Pastor Mike flies solo on Sunday and opens with a confession: for much of his life he was certain he already knew enough, and humility came to him through humiliation. He traces it back to his first drink as a college freshman, a fifth of Jack Daniels finished in one night in a dorm room, which felt like relief after growing up believing in a God waiting to punish the smallest offense. He decided what he'd been taught was an elaborate hoax and ran on his own answers until they ran out. Page 58's easier, softer way, and the old ideas that got him nowhere until he let go absolutely, set up the order in Proverbs 11:2, where pride comes first, then disgrace, and wisdom lives with the humble. Psalm 119:71 in the NRSV, "It is good for me that I was humbled," names that road in a single line. He learned to listen the hard way, first through corporate active-listening trainings and then by weighing side by side what listening and refusing to listen had cost him. Page 62 carries it further: the hurts he blamed on others traced back to decisions based on self, and the fourth column of the inventory asks him to look resolutely at his own part.

The back half moves through Proverbs 12:15, Proverbs 18:13, and James 1:19, and he points out that the order matters: listen first, speak second, and be slowest to anger, since his own anger shows up most when he feels unheard. Listening to understand has replaced listening to react, which lets him offer a response where he used to hand out a reaction, and it changed how he prays too, since his early prayers were shouted at God with no pause to hear anything back. Discernment, as he uses the word, means hearing what sits under the words, and Hebrews 5:14 and pages 86 and 87 describe it as a skill trained by use, where the hunch becomes a working part of the mind. Page 87's advice to be quick to see where religious people are right, and Proverbs 16:2's reminder that motives are weighed by the Lord, lead into his challenge for the week: listen to a friend only to understand, say it back until you get it right, then ask what that person taught you.

The stone for today: A teachable heart opens the door to the life God desires for me.

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Willing to learn | a teachable heart | humility and humiliation | Christian recovery | 12-step faith | active listening | quick to listen slow to speak | 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.