Summary: <br> Do you ever feel like maybe you’re ready to move, then something holds you back? You see what you want, but you’re yanked back in time and time again.<br> BIG Life has a mascot. His name is Tank. He’s a 130 pound yellow lab. Tank loves snacks, yoga, long walks and squirrels, oh how he loves squirrels. Every day we take Tank on a big long walk around the campus of our nearby college. This campus is literally a squirrel sanctuary and it’s like pure delight and pure torture for our Tank. We’re walking happily down the sidewalk and there sits a squirrel just taunting him with her big puffy tail. Now Tank only has so much self control and when the smell of that flirty little squirrel hits his nostrils, he takes off. And within 2 feet he’s just digging at the ground, clawing to go any further. Why? Because he’s leashed. He’s tied to his owners. And if his owners say we can’t chase squirrels, then we can’t chase squirrels.<br> What owns you? You’re tied to whatever owns you. You see what you want, you get a whiff of the more that’s available to you, but you can never get it if you’re still leashed.<br> Now Tank can’t be trusted unleashed. He’s proven his inability to stay on track so he stays leashed. How about you? Can you be trusted unleashed? Can you stay on track?<br> In Acts 12 we read of the King persecuting members of the Church. He had already killed the apostole James, now he has Peter in jail, remember the one who walked on water with Jesus. We pick up in verses 6-8<br> “The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.<br> Peter had been chained up and he just got unleashed! Many of us have been chained up and God is ready to unleash you. Girl, are you ready to be unleashed? Unleashed from the chains that have held you back in life. Unleashed from the chains that have kept you bound to a life far short of what you were created for.<br> Coach Lonnie (that’s my awesome husband, the behind the scenes guy who actually makes this podcast happen every day … shout out to the man of the house!), well occasionally he steps out onto a stage and when he does, he says things that blow us all away. At one of our retreats several years ago he taught about 3 chains that hold us back. I would like to share that with you today.<br> First, the chain of “easy”. We settle for easy because, well, it’s easy, then it wraps tightly around our necks and chokes the life out of us. Those low expectations and cheap sell outs for the easy way leave us feeling unsatisfied, depressed and just a shell of who we could be. Where have you settled for easy, now you’re chained by easy. You now believe you’re not capable of hard things because it’s been so long since you tried, I mean really tried. Did you know every time you tell yourself you will do something and then don’t do it, it damages your brain. You’re literally giving yourself brain damage. And the easy way owns you.<br> Second is the chain of distractions. How easily are you distracted and thrown off course? You decide you want something, but how quickly do you give up and the commitment goes out the window? We lack focus. When you lack focus, you sacrifice your power. And so we live as weak women, incapable of change, stuck in a life we dread waking up to. Chained up. Bound. Stuck. Whew, that is NOT what God had planned for you sister. Distracted. We may be here, but are we really here?
