Unshackled Echo ~ June 29, 2019 ~ At The Start Of The Rope

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go.

– Abraham Lincoln

I love this quote. It's a great reminder of the need to go to God, as well as being an encouragement when I think of leaders crying out to God for help and guidance. I have no doubt that the best way to be an effective leader is to be an effective follower of God. But when I read or hear this quote, I am also reminded of all the times I kept going my own way and kept trying to do things on my own until victory became impossible. Then, seeing I had no other hope, I would turn to God for help.

Life is so much better, there is so much more victory and security and contentment, when we hit our knees before we are driven there. We can remember that His way is always the best way, the only way to true victory and success. We do not have to try any other way first. The experience and failure of the past can be enough for us to know that there is absolutely no other place to go, no other way that works. We don't have to end at that place of broken reliance on God. We can start there.

Today, let us look first to God for guidance and direction. Let us not wait for our life to move into critical condition before turning it and the situation over to Him and asking for His help. He is as much a present source of help as the problem approaches as He is when we are at the end of our ropes.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 29, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 28, 20199 ~ One More Load

There is no one giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps.

– Peter A. Cohen

This is one of those great quotes that is easy to find throughout the internet. I do not know the original purpose or context of the quote, so I can not say if Mr. Cohen was right or wrong about what he was referring to, but as this one statement stands alone there is a lot of truth here. Of course there are exceptions and the metaphor doesn't always ring true, e.g. if I'm trying to cross a ditch full of water and keep my feet dry, a giant step across works a lot better than any number of little steps. But that is the kind of thing someone wanting to avoid the truth of what the statement is trying to convey would bring up to distract themselves. I know, because I just did it.

The thing is that all too often in life we want to take that giant step when it's not appropriate. I wanted the stability and the comfort and freedom of six years experience of sobriety at about 6 months clean, probably less. I want the steady assurance, peaceful harbor quality of faith my father has after four decades plus of walking with God and living in ministry and service now. I want the spiritual aroma of the person who spent a life time in fervent faithful prayer to be mine after five minutes in my prayer closet. I want the freedom from bad habits that I spent a lifetime to cultivate to be gone with one decision to mentally pull the weed from the garden of my heart.

It's not a bad thing to want those kind of things, to have goals and to desire to live better today than we did yesterday, and better tomorrow than we do today. But when we get so caught up in the finish line that we can't run the race, we have created a problem for ourselves. A marathon of 26 miles can not be run in a single step. It's just not possible.  It doesn't matter if you're as slow a turtle or as fast as Quicksilver or Flash, the slow and the speedster still take step after step to cover the distance. But we all too often want what we want and want it now to the extent that if we can't do it immediately we won't bother to try at all. If I can't do it right, why do it? But sometimes being able to do it right or near perfect only comes after years of practice and many times of doing it not so right.

Sometimes if we keep our eye on the finish line it can inspire us and remind us of why we are running. But  other times, the great distance between where we are and where we want to be can overwhelm and discourage. The mountain is too high, the job is too big. At those times, it is best to remember that it is the little things, the repeated continuous progress that completes the journey and not the instant fix. When I turn on the water full blast, the container is filled quickly, but unless I reduce the flow at some point it will never be full. The water pressure begins to push water back out faster than can be contained. When the flow is shut off, there is space left. But if the water is run slowly, I can fill the container to the rim.

I remember as a child helping my father haul hay. When it began to grow late and we, especially I, became weary and wanted to quit, Dad would never point out the hundreds of bales of hay remaining that had to be moved. He would tell me, one more load. We can do one more load. We would do the next load and only that load and then reevaluate. Then we could see that we had enough in us to do one more load, one more time. Repeated one load at a time, the point would come when one more load became the last load. Then exhausted but satisfied with a job well done, we'd head home to rest. We did it, not by trying to carry all of the hay at once, something we couldn't possibly do, but by loading one bale at a time and hauling one load after another.

Today when we become overwhelmed by the distance and what needs to be done, let us not look at our inability to take the giant step, but rather let us focus on the small step, the little piece we can do, the small progress that is the next step in a race well run and a job well done.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 25, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Curing The Guilty Conscience

We all experience guilt, and no matter what we do to try to clean the slate or distract ourselves from the mess, nothing we can do can purify our conscience. Dalyn Woodard continues the series, "Jesus Is Most Excellent: A Study Of Hebrews," with a look at the only way to clean our conscience. The message, "Curing The Guilty Conscience," is about an hour and 2 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 26, 2019. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen. Video below.

You can hear the first message in the Jesus Is Most Excellent: A Study Of Hebrews series, "It's All About Jesus," here, the second message, "A Most Excellent Word," here. The third message, "Jesus Is Enough," here. The fourth message, "More Excellent Than Angels," here. The fifth message, "Defeating The Dangerous Drift," here. The sixth message, "The Most Excellent Man," here. The seventh message, "The Most Excellent Help," here. The eighth message, "Consider Jesus," here. The ninth message, "Don't Lose Your Rest," here. The tenth message, "There Remains A Rest," here. The eleventh message, "Living And Active," here. The twelfth message, "Hang On And Come Close,"  here. The thirteenth message, "We Need A Mediator," here. The fourteenth message, "Wax Build Up," here. The fifteenth message, "Growing Up Is Not Optional," here. The sixteenth message, "Don't Get Burned," here. The seventeenth message, "Blessed Assurance," here. The eighteenth message, "A Sure And Steadfast Anchor," here. The nineteenth message, "Pointing To Greater," here. The twentieth message, "Access To Draw Near," here. The twenty-first message, "Saving To The Uttermost," here, and the twenty-second message, "A Better Way," here.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 25, 2019 ~ Our Algorithms Fail

Me and my OCD. That feels like it ought to be a Weird Al tune sung to Janice Joplin's Me And Bobby Mcgee. Maybe I should write it. I know at least half the song would be about how much I love Pandora Radio and the other half would be how much Pandora frustrates me and needs to stop being stupid. Actually I feel a little bad for the programmers at Pandora. The algorithm to help group music is genius and works well for the most part. But sometimes....

Why do I feel a little bad? Well, as my wife can testify, I totally obsess and get annoyingly compulsive about my music. My minor in college was in radio/tv, and my time working on radio stations back when the DJ actually picked and played the songs himself or herself meant that choosing music became an art form. Seriously, the flow of music matters. A good DJ could keep you going and a bad song choice could ruin the whole show. You had to figure out the best order to play the songs you chose, not just worry about what songs should or shouldn't be played. One station I worked at played three different genres of music. Morning and early afternoon meant jazz. Then came The Bridge. The Bridge was simply a four hour block of music designed to help take the listener from jazz to the hard alternative played in the evenings.  The Bridge was a tightrope. No one could define it well. But if you played pop or rock that was too hard too early it didn't work. It stuck out and felt jarring. The same song might work great an hour later though when a more mellow song had already lost its relevance. But at the same time the music needed to gradually build from mellow to hard, and that meant mixing the two. What made for a great mix? I couldn't tell you then, and I can't tell you now, but I sure knew when I or another DJ missed it. Oh man they shouldn't have played that song there!

Pandora suffers with this problem on a massive and much larger scale than any local DJ ever had to worry about. The algorithm uses factors to help pull in music that works and cull music that doesn't. The problem is that the longer the show lasts (the longer a station exists) the harder it is to find new music to play without getting away from the core qualities of the music used to create the station in the first place. It gets harder and harder to stay on format without playing the same songs over and over and over and over, and let's face it, most people who don't mind repetition aren't obsessing with Pandora. They're listening to Top 20 and Top 40 stations where if they heard part of a song they can keep listening and know with glee that they'll hear that same song in it's entirety in an hour or less. Ugh.

Part of the problem begins with dealing with...well, us, the users. You know the old adage, you can't please all the people all of the time? Of course we all realize that they can't make everyone happy, but we also all, in our selfishness, want them to make us happy regardless of everyone else. The idea is close to well you can't please everyone so you might as well just do it the way I prefer and let the others adjust, if we would get honest.

Take the Thumbs down factor for example. What does it mean or what should it mean? One group of users, this is the group that my wife belongs to, only thumbs down a song if they hate it. I mean hate it. I don't ever want to hear this stupid song ever again. EVER. So they give it the old gladiator death sign and move on to more acceptable music. A week or so later, they're listening to a different station and here comes that same stupid song, back from the dead. WHAT! How dare Pandora play that again! Doesn't my thumbs down mean anything!?! Stupid app!

Meanwhile on the other end of the spectrum are nuts like me who go look, I don't care if they all have long hair, but Kenny G and Stryper should never be on the same station. EVER. Period. Never. No, not even Honestly and Songbird together. No. Just don't Pandora. So when some mathematical formula from a computer program that can never understand the art of music makes a mistake like that, I use the thumbs down to fix it. No that doesn't go on this station. Wrong format. But that doesn't mean I never want to hear that song on the station it should be played on. So you have folks like me going, why did you quit playing Fade To Black on my guitar riff station just because I thumbs downed it when it came on my Punk Rock station?

So I feel bad for them. They're in a difficult spot. On the other hand sometimes I just want to scream at them for being inconsistent. Why is it, for example, that I can create a station of Christian country music, use five songs as seeds that are all gospel or similar themed like an old hymn or the secular but not song like The Bible And A Gun with all five artists being secular artists and get nothing on that station but Christian songs and music; no crying in your beer, no cheating, no lost my dog songs, just blessed assurance of the sweet by and by..and yet, at the same time, I can create a Christian Hair Band Station with Stryper, Guardian, White Cross, X-Sinner and other 80s and 90s Christian bands as seeds, and have to thumbs down multiple songs in a row as Pandora throws out some very unChristian music for me to listen to? I have secular stations. All my seeds on this station are Christians because this is NOT a secular station, thank you very much.

Or hey, not a single song seed on my classic station was released less than 30 years ago, so how about we don't start the session off with a song that came out last week? The point of all this rambling is that as good as it is, an algorithm can't always get it right. Not even with regular input to adjust by. And we can't please God or figure out the formula for righteousness either. We can't come up with a list of if a then b type inputs to always know what to do or what not to do to please God. We can not know what is always the next best thing because our understanding is flawed and limited. Yes, reading scripture increases understanding, but there are still times when for some reason it will make sense to us to do something that from God's perspective is as out of place as a Jeremy Camp song on a Country Station.

Yes, in a way there is a simple algorithm to walking with and pleasing God. Do things that bring you closer to Him and help others. Love God and love people. Don't do things that cause distance between us and Daddy, and don't do things that will cause distance between Him and others either. Other than that, play your song. But sometimes, on our own understanding and evaluation, we will still do things that only after they fail will  we understand didn't work. And sadly, in spiritual matters, that often means there is damage done to ourselves or others. Thank God for forgiveness.

But imagine if you will that Pandora was able to tailor individual algorithms to each user. Imagine it included the ability to explain each choice you make so that sometimes you could thumbs up a song in certain situations without O.K.ing all the time or say no to a song in such a way that they also know yes, this song might be good in another situation or station or no, never ever, this song sucks. They could do a much better job with making us happy right? If we could say, listen Pandora, I love Skillet and want to listen to them when I'm in a mood for alternative music but not when I want to listen to hair band stuff!

We have that option with Daddy because of the Holy Spirit. We can communicate with and hear from God on a moment by moment, situation by situation, song by song basis. Before we make a choice we can get input that says, no, not in this instance. I know you think this is a good idea, but it's really not. Or I know this doesn't make sense to you, but if you could see beyond the surface into that person's heart you would know that what I'm asking you to do will fit perfectly in the concert of their life and yours. If we just go through our days and lives with some religious formula of these things are good and these are bad and this is OK to do and this is not, we will get off format, sometimes badly. But it we stay in tune with the Spirit and let Him guide our choices and actions we will discover some beautiful and interesting music we would never had thought existed, while at the same time, never getting off track. Today, let us allow the Holy Spirit free reign over all the songs our life plays.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 25, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 24, 2019 ~ I Can Do All Things

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

- Philippians 4:13

This is another one of those verses that seems to be a favorite of many. It is seen on many T-shirts, bumper stickers and memes on social media. It's a great verse, and people like the inspirational aspect of it. But I can't help but wonder how often the depths of its true meaning go unplumbed and misunderstood.

There is a group of body building ministers called The Power Team that goes from venue to venue performing feats of strength and preaching the gospel. I've seen them, and they're pretty cool They use this verse a lot, or at least they did when I saw them, And the way they used it, before a man rips a thick telephone book in half or bends a bar of steel, is the way most seem to use it. I can overcome this obstacle. I can do this great thing above and beyond my own ability through the power of Christ.

While I have no problem with The Power Team or the inspirational use of this verse to challenge people to climb that mountain in their life, using this verse as an overcoming verse is too limiting. It is so much more than that, and when we understand it, Philippians 4:13 is a great source of hope and encouragement. The problem with seeing this as an inspirational overcoming verse is that when we look at it like that, and only like that, what happens when we don't overcome the obstacle, can't move the mountain, when that bar of steel doesn't bend and the door doesn't open? What happens when the healing doesn't come? When the circumstance isn't defeated?

Does it mean we don't have enough faith? Does it mean that the power of Christ is not working in us? Is it, even worse, an indication that we're not really a child of God when we don't overcome the way that we wanted? No. It doesn't mean any of that, because this verse is not about overcoming circumstances and situations at all. Being full of faith and understanding this promise does not always mean one can get up out of wheel chair and walk, or fix this or that problem, or find the energy to run another mile.

A better translation than do all things is endure all things. The literal translation is that I am staying strong in all, abiding and invigorated by the anointing of Christ.  It's not a promise that we can overcome but that we can stay strong and be invigorated. And in all things means all things, in the good but also in the bad. I can stay strong and endure when I don't overcome as well as when I do. When the drought lasts longer than is comfortable, the crops begin to fail and the door doesn't open. I can keep the faith when deliverance from the pit takes decades rather than days, as it did for Joseph. I can walk with God and trust Him when things are going good and when they are going bad, in sickness as well as in health, in abundance and in poverty, 

This verse is not about overcoming or meeting our desires for comfort. It's not about earthly need. Sorry, but Paul flat out states that very truth. We can't just pull out verse 13 and act like it's a guarantee of worldly victory. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written by the hand of a prisoner for goodness sake. Verse 13 should always be interpreted and utilized with verses 11 and 12, not separate from them. Even when they are not quoted, they need to be remembered. 11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

Suffering need does not mean that faith is lacking or that we aren't cared for by God.  We do not have to lose hope when the situation doesn't change and the problem doesn't go away. We can have hope, not despite Philippians 4:13 but rather because of what it promises. We can indeed be content and invigorated, even in the midst of struggle and lack because of the anointing of Christ who loves  and cares for us. 

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 24, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Some Things Happen Outside Of God's Will

Dalyn Woodard shares not everything that happens in life is God's will or part of His plan. God is in control and He is sovereign, but that doesn't mean that everything that happens is His will. God doesn't do evil or cause sin. Ever. The message, "Some Things Happen Outside Of God's Will," is about 55 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 23, 2019. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 21, 2019 ~ Those Pesky Little Weeds

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. 

- C.S. Lewis

I came across the above quote this morning, and it struck me as simple but profound. It's far too easy to believe that some things we allow aren't that bad or that we have them under control and thereby excuse ourselves from having to deal with something that we truly have little or no control over or ability to stop on our own. Those little weeds that we can pretend don't detract from the garden because it's just too much effort to get down to pulling them, or they do have little flowers on them, so they're not too bad and kind of enjoyable. But if we get down to saying truly that we want nothing in our garden outside of what God has planted and try to stop or limit even those not so bad sins we see how really difficult it is to resist those actions and reactions that we have been allowing. That's when we get a clear picture of how much we truly need grace to have any hope of being able to walk with God. It's not in letting the little things go that we find the power and meaning of grace, but in trying and failing to remove every tare from the field.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 21, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 20, 2019 ~ Waiting Isn't A Game

But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

- Isaiah 40:31

Chances are this is a familiar scripture. This is one of those popular verses that gets plastered on billboards, turned into T-shirts, passed out on bookmarks and seen on bumper stickers and church signs. It's the kind of verse that is used to try to encourage someone who is weary and tired of the fight, and yet, when someone tries to use it on us we may feel like it's just an empty platitude without giving much, if any, real help. Why? Why do we sometimes feel like a scripture from the Word which is truth promising the ability to go through with endurance, not being overcome with weariness or fainting, feel like little to no help? It must be more than just because it's been overused.

I don't think that this verse has lost impact due to overuse as much as due to our misunderstanding of that first part....the waiting part. Let's be honest here, most of us aren't good at waiting, don't like to wait, and if we're really honest don't usually feel like we should have to. I want what I want, and I want it now. What's the use in even having a God if He won't help me when and how I want Him to?

Our attitude on waiting on the Lord shows both misunderstanding and our tendency towards self. We may picture something like someone lost in the wilderness or stuck on the side of a mountain or on a roof amidst rising floodwaters waiting on rescue, vaguely hoping someone shows up before they die. Or, if we can grasp the Daddy aspect of God a little better than some vague rescuer, we may imagine something more like an older child who has been left at school or who is at a mall waiting for a ride. They know Mom or Dad loves them and hasn't forgotten them, but sheesh, when are they going to get here? They've been waiting forever, and they have homework to do and XBox to play, and can't the parents understand that they are bored and uncomfortable and this sitting around waiting for a ride is interfering with their life? They dream of the day when they get their license and a car so that they are no longer dependent on Mom and or Dad.

And if any of that is anything like what we imagine when we hear or read wait on the Lord, we've missed it. So all that comes after doesn't help much, since the rest of the verse is a result of the first part. I don't really like the whole Christian soldier metaphor that gets used, but in this case it is more accurate than what is usually conjured up by the idea of waiting. There are a couple of different ways of imagining a soldier rather than a child or average person in need of rescue and they each accurately represent the concept of waiting on the Lord as is intended by the verse. Before I go on, let me say that wait may have been a great word choice at one time, but it's not really anymore, now that we have turned waiting into something negative and to be avoided. They that wait on the Lord is more accurately translated as Those who are expectant of the Lord.

Imagine the soldier stuck in the foxhole, trying to hold the line, outnumbered and low on resources. If something doesn't happen soon, all will be lost. One soldier turns to the rest and makes an impassioned speech, encouraging the rest not to give up. Reinforcements are coming. Our army is more powerful than theirs. When help arrives they will not only hold the line but advance it. The enemy will be defeated, but until help gets here, and it will, they need to hold that line no matter what. The men find strength they thought they didn't have. There is a second wind as they muster up determination to not fail before the help they know is coming gets there. They become heroes who last longer than anyone would imagine possible because they expect it to matter later what they do now in the battle.

Add to that scene one soldier being sent for help because the radios aren't working. He becomes a runner. He fully expects that if he can reach his goal in time all will be saved because forces will be mounted to get to the battle. His expectancy of finding help for himself and his brothers gives him strength to go on. He runs beyond his strength and his endurance. He doesn't faint. He continues because it's not hopeless as long as he doesn't give up, but  he knows defeat is waiting if he quits.

We aren't waiting like we're sitting around hoping God might possibly come through for us in time. We are expectant that God is going to be victorious, and while the battle is already won, there is somehow still a part for us to play. If we tap into that expectancy, it gives us strength to continue the fight, to keep going. We find we are able to endure when before that expectancy there was nothing but weariness. We can run with some mysterious resource powering us, even though we don't have the energy on our own. We can stay diligent rather than fainting. We can even soar above the circumstances and see the battle from the higher view of God and see that despite how it may look from the foxhole, all is not lost.

Waiting isn't negative. It's eager, energizing expectation for God to be faithful to His word. And  in that there is strength to continue. It's not doing nothing or hesitating. It's continuing to do what we have been called to do, no matter what, until the expected help from God appears. When we are faced with impossible odds, discouraged and weary, let us not hesitate. Let us hurry up and wait upon the Lord. Hold the line!

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 20, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 19, 2019 ~ Self-Control Function Disabled

I had a rough night last night, in a different way than my usual rough nights of late. I got out of bed this morning asking for grace to help me bear the struggle within me with peace and joy and a Christ-like rejoicing for and with others. I felt like I was doing pretty good at first, and then I picked up my phone and saw something that reflexively I perceived as negative, and before I could even think pain and anger flooded over me. I fought to hold it together, to push the feelings away and not succumb to the emotional turmoil.

My wife could see that I was struggling, probably because I snapped at one of our puppies, really for no reason other than he was an easy and available target and got on my nerves. So ashamed that I hadn't been out of bed a half hour and already felt like an epic failure, I tried harder for self control. Then my loving wife, full of care and compassion and concern, asked what she could do to help me. I appreciate that, but in that instant I simply lashed out, yelling that she could basically do what I wished in my anger that I could do but knew that I couldn't and shouldn't. I wasn't yelling at her, and my anger was in no way directed towards her, but the hurt and anger flowed from me like venom. I felt so ashamed.

The truth is that I have no real desire for her to do what I suggested. Given time to stop and think I would rather sacrifice my feelings and comfort on the alter of loving another as God would. It's not worth the pain it would cause. I also realized where I made my mistake.

This morning I woke trying to breathe through the pain of an old and deep wound. In some ways much healing has been done, and I am healthier in this area than I have ever been. But in other ways, it gets harder and harder every year. I know that I can not exercise self control in the jaws of such an emotional trap. Like a wounded animal, the pain causes me to lash out, even at the very hands that are trying to comfort, help and free me. I should never have tried to control the swell of emotions within me, but at the very start taken my pain and fear to my Father who is able to provide the grace to do what I can not do, love in the face of pain. Only God can help me get my focus off myself and care for others when I am hurting.

I went to Him in prayer and found relief. My anger died. There is still a dull ache, and I feel I could burst into tears all too easily, but at the same time I can smile. There is a joy mixed in with the hurt and the loss that I mourn.   No matter how much we learn the truth of the necessity of walking by the power of grace to give control to the Spirit rather than our own old nature, there will be times when that reflex kicks in before we can check it.

It's OK. There is no condemnation. Ask forgiveness for falling into self and self pity. Make any amends your actions may call for quickly and without excuse. Pray for grace and go on in the power of God. His mercies are new every morning, and His grace is always sufficient if we seek it.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 19, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 17, 2019 ~ Don't Curse The Darkness

Have you ever been in a room so dark that you couldn't see anything at first, but after a few minutes what starts off as a faint glow seems to illuminate the entire room. The dot of light produced by a charging or power indicator on a phone, tablet or computer can drive some people crazy if they are trying to sleep. It seems like a little light house. Why do they make those tiny lights so bright? I turn my computer and tablet so that the lights are against the floor at night to keep from disturbing Leah. The phone goes face down.

But the thing is that those lights are barely visible in the light of day. They surely don't intrude upon the senses or force themselves on to our awareness. During the day, we have to look for the same light that we can't seem to escape in the dark.

This simple experience translates over from the physical realm to the spiritual and can give us a reason to be grateful for the darkness that surrounds us in the midst of bleak nights that may feel like they won't ever end. Oh those long nights are not fun. We cry for our Daddy and wonder why we don't see the approaching dawn. How many more hours or days or weeks will it be before the joy comes in the morning that follows the weeping that endures the night? But yes, even in those darkest moments of our lives there are things to be grateful for.

God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (I John 1:5). As crazy as it sounds to say it, although we are surrounded by light and it illuminates our life and makes all that we are doing possible, we take the daylight for granted. There may be a wow it's bright out there today, and then we put on our shades and go about our business. But when evening falls we become more conscious of the need for what we took for granted during the day. Headlights and interior lights are turned on. And when the power fails in the storm and we're sitting in the dark we pray for the tiniest light to help us make it. In those dark times of the soul, it is easier to ignore the distractions around us and see the light of the Truth in front of us. The tiniest glimpse of truth that might not show up in the day time if we're not paying enough attention or looking for it can be a beacon of hope and a refreshing of the soul during the night.

Don't curse the darkness. It makes it easier to see the Light.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 17, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Jesus Is Praying For You

Dalyn Woodard shares how we can not outsin God's grace and nothing we have done or that has been done to us is too horrible for Him to save us from and restore us is because Jesus lives to make intercession for us. The message, "Jesus Is Praying For You," is about 51 minutes long, and was recorded at Nacogdoches Christian Fellowship on June 16, 2019. It's our prayer that you are blessed and ministered to as you listen.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments and or listens to the messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions to more people by sharing the Moments and messages that you read or listen to? Hitting the share button instead of or in addition to the like button will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

If you would like to have notifications of new Unshackled Moments and messages sent to you via email, send an email to dalynwoodard@mail.com requesting to be added to the list. You can also follow Dalyn Woodard (@Dalynsmsings) on Twitter or Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Moments ~ June 15, 2019 ~ A Little Experience, Strength And Hope

At the start of the year I stopped writing new Unshackled Moments to concentrate on working on a book. Now, a little over half a year later, I've made some progress, although not nearly as much as I'd hoped to. Things have been slow going, especially since I've been struggling more and more. Yep, struggling, stumbling around in the dark and trying not to fall. I know a lot of folks would advise against me sharing that.

You see, there is a school of thought that preachers aren't supposed to reveal such things. Ministers should seem victorious and full of faith and on point every second of every day or it might discourage others or cause them to doubt. Or maybe it's just a fear thing. If I admit I'm still human and have struggles and fears and even, gasp, questions, what if people stop listening and stop trusting? Whatever. Crap like that is a lie from the devil and a reason why too many seemingly good ministers look great until they fall to the ground from 10, 000 feet without a parachute into shame and disgrace, and believe me, that does a lot more harm than admitting that putting Rev in front of your name doesn't make you any more like God than the next person.

The way I figure it, if David could cry out where are you God and how long are you going to let me deal with this? I can ask the same thing if I need to. If Elijah can admit he just wants to hide and die, so can I. Wow, drama much? It's not that bad. I just went there because this idea that ministers have to be less weak, less human somehow is deadly to the minister, the minister's family and the body of believers as a whole, not to mention the world. How many people see preachers as good to the point where they say, "I could never be that good"? Well here's the point, neither can I. OK?

No seriously, don't let the Rev. fool you. I'm not capable of being very good for very long. I used to could fake it for a while, but that's about it. I am a drunk and a dope fiend and a felon. I was the prodigal who didn't stick his face in the pig trough but dove right in and acted like it was a Jacuzzi. I couldn't, and still can't, make myself good any more than any of you can, and less than some.

Yesterday a woman I respect told a man who is seeking solution to a hopeless state of mind and body that I might could help and that I am a "good guy." It hit me like a wave. No, not pride, gratitude. This woman knows me. She knows me. The ugly me. I turned to the man and said, "and that is just one of the miracles of [the program of recovery and connection with God], that anyone who really knows me would ever be able to call me a good guy."

I'm not the man I used to be, but it's not by my might or power or figuring out how to finally be good, but by the Spirit of the living God. The same Daddy who has freed me from the obsession to drink and drug and made me a husband in more than name has also changed me, made me a better man and given me victory in so many more areas. But I am not special or terminally unique. Daddy loves you too and can do the same for you. And the flip side of not being special is that I still have struggles and difficulties.

For a while now the bondage I have been walking away from has been returning. Not the chemical issues. All is good on that front, but we don't fight a single, or even double, front war in life. No, the battle against fear and anger. Really, it's just fear. When I get scared, I get mad. My PTSD has gotten out of hand, and it is as much beyond my ability to control as any chemical addiction ever was, maybe more so. What's funny is that even with self examination, it's hard for me to see the slide until I'm drowning.

A few months ago, my pastor told me he'd noticed certain areas where I had stalled ministering. I had good excuses. Time. Need. Concentrating on other areas of ministry. All true. Just not the whole truth. For about a month I have been moving back into those areas, but things have continued to worsen. Yesterday, a little static shock had me ready to punch something, and after that fighting not to cry. It's stupid that I feel I should be able to control it and turn that off. I need to let God have the fear as much as He has the other issues. I also need to do the things the lead to freedom, which I haven't done, although I have begun.

I got, and am grateful for, a new mentor, since I have gone without for far too long. He asked me when I last journaled, a while. I told him I would start back. Last night I told my wife. She reminded me that while I always considered these Moments ministry, they were also therapeutic. I work things out through the writing, which I haven't done in over six months. I wonder if David did that too and that's why the Psalms are so good and start from despair and end at hope in God? Anyway, I humbly accept the wisdom and guidance of my new mentor and my wife and sat down to write this morning. The Moments probably won't be daily, and there will still be Echoes, but there will likely be some writing periodically. I do struggle. Writing about it helps me get to the place where I let go and let God, and I pray that it may help you as well, Dear Reader, as I admit and reveal the progresses and regresses of my journey and Daddy's love and faithfulness that you will see that there is hope for me, hope for you, hope for all of us in Him.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 14, 2019 ~ What God Really Wants

Sometimes it feels as though we are missing out. We are missing out on something great, on something important. It is as if we could only find this elusive missing piece all would be right with us and with the world. We are born having already lost that which is most important to us, and at first we don't even know what it is.

We spend the first part of our lives, times vary from individual to individual, searching for that lost treasure. I think that's why stories about lost and buried treasure and stories of seemingly ordinary girls being rescued by a prince so that they can live happily ever after are so popular among the young. We instinctively know that there is something more valuable than anything we have and anything that we can imagine out there somewhere, and we have lost the location. We also instinctively know the secret truth that it is a relationship more wonderful, special, and fulfilling than all other relationships. We're all waiting for our prince that can take us to treasure.

Then we grow up and decide that longing is foolishness, the innocence of youth. We can't help but subconsciously try to fill the hole that missing piece leaves in our lives though. There is a longing within us that aches to be filled, and we try so hard to fill it by any means, even if we don't realize we do it. We look for something to fill us in that one more drink, in the next high, in that one more bite of food that doesn't even taste good because we are physically full, in the next stolen glance and rush of attraction, in....well, in a thousand or more different ways, none of which work well or for long.

For some, unfortunately, this first phase lasts a lifetime. For all, no matter how quickly we find the piece, the search goes on too long. Because the truth is that the reason we feel lost from the start is that we were never meant to be born with that piece missing. That missing piece, the hole in our lives that we constantly feel the need to fill and can never be satisfied with life until we do, is the missing relationship with our Creator, with our Heavenly Daddy.

We can come to an understanding of this and still somehow miss the point. We realize we need God, and we begin to understand that He wants us. So, we ask, what does God want of me? What can I possibly offer Him? What does He want to use me to do and accomplish? What is His plan for me? And starting with those questions misses the awesome truth that we aren't the only ones who have lost something.

Yes, Adam and Eve chose unwisely and brought separation from God to themselves and all of us who came after them, creating the missing piece in our lives. We are born with an innate spiritual understanding that we are meant to have a deep, connected relationship with our Creator, but not understanding that truth physically and mentally. It's like feeling sick and not realizing at first it's not an illness but that we haven't eaten. When we discover what the need is and begin to pursue and form a relationship with our Daddy that longing begins to be satisfied. The need and craving for the other things that we mistakenly tried to fill ourselves with begins to fade.

But have you ever thought about the fact that as Adam and Eve lost the most important thing in life, God lost out as well? Life was never meant to be so hard. It was meant to be good. It started out good in the garden. Then came the devastating loss of the great treasure that is intimacy with our Creator. But God also lost. He lost the intimacy that He always intended to have with the people He created. Adam and Eve and God had something that has never been had since on this plane of existence, with the possible and probable exception of in the life of Jesus. There was intimacy and connection that we can only imagine and innately long for. There was open communication without barrier or confusion. They hung out together and had fellowship in the truest sense of the word. There were no missing pieces.

Since that level of relationship was lost, every person who has ever lived has been trying desperately to get it back or find a satisfying substitute, whether they realized it consciously or not. But God has also been trying to get it back from the start as well. He has understanding that we do not, so He never even thought about trying to find a substitute. Instead He made a plan, created a solution, to restore that which was lost. He made a treasure map that told the story of the coming Prince. Through Jesus the process of reclaiming what was lost in our lives and in the heart of Daddy began.

What does God want from you? He wants you. You. That's all. He wants the same thing that you innately desire; unhindered, deep, connected relationship. Yes, He wants to set us free, to heal us and to restore us, but the reason for that is because those things must take place in order for Him to have what He really wants, relationship with you and with me. Yes, He may have a job for you as well. You may have a calling and a purpose to help Him do that freeing, healing, and restoring in your life and the lives of others, but that is not why we were created. That calling is not the reason you were called.

The calling of God is not a job interview. It is not a sales pitch for some career or life path. It is not a call to serve in the army of God. It is the call to come home, to find the treasure, to marry the Prince, to be reunited in the relationship you were always meant to have. Nothing more or less. When we respond to the call of God with what job are you calling me to do? we break His heart. Yes, service is a part of the relationship, because when we fall in love with Jesus we begin to want what He wants. He wants relationship not just with me, and not just with you, but with every person alive. And He wants a better and deeper and less hindered relationship with each of us with whom the process of building that relationship has begun. When we understand that and desire that as well, we jump at the chance to serve, to be a part of the freeing, healing and restoring. And there is something each of us can do that no one else can do in quite the same way to help with that project. But that project is not the purpose. It is the means to fulfill the purpose.

The purpose is to have what was lost restored. The purpose is to locate and recover the treasure. The purpose is relationship. All God really wants from you and with you is relationship. He wants you.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 14, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 12, 2019 ~ He Knows

Yesterday evening I didn't feel good. I don't know how to explain it, but I just felt off. What I wanted more than anything was too feel better and to spend a little extra time with Leah. So I chose to stay inside and not go spend my usual 45 minutes to an hour before bed with God, my reading and my pipe. We stayed up a while talking and visiting and exploring some music we were unfamiliar with, and then went to sleep.

I slept for a short while, and then the nightmares started back up. They've been coming more frequently and gotten rougher lately, but last night is the worst it's been in years. Around 4 AM I actually woke up swinging, which is something that hasn't happened since the first year of my release from prison. I lay there praying and giving thanks that I had not struck my wife. I finally drifted off to sleep, but rest didn't happen. The bad dreams continued.

Exhausted and struggling to force myself from bed this morning, I moaned and complained to myself about the lack of rest. For a brief moment, I slipped into my old way of thinking. The thought popped into my mind that the horrible night of terror and restlessness occurred because I had skipped my evening time, that God had punished me for rejecting to spend that time with Him. Something within me rose up and said don't slip into self-pity, and don't allow your tiredness to make you vulnerable to such lies. I rejected the thought in the name of Jesus, and then something wonderful happened.

Peace came. I got the basis for what I am writing now. The Spirit reminded me of two things. God loves me deeply and completely. Also, God is not a petulant and vindictive jerk who responds to a slight, or a perceived slight, by getting even. There was no, I'll show him what happens for skipping his evening time. No. It wasn't the first time I stayed in with my wife, and it won't be the last. The off feeling I had most of the previous evening was likely a precursor to the rough night, a warning that I wasn't doing well. And while it may have been perhaps lessened by spending that time with God before sleeping, the distress was not punishment for failing to do so.

There is a huge difference gaining blessing and benefit that helps in times of trouble from spending time with God and  having times of trouble as punishment. We don't earn God's protection and peace any more than we earn His love or our redemption. He is not so needy that He will give us blessing in exchange for a little of our precious time and withhold it if we don't spend X amount of time with Him. He doesn't want a little of our time anyway. He wants all of us, totally and completely. He wants me to be as much His when I am with Leah as when I am alone with Him.

Sometimes when we walk outside the will of God He chastens and corrects us. It happens, and it happens because He loves us and doesn't want us to continue down a path that will lead to destruction in our lives. Sometimes when we slip back into self we do things that have negative consequences. They are not punishments but the natural results of cause and effect. These are real situations, but it doesn't mean that every time something negative happens we are either being chastened or getting what we deserve. There is such a thing as evil, and there is an enemy that resists the will and blessing of God in our lives.

If the first thing I do every morning is say I love you to my wife and the last thing I do every night is to tell her again, she might get a little concerned about what's going on if I skipped doing that. Am I sick? Did I stop loving her? But God knows our heart in a way that another human being can't, in a way that even we can't. He doesn't have to question meaning or motive or situation when we do something out of our normal routine. He knows the why of it better than even we do. He knows exactly how much  we love Him when we are on our knees proclaiming it, when we are saying a quick prayer in bed rather than a longer prayer in our evening chair and when we are totally absorbed in something else. Our words will never convince Him of love that isn't real and not saying them will never make Him doubt the truth of the love in our heart. He knows.

It is normal as we seek to improve our relationship with God and our spiritual condition to begin doing things that help with that. It is normal that as we grow more and more in our love for God we will spend time with Him. These things can become regularly scheduled events because we tend to do the things that we do every day on a sort of natural schedule. But there is no rule to it. We are not earning God's favor by adding Him to our schedule. Grace does not demand adhering to a rule, especially a rule we put in place ourselves. There is no doubt or question that the more time we regularly spend with Daddy the better our relationship with Him will be. It is also a wonderful and proven way to stay on track and in the will of God to start and end the day focusing on Him.

But if we muss one aspect of a daily routine with our Daddy let us not believe the lies of the enemy trying to hinder and hurt our relationship by saying that whatever bad happened later was Daddy slapping us. No. If we miss time with Him, His response is only to lovingly say He missed us too, take us in His arms and love on us. Also, for the record, I truly believe there are times that God fully agrees with chucking the schedule and the routine. He made the sun go backwards once, and that's pretty radically against the norm. I believe there are times when He agrees that we need to spend some time that we would normally spend with Him with our spouse or our parents or our children or a friend or maybe even with a stranger.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 12, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 11, 2019 ~ Alone

My wife and I watched the latest episode of the History Channel show Alone online last night. For those unfamiliar with the show, it's kind of like an acoustic Survivor in the genre of non-real reality TV. Why non-real? It is not scripted. In fact, there are no camera men. Ten people get dropped off alone, scattered around an island of the coast of Canada with a certain amount of equipment, no food and no water and no shelter. They have a device to call for help or to drop out of the show and some gear. Then they go about the business of filming themselves trying to make, find or imagine up the necessary things to survive out there in the wilderness. Last one to quit and run home to easy-order fast food and the connection with other people most of us crave even as we say we prefer to be alone wins a half a million bucks.

So why isn't this the only show out there that is actually real Reality TV? Because most of the reflection, vocal meditations, whining and preening for the camera that the contestants are involved in is not real. If you listen for half a second, you can't escape the manipulations and lies, and I can't help but wonder if they have told these lies so much that they actually believe themselves.  They choose when to turn the cameras on and off, although I am sure that it is in the contract that they must provide a certain amount of footage. That means that they are very aware of the camera being there and on, and that means that they are not alone. Not in the sense that they are acting as though they are alone and no one can see or hear them. Pretending to be alone so that people can watch what you do when you're alone when you are extremely aware of the world watching and listening is seriously not real.

There are some real moments, such as watching some person act tough and unafraid and brag about how they will handle or at least be OK with bears in their area only to later watch them tuck tail and call for the boat after their first encounter with one. But what really makes me ask are you even listening to the words that are coming out of your mouth? is when from day one you see the image being created, where the contestants (I use the plural here because most of them in the first two seasons have done this) begin building their way to fail and or quit and save face at the same time from the start, where the foundation for justification and excuse are created.  They all seem to be similar in scope. They are some variation on the I came out here to learn about myself, to gain some spiritual, emotional  and or psychological insight. I came out here to show my family I can do this or that and now that I have accomplished those goals and have done what I have set out to do I can quit with my head held high. I can do what I want and give up this fight and struggle because I don't have to make it to the end in order to do what I hoped to do excuse. I wasn't really here for anything other than what I have already done.

Now, not everyone is doing this, at least not obviously, but the majority are, and it makes me want to say to each of them that they are so obviously full of it. Listen, if all you're after is the challenge and the aloneness and the character/spiritual development of the situation, you could do that without the cameras, without the contest. Within an hour's drive of most large cities in this country, and pretty much all smaller cities and rural areas, are places where one can go camp out, and avoid other people almost entirely. You can go try to survive and live off the land in any number of state and national parks and wilderness areas. These people took part in this show for attention and a little "fame" and or in hopes of winning $500,000 for playing an adult version of last man standing. So stop pretending that less than two weeks into it you've accomplished some great spiritual or personal feat and can quit without failing or falling short. Stop pretending it doesn't matter that you are completely ignoring the fact that you can't possibly win if you give up.

Now, please don't get me wrong. I am not criticizing the contestants for doing anything that I don't believe we all do. In fact, I think most of us fail to be honest enough with ourselves and God to be real. Our lives are rarely real. Basically reality isn't real very often. We wear masks, we hide motives, we manipulate circumstances and situations to effect perceptions of who we are and our performance, and as we set out to change our lives, to accomplish some goal or another or to start or stop doing something we also begin laying the foundations of justification and excuses for when we eventually fail. No, we aren't real enough to consider our lives reality very often, not with ourselves, not with our God and not with others.

It's scary to be that real and honest, because when we are we see that we are not good enough to meet our own standards, we see that we do not have what it takes to run the race, to live and do rightly, and there is something within each of us that we are not proud of, that we are not happy with and that just isn't what we wish we were. That's the reality of life. We all have some inner drive to be and do things that we simply can not be or do.

Sometimes we give up and justify not trying anymore, because the struggle to do the impossible is just too difficult. We lower the standards we subconsciously know are the only measure of success. Or at least we try to lower them. But when we do, we are miserable, because deep inside we know that living righteously, with love, with purity in attitudes and motives, is the standard we are born to strive for. Sometimes we try to pretend that we are making a low A, when we know that the truth is that we are usually making a D+ at best. And sometimes, sometimes, we tap into the real solution to our reality problems.

There is a place where we can honestly get real with ourselves and God and acknowledge that the image of ourselves we wish we had and live up to is just not possible but that it comes from an inborn calling to be holy even as our Daddy in heaven is holy. There is no close enough. There is achieving righteousness and running the race to the finish line victorious in our walk with Him and then there is quitting, giving up, settling for less, failing and falling short. There is no middle ground. It's either  win or lose and trying to pretend that we aren't in the race to win it doesn't change the reality.

And in that reality, we are all, each and every one of us who ever lived or ever will live, losers. We are all pretenders in life. We are all trying to be and accomplish what we can not. And we are all going to find times when  we simply can not go on fighting to be what we hope to be, what we dream of being. We may try to hide our shame and embarrassment by claiming to ourselves that our goal was something different. We might try to lower the standard. We might try to convince God that our motives and drives are different than deep down we know that they are. But when we finally find moments in the dark where we are almost alone, and we take off the masks we hide behind from ourselves, we know the reality of being selfish and self-centered losers, seeking our own comfort and pleasure and acceptance and glory.

But the great news regarding the reality of life is that  Jesus came for losers. He loves losers like us. He says to each of us that we have the game goals wrong. The reason that we can never make it on our own, that we can never achieve what we feel like we were meant to in our own strength, ability and determination is that we were never meant to. The  game is rigged. Surviving on our own is not possible, nor was it ever part of what life was ever meant to be. Alone is not reality.

Alone is an illusion. The reality is that we are not alone. Ever. We were meant to go through the good times and the bad with our hand in our Daddy's hand getting help from Him to meet our each and every need. It is only in Him and through Him and by His grace that we have a chance of living a life based on honest reality, of seeing our shortcomings and still  being able to live up to  a humanly impossible standard. His grace makes it possible to change our heart and purify our motives and desires. He inspires the drive to run the race, and only He can help us run it well. We are never alone, and we were never supposed to be.

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 11, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.

Unshackled Echo ~ June 10, 2019 ~ The Invisible Gorilla And Other Blindness

Those who know me or are regular readers are aware of my vision problems. A couple of months ago my vision had become so bad that I could barely function at all, and had even begun asking Leah to drive me because driving was dangerous. It looked like I would end up legally blind before the year was up if something didn't change. Something changed.

I got into to see an eye surgeon, finally, who diagnosed the problem and began treatment. I see him again next week, but things are a lot better. I can read what I'm typing without the font having to be a quarter inch or more in size. I still can't see well enough to do the fine vision work of photography and photo editing, but I can see enough to look at Leah or watch a movie with her and actually see it, and I can see enough to read, which is most important as it's hard to minister without being able to study God's Word.

I'm not going blind. It's not only not growing worse, but it's gotten a little better. I am praying for continued improvement over the next few months, and then we'll evaluate if the time for surgery has come. This time being unable to see inspired a lot of thinking on the subject of blindness. For one thing, going blind was always one of my biggest fears, and now it is not. Don't get me wrong; I most certainly would prefer to be able to see, but I imagine there are worse things than not be able to see.

I remember a friend from my youth, a blind man, named Lamar. He was amazing. He smoked a pipe, and somehow managed to never have to rest it.The same pipe every day without it getting gross. He must've known a secret to daily cleaning that I have yet to figure out. He could also walk up to a truck with the engine running, diagnose the trouble with the motor by sound, reach in and make adjustments fixing it! Seriously, I can't fix an engine with both eyes wide open,and he is somehow not losing fingers messing with a running motor while not being able to see. We prayed for his healing, and it didn't come. One day he will close his eyes and open them on the other side of eternity to see the beautiful face of Jesus, but on this side of eternity he hasn't gotten that healing.

I don't think he's happy about that, and I don't blame him. I don't think I would be thrilled if I were him. But I also think that there are things that he can do as well or better than the sighted, and that is awesome for those of us watching who are not stuck in the dark. Sometimes we may find ourselves handicapped by circumstances or the past or perhaps even the obvious, by health.  Of course our preference would be complete healing and restoration, and it sucks when that doesn't happen. It sucks for us anyway. But seeing someone keep going, keep making it, and keep walking with God despite the thorn, instead of because the thorn has been removed, especially if they do it with joy and not bitterness, can be an amazing statement pointing the way to Daddy and His power, grace, and love. Sometimes when the healing doesn't come makes a stronger statement for God than healing. I don't know why, but it's true. Lamar's blindness and ability helped me see that.

There's another type of blindness that is selective and momentary. It's the Invisible Gorilla or selective attention. Basically, back in the 1990's a researcher had people watch a film of people playing with a basketball, passing it back and forth. He instructed them to count the number of passes. Half way through the event, a woman in a gorilla suit walked through the middle of the players. When asked how many people watching saw the gorilla, half hadn't! Now, if you look this up on YouTube, you'll see the gorilla. No matter how hard you count the passes, you are informed and aware that there will be a gorilla and are looking for it. But if you hadn't been told about it, only about half of the people reading this would notice the gorilla. It's because of selective attention, and it's the same principle that causes people to run over pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists in plain sight. They are so focused on looking out for other cars that they don't see what's right in front of them that doesn't fall within their search parameters.

We can become similarly blind spiritually. We become so focused on the things that have us worried or are going wrong or the problems that haven't been fixed, the things that haven't been restored, the negative, that we miss a big God walking through our midst, moving on our behalf and holding our life together even as we feel like we are coming apart.

There's another type of blindness that can effect us spiritually. It's the familiarity blind spot. I remember one day I was driving though an area that I traveled on a frequent and regular basis when suddenly a police officer drove up behind me with his lights flashing. I had run a stop sign, and he was already writing the ticket as I looked in surprise at the back of the new stop sign at an old intersection. It had been a stop only for the side streets and not the main road for as long as I knew. Now it was a four-way stop, and I had completely failed to see the change. This is similar to the selective attention problem of the invisible gorilla. Instead of focusing on one thing so much we miss the obvious other, we aren't focused too much but not enough. Going through the regular routines and places we miss the changes and the new. God can do something, open a door, and we walk right by cursing the hallway we can't get out of. We pray for help and fail to see it when it comes becomes it's outside of our routine that we don't break.

We can help overcome the contempt of the familiar and the selective focus through awareness and looking for God and what He's doing in our lives. We can make a conscious choice to examine or lives, our days and our routines for evidence of the hand of God. And even those situations where it's not psychologically spiritual but some handicap, we can escape discouragement and bitterness if the healing doesn't come by pursuing God and learning what we can do that will bring Him glory without that vision, or that arm, or that career or that......

Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on

June 10, 2016.

This site is free. If this blessed, helped and or informed you, the best thing you can do is pass it on via the social buttons below. And please subscribe or follow Unshackled Life Ministries on Facebook.

Unshackled Life Ministries is grateful for every person that reads the daily Unshackled Moments, the weekly Unshackled Echo and or listens to the Audio Messages. I want to thank those who have clicked "like" on something that blessed or ministered to them on social media, commented on the blog or replied to an email subscription. It is encouraging to know that God is using this ministry to help and bless others. Please remember that if God used something from this ministry to help, encourage or bless you, it could also bless someone else. Would you help get the devotions and sermons to more people by sharing this? Hitting the share button or forwarding this to a friend will help us reach more people with the good news of freedom and the encouragement to live an Unshackled Life. Thank you and God bless.