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A Hole for Christmas

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I remember as a kid, we had this wooden box thing that would sit on our cedar chest in front of our big picture window, and mom had these little ceramic figures that went in it. And this was serious stuff, they HAD to be in their places and NO, I could not touch it. Like everyone had their specific place that they went. And then, at the top of this little wooden barn looking thing was a hole. And that’s where this light bulb fit perfectly snug inside. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is episode 127 and today we are talking about A Hole.

Just imagine, for someone to say that you are an introvert would be an understatement. Okay, a recluse…to yourself. You spend days, even weeks out in the middle of nowhere with your sheep. Making sure that they have enough water (which is a little scarce) and finding grass to feed on is a little bit of a challenge.

Well, those reclusive, beduin shepherds so long ago were alone doing their rituals, checking on the boundaries, gathering the sheep close and counting their numbers to make sure every last one was accounted for.…these unsuspecting loners were the first to be interrupted and they weren’t looking for surprises. I don’t know if you’ve been around any sheep before but surprises spook sheep and that’s not a good thing.

But….the distant dazzling brightness could not be ignored. And, the accompanying announcement without a face, well, that was breathtaking too; it seemed to have punched a hole in the sky with the announcement, “The baby Messiah has come.”

The baby Messiah has come

They would deal with the sheep later… they had to go…. now!

It wasn’t a streamed event, or a Facetime event to watch later, or even a podcast you could rewind. No, this was real-time, you had to be there. God was interrupting human history and the shepherds wanted to see…God wanted them to see.

They weren’t “distracted” by their daily tasks or what was the provision and livelihood of their families. Have you ever tried to shepherd sheep? It’s busy work. More than you think…and easy to get bogged down in the tasks that need to be done.

You see, most of us today would not let some big star or comet, or… some sign from The Creator of all these things. No. We don’t have time to get distracted, much too busy. I have lists you know… to help keep me organized. We take pride in how busy we are. It’s the Holiday Season. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

We have it backwards. Completely backwards.

While we are asking for a sign from the Lord, we are much too busy for what WE see as the distraction of God trying to get our attention. We see the distraction as the star. From God’s perspective, the distraction is all the stuff in everyday life that has us fooled into believing those are the important things that need our attention.

On that night centuries ago, God opened celestial windows, and for a brief moment ordinary shepherds could glimpse at an extraordinary vision of heaven itself.

Why the shepherds? Why not the religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, the politicians, the prominent people, the powerful people? Didn’t they see it?

…the shepherds lived in the margins, they weren’t considered the cool kids, or advertising on Amazon and Google!

Maybe the others were too preoccupied with themselves, too scheduled, too hard-pressed arranging their own details, too busy being important or being offended to look up to God?

Or, maybe they weren’t looking for God at all. I mean, Remember, this was a time where God had been silent for quite some time, like 400 years. If this star were to appear today, the last time God spoke would be in the 1600’s. That’s a long time. We just learned about Gravity in the 1600’s. That’s to give you a perspective on how long it had been since God had spoken to them.

This happened between the Old Testament and what was to come. The silence had probably calloused some into believing that our everyday responsibilities were King.

They weren’t expecting the unpredictable, They weren’t looking at what was foretold with current eyes. They didn’t expect The Almighty, the God of Abraham to choose today, to interrupt space and time with a hole in the sky; and for sure, they definitely weren’t looking for a baby.

Jesus traded the joys of heaven and the power of the Creator to become the created. He gave up everything for the inexperienced arms of a rookie mother, in an ordinary town that nothing good came from, in a forgotten corner of the world.

I know, it probably didn’t happen on December 25th, it more than likely happened sometime in what we now know as March.

Whenever it was, Light invaded darkness…and everything changed… for everyone, then and even for us.

Don’t miss it. Stop where you are, focus beyond yourself, expect interruptions, and listen for God’s voice in them…oh, and look up.

He is still punching holes in the sky…

Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle

Christmas is Approaching

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Episode 126

The long awaiting of Christ. It’s so much more than some little wooden calendar that you open up little doors and get candy out of. And I’m not talking about some fat guy in a red suit, letting you know how many shopping days you have left. But nonetheless, Christmas is Approaching.

When Christ came, you know, when people say “the reason for the season”, This was a time that only a select few knew about. This wasn’t common knowledge.

Yeah sure, the Magi, wise men, shepherds, the sheep, the cows (which are not too bright by the way), camels, they showed up, some kid with a drum, even a star knew about Christ’s approach. But not everyone knew about the event, well, not just the event of the year or even century, but the event of all of time. Not everyone knew that it was coming. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is episode 126 and today we hope that you know, Christmas is Approaching.

Our daughter lives out of state and she’ll be coming home for Christmas. The entire family doesn’t know that yet. but, she’s communicated that to me and Tammy. Not simply because she has our phone number or email address, it’s because we have a relationship, we share life with one another. Because of that, when a big move is happening, we tell each other.

We stay in communication.

Now, as I’ve said, she lives out of state and we don’t get to see her as much as we’d like. So the anticipation of seeing her is pretty big.

But that’s nothing compared to what was going on. Not for the event for all of time.

This was the biblical time between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

It’s agonizing when you study what was going on during that time.

They wanted the promise of Immanuel fulfilled, God is with us, so badly they could taste it.

It had seemed that all hope was lost, that the promise wasn’t going to be fulfilled.

These people knew what it meant to yearn, they understood and was intimately familiar with waiting, searching for relief.

Instead of us groaning about early christmas deco and radio stations playing the same 18 christmas songs over and over again, let’s dare to focus on the hardship that we’ve endured. I know our dry season is nothing compared to what they put up with. But are we eagerly awaiting God to be with us in a certain area today? That’s what I mean by Christmas is Approaching.

You know, that’s why we study history, so as not to repeat it. No matter how horrible it is, no matter how offensive history may be, we have to acknowledge it or we are doomed to repeat it in some way. God can take His hand off, He can remove His covering and blessing. We can be left, wanting, yearning.

What once was a lavish and fertile bottomland can turn into a dry desert bed within the change of a few degrees in temperature and a few inches in rainfall.

What does this have to do with Christmas Approaching? I haven’t seen it before either, but let me share with you some things about Christmas Approaching.

So, Let’s go back to the opener. Let’s go back to that manger scene where, we see all the cool kids who were in the know of that most important event in the history of forever.

How did they know? What made them so special? Why didn’t everyone else know about this when it was so important? Because it was about relationship.

That’s how they knew. They were watchful. They paid attention to God’s heart in all situations. They knew that they couldn’t consider “Has God forsaken us?”. That wasn’t an option because He promised that He wouldn’t.

No matter how dry it was, or how alone they felt,

How did the cows know when they’re so dumb? Even the cows can tell you when a cold front is coming in and from what direction. Animals pay attention to the Earth’s response to Heavenly things, and then they respond to it. So, be careful to look down your nose through your position in creation, at animals. They may not know how to do new math, but they are able to see things that most humans don’t.

When we celebrate the 3rd most important event of all time, it is on its way.. Yes, I want to correct my statement earlier, Christ’s birth was the 3rd most important event of all time. The first is where He paid our debt, once and for all. Tied for first was when He walked out of the Tomb.

So, the 3rd most important event of all time, Christmas is Approaching. Prepare.

Our relationship is what it’s all about. This way we are able to Live the Freedom Life. Remember, Christmas is Approaching.

Until next time, Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle.

The Holiday Season

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Episode 125

The Holiday Season as we call it, is a force to be reckoned with. I mean, we have to give it a name that bundles it all together like some big Tech company would bundle our internet. The Holiday Season. We want to think that we live such an important, fast-paced life that we give it an overall name. Like we don’t have time to name each one anymore. But there are distinct areas of focus that we can take for each one that can be beneficial. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is episode 125 and today we are talking about The Holiday Season.

Okay, if this is your first episode, welcome. I’m really glad you are here. For you veterans to Living the Freedom Life, you know how this goes, I’m gonna get right to the point here because we try to keep our podcasts to 8-10 minutes long. I mean, when I listen to other podcasts, I don’t want to listen to an hour of someone saying “um”, “you know”, and “like” and not really know what they are talking about. If I can’t explain something in 8-10 minutes, I don’t know it well enough to communicate it yet. That’s how I consume podcasts so we wanted to provide that for OUR listeners.

Anyway, Sorry, I just got sidetracked on that.

For “The Holiday Season”, let’s start with Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving according to Charlie Brown, Sunday School class, probably your pastor and Norman Rockwell says that we are to use that time to reflect and be Thankful for blessings in our past that we may still have today. But this is supposed to be family time. A time to, as I said, reflect on things, this past year, on things that we are grateful for. Things that can be looked on as a blessing in our lives.

And it may not be something positive at first, I mean some huge blessings can come from some horrible things. Some of you will really know what I’m talking about here.

But Thanksgiving is reserved for that warm fuzzy feeling of being around the people you value most, those people who have invested in you, people that you trust and they have walked with you through this past year. I mean, life gets busy and we may not be the best at showing our gratitude towards them throughout the year, but on this day,. . . we can be intentional. Now, I know, Thanksgiving has already come and gone and it’s our culture in the U.S. to automatically move onto the next thing. But I wanted to point those things out to show the contrast of how we lump this important day, this day that tells some things to our subconscious mind some very important things,. . . about a process that is crucial to … well, Living the Freedom Life. You see what I mean by this in a moment.

Moving on to Christmas. Now, we will talk about this specifically in an upcoming episode but I want to point out just as we did on Thanksgiving, Christmas, a “mass” is like a gathering, right? And this mass gathering is a time to reflect on … wait for it… yeah, you guessed it, Christ.

Emmanuel= God is with us. THAT is what we are celebrating.

Relieving the bad from past,… and God is with us for the future. (Providing a hope for tomorrow)

When we lump Thanksgiving and Christmas into one gesture of calling it “The Holiday Season”, well, now it just cheapens it. I don’t want to do that. I don’t know about you, but I live a fast paced enough life that a lot just blows by me. I miss a lot. I have an issue of slowing down to “smell the roses” so to speak. I guess what I’m telling you is that I’ve been guilty of calling these twenty days or so “The Holiday Season” myself. And I’ve been missing a lot of their meaning along with it.

Moving onto celebrating the New Year. No, it’s not just about a glass of champagne and watching some lit up metal structure drop from a tall building while you’re either kissing someone or wishing you had someone to kiss. New Year’s eve is when we get to say “so long”, “farewell” or “stick it” to the things that this past year had to offer us. Having a fresh start, being a new creation and walking into situations with open hands, THAT is something that builds hope, that is what dreams are made of, that is what forgiveness is about, that is where new life is spoken, that is where empowerment happens and new beginnings, THAT is where we gain an understanding of what it means to become a new creation. . . to our core. That’s what He wants for us.

Look, all I’m saying is take a look at our calendar and think about some things.

It looks like a process to me. See for yourself.

Thanksgiving is where we can be grateful for the good in our lives. We need that.

Christmas is where we can gather with like minded people and finally have something tangible to what we’ve been hoping for.

And New Year’s is a time of opportunity to go out and put those things to use. To have a new beginning and live out that new life that you’ve been given. Because if the Blood of Jesus cleans us up… and He died for our sins, we are Holy as He is Holy, I mean, that’s what it says. . . all we need is opportunity to go out and yeah, you guessed it, Live that Freedom Life that He wants you to live!

So, to bundle all of that up into calling it “The Holiday Season”? That’s like someone giving away their entire inheritance, riches, businesses, assets, giving all of that away and trading it for a bowl of porridge. You can’t know the value of it until you are able to look past the temporary hunger.

I know that you may be responsible for a lot of things during these 20-30 days and it may not be a good time to stop and take time, but you will benefit from it. That’s one of His promises to you.

Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle.

Who You Really Are

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Look, I’m just going to come right out and say it, everyone’s family is weird. I know, you probably think that you need to put up this big charade to let all of us know that your family is perfect, but deep down, you know, all of us have this one family member. . . and there is some truth to that old joke. . . if you can’t think of who that person is in your family, it may just be you.

You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life podcast, this is episode 124 and today we are talking about Who You Really Are.

I want to pose something to you. Think about this, okay?

If the only interaction I have with my Aunt Nean, (yes, I have an Aint’ Nean as we called her. I told you, I wasn’t raised on a paved road. You can’t make this stuff up) But if the only interaction I have with my Aunt Nean most of the year is by looking on her social media, then I don’t know Aunt Nean very well. I only know about what Aunt Nean posts on social media. See we only post what we want to post. It’s hard to really know someone when all you look at is what they want you to see all year long and then expect to have a real concept of who that person is when you share Turkey and Giblets with them. Now if I were to spend time with my Aunt Nean, holding a skein while she sews, I would find out who she really is.

Another example, If the only time I get to see my daughter’s face is when I walk down the hallway and look at her pictures on the wall, how many of you know that I will always see her as the same age in the photo? And you know that won’t go over well while she is in grad school. She’s an adult now. She’s doing great, she adults better than I do, but I’ll only see her at the age in the photos. I don’t have a chance to see Who She really is.

All of us imagine ourselves seeing the world around us as completely accurate. We think that we have an accurate view of the world. When in all actuality, that’s not true. In fact, it’s nowhere close to being accurate. It’s been proven both clinically and proven in the field by many Psychologists, Psychiatrists and Anthropologists, that our accuracy of seeing the world is pretty poor.

Today, this weekend, whenever and however you are celebrating this Thanksgiving, I’m going to assume that you are around family.

Yes, we are to reflect on things and people and situations that we are thankful for being in our lives.

But one thing that evaporates as quickly as the steam of a good dinner roll, is taking the time to realize that these people, who God saw fit to merge your DNA, your family, are sometimes difficult to deal with. Difficult to forgive. And even more difficult to set boundaries with.

We need to come to a point and realize that they are just people who are trying to do the best at life that they know how. They are living life the best way with the tools they have, trying to make the best of it. I’ll have more to say about that in a moment.

I know, you are too. But we expect mercy from others. We know the reason why we are the way we are.

Let’s take the time to mercifully consider the reasons why others are the way they are.

If there is damage or toxic behavior in your family, then draw boundaries. Please.

Realize that you are worth protecting and if you are being guilt ridden into spending time with someone in your family that is not healthy, then please let me encourage you, draw some boundaries.

I know, the topic of Boundaries is a pretty common topic. It’s talked about a lot.

Let me talk with you a little about the differences between a few things.

There is a difference between someone setting a Boundary, and Forgiving someone.

Forgiveness is releasing the pain you have that someone else caused. Forgiveness is about the condition of your heart, and you having the authority of not letting darkness stay in your heart. Forgiveness is you evicting darkness from your heart. It has nothing to do with their performance or their words. This is all about what happens inside you.

Drawing a Boundary is something a little different, and it is not unforgiveness. Just because you are drawing a boundary with someone doesn’t mean that you haven’t forgiven them.

A boundary needs to happen when you are hurt, or wounded, or something happens where trust is torn down. They’ve done something that you can no longer trust them in some area. In other words, they’ve done something that broke your trust.

You can forgive them. We’ve already talked about that. But when we draw a boundary is where we say, “You can no longer have access to this area of my heart”.

I cannot trust you with this area of my life and you no longer have access to it until something changes. And I say when that is okay.

Now, our challenge is to give them an opportunity to build back trust. Some will fail. That means that we need to keep the boundary in place. And maybe this is an indicator to advance that boundary. We can talk about that one on one if you like.

This gives them an opportunity to build back trust.

This is not done by conversation. Words cannot “fix this”. That’s manipulation.

Words do not build back trust.

Action over time builds back trust.

We’re out of time today, but I want to thank you for listening. It really means a lot to us that you take the time to spend five or six minutes with us each week.

The reason we share these things with you through this podcast is that we want to help. We want to do what we can to help you Live The Freedom Life.

It’s not just a tagline. This is our desire.

Until next time, living the freedom life, this is Kyle.

Change is Easier Than 123

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Today’s episode is our 123rd. If you Google 123 you get a ton of Songs (Jess Glynne, Brian McKnight, Jackson 5, Feist

You’ll also find songs on how to teach your little one to count, but some other things you’ll find when you google 123 are Drug Court Dockets, Cross Stitch Patterns to Printer forums, a Blended Tequila, you’ll even find an Aircraft that dispersed Agent Orange when you search 123. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life and this IS episode 123 and today we are discovering that “Change is Easier Than 123”.

Yes, Change is Easier Than 123. I’m sure some of you already know this about me, but I’m intimately familiar with several addiction recovery methods. Now if you want to know about change, there is a crash course on Change. I’ve not only studied this but I’ve also been through some programs and try to implement my knowledge into our coaching practice as often as I can.

No, today is not about addiction recovery, but it does have a lot to do with it. If you’re thinking that this may not apply to you, stick around, you may be surprised.

You see, whenever we have a change in our life, change can be something we want to be better at, it could be something or a habit that we want to break. Or maybe this change finds us. Maybe it’s thrust upon us and as they say, life just happens. Change is inevitable. It’s going to happen. You can guarantee it.

But how we deal with change in our lives when it comes, is … well… let’s just say that for some, we don’t handle it well. We like things to stay the same in some cases and for others, we want change to come so badly that it can drive us to do or try anything.

We want God to give us a sign. We consult our friends and get confirmation, we read books, we watch videos, we listen to podcasts, we even, we even hire coaches to help us through some of these changes.

Our first response is to get better control. To work harder so that we can do better. We believe that by putting more effort into it, that we are somehow smoothing out the wrinkles that change can sometimes, well, most of the time, provide. That’s the thing about change, wrinkles happen, change becomes quite disruptive.

I can tell you with great authority, in most cases, control doesn’t work when it comes to change.

There are some exceptions, but most people’s knee jerk reaction is to get a better control over the situation. So that we can manage it. So that we can change the things we want in the ways that we want it to change.

At the top of this podcast intro, we said some things about this being episode 123 and I talked a little about what you could find if you searched “123”. You see, that’s what we want. We want bullet point steps so that we can follow the instructions and get the results we want. If we do steps 1, 2, and 3 we will get X, Y, and Z. We want that guarantee in life. We want to be able to expect certain things to come, when we take specific steps.

We think of change as a cause and effect modality.

That’s usually not what happens.

Our subconscious mind tends to sabotage it.

Sorry. But it’s true. Our own mind can and does work against us when it comes to change.

Life isn’t like a late night TV commercial. All we want to do is send in our 3 easy payments of $19.95 and we get not one, but two awesome things happen to us when we take the three easy steps and follow the color coded laminated guideline that you can hang on your wall, and it comes complete with an interactive video.

Sorry, but it doesn’t work that way. We want to control the change but it doesn’t work that way at all.

And it’s not about control. It’s not about you trying harder to do better. It’s not.

But that should be great news. I know to some it may not sound too great, but it really is.

You see, what I’ve seen work time and time again is something we cannot control.

The very thing that works, the very thing that takes this change that we are facing and turns it into this beautiful opportunity, it turns what seems to be a chaotic situation into this harmonious peaceful thing is not control.

What I have seen work over the years, what I have witnessed in all of the success stories of people going through massive change and being able to conquer old habits and old ways, I’ve watched people walk away from an entire ecosystem of corruption, heartache and death, and all of them had this one thing in common. One thing that made them successful in facing change and it was able to let them glide through the process.

They embraced surrender. They knew what it was to fully surrender. I’m not talking about just giving up and just letting whatever will happen happen. The one thing that all of these success stories have in common is that they were willing to do whatever it took, to fully surrender.

They didn’t trust themselves. They surrendered.

They weren’t able to go back to how they did it in the past. It was no longer an option. They surrendered that pathway by burning the bridge.

They didn’t rely on the way they thought things would work out. They surrendered to the potential of things turning out a new way, with new results and by using new methods of not only doing things, not only using new methods of their approach, not just using new methods of thinking.

No, All of that falls under the category of trying harder.

This is something that can be very defeating about approaching change in your life.

Do you know what happens when we try harder? Enough time passes by and we get tired of trying so hard. We get tired, we get weary. There’s no more “motivation” left, we may get a boost occasionally and get our second wind.

Trying harder to do better just sets us up for failure.

Because 2 things happen when we try harder and get tired.

1 We are only able to try harder, in the way that we know how to try harder. Change introduces a new way of seeing something. Change changes your perspective.

The second thing that happens when we try harder and get tired is that we begin to ask, “What good is it doing…really?”

We lose not only the motivation, but we lose the why behind it; we lose our drive.

Then it begins to tell us about ourselves. Like who we are. “Well, if this happened, then I must be …this kind of person.”

This may be too much for this episode. Maybe we need to discuss this for another time.

Change is about surrender. I have so much more to say about this topic and we don’t have time today.

Change is about surrender. Not giving up. That’s not surrender. Giving up means that you are done trying. It’s going to take some effort on our part. In fact, surrender means that you are determined to move forward, but you are abandoning the way you were applying effort before.

I hope you heard that. Successful Change is about surrender and abandoning the way you were applying effort before.

1 Cor 13:11 I put away childish things.

When change approaches your life, meet it head on, embrace it. But we can’t overpower it because we don’t know everything it presents to us. There are hidden (to us) opportunities for us when change comes. We have to learn what it means to surrender.

Then we will be able to learn, grow, and … you guessed it, Live the Freedom Life.

We are out of time today, thank you so much for listening today. We’ll see you next week right here, Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle

How to Be Fearless

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Do you realize why we love the Marvel movies so much? Because against the odds, they are fearless. They are always up against a villain and the task is usually unsurmountable.

Then, the hero overcomes and conquers. The classic story line. It’s exciting, …to see and watch. . .but for some… okay, for me…that’s waay in the distance.

You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is episode 113 and today we are talking about How to be Fearless.

One thing that I’ve learned is that you can’t be fearless, unless you know fear. Let’s just say that I should be more fearless than I am. Because I feel like I am intimately familiar with fear. But, I have learned that you can’t be fearless unless you know fear.

No, we aren’t going to have a trust fall or I’m not going to ask you to stick your arm in a bucket of spiders to face your fears.

I know it was a few years ago when the Marvel Movies were all the rage and there’s been countless sermon series on Superheroes. It’s kinda been the church thing to do in recent years.

But I keep coming across this in our Coaching Practice time and time again with our clients.

We want to be fearless. We want to be able to conquer this crippling fear that overwhelms us so quickly. It leaves us usually worse off than we were before.

We want to be just like the hero in the movies that we see. But when something happens in everyday life, we easily get spun out of control to the point where we can’t face even the simplest of tasks, much less be able to swoop in to save the day. Then we feel conquered and a failure. We often think “There’s no way that I’m a superhero, or for that matter, how could anyone look up to someone like me?”

You see, that’s the movies, that’s fantasy. No really! That is fantasy. That in itself may be a wake up call. But in real life, in order to be fearless, we need information, but we need it one on one, in context… not just a broadband scattering of vague info, assuming pictures or hyped up stories. We need facts in context and enough time to process it and assimilate.

Some religious people would just say that “you only need truth and that’s that”… Well, yes, the truth doesn’t change. But again, we need facts in context, time to process it, and assimilate it where we realize it’s the truth. There’s a big difference.

When it’s all said and done, we need someone with skin on, who we trust, someone who listens and speaks truth, one day at a time. Someone that we know will speak as the Bible says “in love” and not just “in correction”.

All of this is the prerequisite of being fearless.

An example of this is in a story about a little girl when her mom took her to the Dr. For some time, they had been concerned about problems with her feet, about potential flat feet.

As she was settling in the car seat the little girl was accepting the fact that they were headed to see the doctor. She didn’t like Doctors. She was worried–She really doesn’t like needles.

Mom reassured her there would be no needles, ‘The Doctor just wants you to take off your shoes and socks so he can see your bare feet and he wants you to walk around. No needles.’

In the office, the little girl was still apprehensive. But when the doctor asked her to do exactly what her parents told her he would ask, you could see the relief in her face.”

A little while later, while they were driving home, the little girl finally spoke up,

“‘Mom, what did he say, do I have people feet or bear feet?'” ummmmmm.

You see, the Mom meant b a r e feet and not Grizzly, Brown, Kodiak or Polar or even TeddyBear feet.

Sometimes… what we fear most isn’t real, it’s made up stuff, it’s incomplete information, untrue stuff. That beautifully creative mind that God gave us is sometimes like a computer. A computer can either give money to the poor online, or embezzle money. It depends on how its used. We need to be careful on how our mind, our imagination is used.

Sometimes we just need to take a breath, trust that God is right there with us, in the same room, in the same space, and listen to the facts in His context.

Sometimes, just knowing what we are up against is enough.

When I think of “knowing what you are up against and still being fearless”… I often think of David.

You may be saying today that “David and I both are up against a Giant today!”

Okay, but have you taken the facts in context of what is really going on?

Long before God guided David’s rock in the air, He revealed the truth to him, and David realized it.

Long before God asked David to take out his sling, He showed David how everything is small compared to God.

Long before David heard the verbal assault, God whispered to David about who He was. “He” meaning both capitol H he, as in God, and little h he, as in David.

You see, we have to understand both, in order to be fearless. We need to understand how we are made, what makes us tick. And we also need to know a little bit about how Big God is. You want to be fearless? We need to be able to see both.

I’m going to give you 5 facts about being fearless. It’s kind of a process to walk through these truths, but I share this with my clients. You ready?

You want to be fearless? Realize it takes a team. Because being fearless takes a team. The main trick of the enemy is to get you to think that you are alone. If Satan can get you to think and believe that you are alone, fear will set in.

#2, Teamwork takes communication. Communication is key to any success. The lack of communication introduces a greater potential of failure.

#3 Communication takes community. In order to be a part of a community, you need to be vulnerable and share a part of yourself. A lot of times we’re hesitant to do that.

#4 Community takes time. This is not going to happen in some hallway quick water cooler type conversation. Community takes intentionality and sometimes even a little sacrifice.

And finally #5 on how to be fearless. Time is up to us. No one is going to do it for you. This may be hard to hear for some and I don’t mean to offend anyone heere, but you are a manager of you. In other words, You decide how to spend your time. And if it’s important, you’ll find time. If not, well, there is your answer. God didn’t make us to be fearful. He made us to be more than overcomers.

That’s the challenge today! The God of peace says…. “Take courage. Do not live in fear. Trust me.”

Lord… hear our fears; help us find comfort in You and our people feet, because they are in Your image and not Bears.

Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle.

The End of Daylight Savings

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Episode 121

You know about daylight saving time, right? This weekend we will turn our clocks back an hour. Right now, it gets dark before I get home, I’m sure it’s the same with where you are too. The days feel like they are definitely getting shorter. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is Episode 121 and today we’re talking about the end of daylight savings time.

There’s a lot of chatter about ending the daylight saving time shift thing. Most people don’t like change and I get it, neither do I. Mainly, the argument is we still get the same amount of daylight. Why are we moving the clock?

Well, there’s a couple of reasons.

Benjamin Franklin had the original idea of this. And his reasoning was all behind farming and family life. He figured that when farmers would come in from the fields, they would actually have time to spend with their families at a decent hour before everyone had to go to bed in order to go to school the next morning.

Okay, I can understand that. If you’ve ever managed a family, get home from work, try to decide on something for dinner, then find out how everyone’s day has been, Wrangle everyone together for homework, not to mention bath time, and you’re done. You’re out of time.

And if the end of your work day depended on the sun going down, that pushes that schedule with your family, back further and further. So, I understand that.

But not everyone’s work schedule today depends on the setting of the sun. But there is a more updated approach to this.

One reason is this. I’m reading this, okay?

According to some sources, DST saves energy. Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation showed that Daylight Saving Time trims the entire country’s electricity usage by about one percent each day, because less electricity is used for lighting and appliances.

So if it’s daylight still outside, this study shows that we don’t use as much electricity for lighting our home.

Another reason is psychological. I don’t know, some of our listeners may be in the Seattle Portland area. But I’ve heard that it rains so frequently there, this some people get depressed because of the weather. Let me say it a different way, the weather can affect our mood.

How many times have you watched a movie, and when the actor is sad it begins to rain?

Of course. The weather can affect our mood.

So, if my job doesn’t revolve around the setting of the Sun and I get home at a distinct hour of the day, do you think I would be in a better mood because it’s dark and I can’t see well? or do you think I would have a better evening if at least some of it when the daylight hours where maybe I could get some work done around the house and have a cleaner yard?

Yeah, I think it matters a lot. Do you think that extra hour of daylight in the evening time would affect my family life at home?

If you’re like me, the people I work with, I spend almost as much time with them as I do with my family. Well, if daylight has an adverse effect on my productivity, and my mood, why then don’t I want that for my family? They deserve the best of me too.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m just like most people, I’m not a fan of change either. I like my routine. I do well with routines, they keep me structured, they keep me in line. My routines keep me productive. Why do we have to go and disrupt that by changing the clock. I don’t know about you, but I live by the calendar. sometimes in 15 minute increments. much less When the Sun Goes Down. and now you’re messing with that?

Some people, a lot of people, want to do away with daylight saving time. I’m for it. even though I don’t like change. I’m still for it. Because I’m able to see the benefits of having to go around the house and change every clock.

But that’s common when we Face any type of change. We don’t want to change because we like our routine. But, when that change presents a new and different situation where I can be a better person, I need to be able to see the bigger picture and welcome the change.

Change takes some getting used to. it’s disruptive. and quite frankly, all of us like to gripe when change comes. but don’t let the temporary satisfaction of griping about the change, extinguish the goodness that is about to come. step back, look at the bigger picture, and embrace the change that presents itself to your life today. it has the potential to build you into a better person. a person that is able to, you guessed it, Live the Freedom Life. We must learn how to embrace change. Oh, and don’t forget to turn your clocks this weekend.

Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle.