first, then come back. And Big Book page 84 lands the close: we vigorously commence this way of living as we cleaned up the past. Trust is rebuilt through consistency. Not words. Not intentions. Actions, repeated, over time. Real amends are lived, not just spoken. Christian recovery | 12-step faith | sobriety devotional | making amends | Step 9 | daily reflection | addiction recovery | AA and faith | sober living Daily entries at dailyripples.com — [email protected] Daily Ripples connects recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day.

You don't call your sponsor looking for wisdom. You call looking for the secret manipulation code. At least that's what Corey was doing — and his sponsor sent him the St. Francis prayer instead. Today Corey goes solo for day two, and he gets into what real partnership actually costs: humility, honesty, and the willingness to stop playing every scenario out in your head and just be present for the person in front of you. He shares a hospital waiting room story that perfectly captures the gap between self-obsession and actual presence. And he closes with something quietly honest — if this podcast has helped anybody out there, it's helped him more than he can explain. That right there is the whole design. The stone for today: Healthy relationships require humility, honesty, and trust. When I insist on control or self-protection, real partnership becomes difficult. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

It's easy to be spiritual in public. The hard part is being that person at home, where nobody's watching and the yard needs cutting. Today Corey goes solo while Pastor Mike is out, and he gets quiet and honest about where the real work happens — not in the meeting rooms, not in the public spaces, but in the kitchen, with the dishes, with your son talking about chores, with your significant other seeing right through you. Corey shares the story of coming home one Sunday after three meetings in a row to find an empty house — all the furniture gone — and what that moment taught him about where his faith was actually supposed to show up. Page 164 puts it plainly: the answers will come if your own house is in order. He's still working on it. That's the point. The stone for today: A meaningful spiritual life shows up where I live. It is not proven in public spaces alone, but in how I treat those closest to me. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com  — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected] . Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Impatience narrows everything. The road you can see, the options you can imagine, the grace you can extend — all of it shrinks the moment frustration takes over. Today Corey and Pastor Mike dig into what it actually looks like to pause before reacting, and Corey walks through pages 84 through 87 of the Big Book like a road map — watch, ask, discuss, make amends, turn your thoughts to someone you can help. When he's actually doing it, he says, the whole day feels like one long prayer. He's not doing it 50% of the time. Probably less. Mike ties it to Isaiah 55 — God's ways are higher than yours — and lands on something worth sitting with: every time you see a person in the rooms with compassion instead of irritation, you're already seeing through God's lens. Also: Corey's definition of what a real man looked like when he was a kid involves fireworks, a lawnmower, and a man named Mr. Michael who knew how to break into a house. Growth is real. The stone for today: Impatience narrows my vision. When I react quickly, I often miss the bigger picture and lose control of my response. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

Happy birthday, Mom. Today Pastor Mike opens by dedicating the episode to his mother — and it turns out the ripple couldn't be more fitting for the occasion. Living this day. Not yesterday, not tomorrow — today. Mike gets personal about the early days of recovery: double housing payments, a divorce, bankruptcy proceedings, and people in the rooms telling him to just take it one day at a time. Which, he admits, was extremely unhelpful at the time. But the manna principle from Exodus 16 kept coming back — gather enough for today. That's it. That's the assignment. Corey lands it with a line from page 16 of the Big Book about utopia — because it turns out heaven on earth and the fourth dimension of existence look a lot like a Tuesday night kitchen table conversation that somehow reaches people you never expected. That's the ripple. The stone for today: Peace is found in the present. When I focus too far ahead or dwell too long behind, I lose the clarity and strength available today. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.

One hundred episodes. One day at a time, one ripple at a time — Pastor Mike and Corey made it to 100, and they're not taking a day off. Today's devotional is about openness to change, and it couldn't land on a more fitting day. Corey reframes the ripple in a way that sticks: it's not just about what needs to change — it's about what needs to be unblocked. Because if something stands between you and another person, it stands between you and God too. Mike ties it to Isaiah 43 — see, I am doing a new thing — and to the simple, revolutionary idea that if you keep your attention fixed on the spiritual and just do what needs to be done in the ordinary way, you'll be amazed at the pace at which your soul has moved. And after the prayer, hear from the friends who've been part of the journey — Paris, Larry C, Steffani, Larry F, and Cristi — sharing what 100 episodes of Daily Ripples has meant to them. This one's worth staying until the end. The stone for today: Change begins with honesty and grows through willingness. I cannot move forward while holding tightly to what no longer works. Read today's full Daily Ripple at www.dailyripples.com — and we'd love to hear from you. Reach out any time at [email protected]. Daily Ripples is a daily devotional reflection connecting recovery principles with the life of faith. New episodes every day at dailyripples.com.