The Daily Ripples Podcast

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 fav...

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 f...

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 h...

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...

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 h...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 experien...

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 hear...

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 r...

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...

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 m...

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,...

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...

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 — h...

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 cre...

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 hones...

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 s...

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 pro...

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 wa...

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 overcompensa...

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 sh...

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...

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. H...