Living free is more than just stopping a behavior.

Dale Stinson of Redemption House shares what it means to truly live free.

“We can easily just stop the behavior. I think we find that in a lot of recovery cultures where we stop behavior, there’s that dry drunk attitude where people are really miserable. They’re not happy, they’re not enjoying things.”

My new pursuit is sobriety, and if I’m doing all of it in my power and I’m not leaning on God’s power, I’ll be miserable. I’ll be angry. I’ll be a not-to-fun person to hang out with, but if I’m pursuing Jesus then all of these other blessings come alongside because he came to give us life and life abundantly.

That’s what he said he came to do. Not only that, he came to set the captives free, and I want to be free!

How do you know if that’s you and you’re trying to work your program on your own?

If you say, ‘My program comes first, you need to look at what (Dale) just said, because it’s not about you it’s about God.’

The other thing is when somebody asks you how you did it (got sober), you might want to say, ‘I didn’t do it, I didn’t even want to do it, it came from God.

We can take pride in our recovery and that becomes an idol because we did it.

We want acceptance and what we don’t realize is that God is providing that for us, we’re now in this family and we are accepted based on his love for us.


Dale Stinson is the Program Director of Redemption House, a Christian drug and alcohol recovery program. He is a disciple of Christ and has personal experience with addiction.  Dale earned a Masters in Divinity with a concentration in biblical counseling from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville and a Bachelors in Ministry from Belmont University in Nashville.

Living free