Choices set us free, not words

​It wouldn't seem to be great business for a pastor to proclaim "my sermon won't set you free." But that's exactly what pastor Steven Furtick recently said to an audience of thousands.

That's a risky message. Risky because I think many people wander through the doors of a church looking for freedom. Freedom from their hurts. From their addictions. From their wounds.

They roam in hoping to hear a message, a miracle word or quote that will deliver the difference they've spent a lifetime waiting for.

Maybe some of us aren't searching for it in a church. Maybe we have a podcast we listen to. The latest self-help book off a Barnes and Noble shelf. My personal Facebook feed is full of inspirational reels; I can listen to one after another, many that leave me feeling like I could jump from the couch and conquer the world.

But why, why then do I so rarely get up and conquer me, let alone the world?

Sometimes being inspired can be nothing more than a dangerous stall tactic. Those feel good chemicals - dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins - all of those juices that start bouncing around in our brains when we start feeling inspired, they can make us feel like we are actually doing something significant.

But in reality, we are only feeling something significant. We are only thinking something significant.

Those tricky brain juices can make me feel like the difference I've been waiting on has finally arrived. Praise Jesus the miracle is here!

Until 20 minutes later, when I'm still on the couch, sitting with myself and with the same life I've always had. The difference I felt has melted back into the difference I long to hear.

So I listen again, and I read again. And I go back to waiting.

Here's the thing. All of those feel good chemicals, they aren't there to make us feel good, they are there to ignite actions that will help us be good. Be well. Be fulfilled.

It's like gasoline. Gasoline isn't poured into a tank to be stored there, it's poured into the tank to make the car go. But to make the car go, one has to turn the key. One has to hit the gas pedal. One has to steer the car in the direction one wants to go in life.

I wonder how much inspiration gets wasted in this world - how much of it turns into bad gas (and not the kind you get after eating chili) because it gets poured in but nothing is done with it.

I don't think Steven Furtick sermons will set me free, but they can.

I don't think the latest Rich Roll podcast episode will set me free, but it can.

I'm reading an amazing book right now, The Anatomy of the Soul, I don't think it will set me free, but it can.

What I'm writing to you right now, I don't think it will set you free, but it could.

It can and it could if we start the car. If we hit the gas pedal. If we drive.

Many times what is so inspiring about the words of another is they convey in some fiery or passionate way the words we already knew we needed to hear. Words we'd already said to ourselves a million times, but without the credibility they magically now have when they are said by another.

It feels good to have someone beautifully articulate - with power and confidence - the things I've always known I need to do to make me a better me. Things I've always felt inspired to do, but never did.

Inspiration can be good. But it can also be a stall tactic.

We have the choice to decide which it will be.

A fiery sermon or speech that leaves you feeling like you can do it is only as good as the choice that follows the feeling.

If you get to believing that you can drive the car, I encourage you, act on the feeling. Go start the car. Go press that gas pedal. And drive that car like you believe you can.

Drive it to where you've always wanted to go.

Now THAT would be inspiring!!