The Freedom Response

My Story - Introduction to The Freedom Response (Part 1)

My story - an introduction to The Freedom Response. 

I felt like I lost my soul somewhere. See how you can relate to this through sharing my story with you. 

I wanted to understand the greatest commandment section of Matt 22:37-39 - to love God with all my heart, mind, strength and soul….I had a question: what is the soul?

I had an understanding of my heart, mind and strength- but not my soul. 

No-one else I met with had an understanding from when I asked them about it either. 

What is your soul? Do you have an understanding of it? 

I had a partial understanding of this through what God previously had me going through as a form of preparation. I bet you have experienced this as well to your own extent. 

I believe the Holy Spirit is five steps ahead of us and is inviting us INTO what God is already doing. I want to explore this a bit with you. 

I am being prepared for something that I do not know of yet - and it has already started out - with reflection - in ways I was not expecting. If you pay attention, you will see it as well in your own story. 

Are you aware of something God is doing in you, causing you to notice or want to be apart of and do not understand why? He IS moving and we do not understand why...yet. 

A couple of years before the pandemic, I somehow got on rabbit trails of wanting to form mental toughness, discipline and embracing the suck. Rabbit trails can offer us clues. 

Why? I am talking about doing hard things to learn from them. 

I did a 75 Hard Challenge to learn of WHY I am compromising in areas of my life as I wondered why I am NOT getting the results I am pursuing. 

To learn about a principle of "NO COMPROMISE" - I took on the challenge to learn to do something - not my way - but the 75 Hard way…and it worked. 

I took on all of what the challenge required and over time I realized God was redeeming moments of my past life - in real time - as I was facing my restricted victim mentality that formed false beliefs of what I thought was possible.

We need more of this. 

I was a compromising Christian living life on my own terms. I felt compelled to learn from this challenge. 

Yes, God can use ANY challenge or experience to shape, form and call you out…including 75 Hard. 

Many Christians do not experience this as they are staying very comfortable where they are at. 

I was drawn to other experiences. 

I felt a pull to go deeper. Do you take on challenges to discover what is deeper? 

Pro 20:5 - The purpose of a mans heart is like deep waters and it takes a man of understanding to draw it out. 

I felt somewhat misunderstood - so I trusted God more than myself with where he is taking me. 

Next, I wanted to find out what its like to step in to freezing water and not freak out. I discovered Wim Hof’s resources of doing breathing exercises and as you exhale you stop and let go and allow your body to do what you can not do. You trust your body over your mind. 

Holding your breath on an EXHALE can be frightening - but over time I went longer and longer. 

From the breath work to stepping into cold water - I discovered how my mind loves to over-dramatize situations - I went into Hof’s cold water challenges to learn ahead of time to release those limited mindsets and see what could happen without over-thinking. I would loose sleep at times thinking about how I am NOT looking forward to taking the plunge. 

Over time, I learned what happened after doing these challenges was way better than what I was manufacturing in my head before them - and the thoughts of wanting to avoid them stopped and now I looked forward to them. The positive benefits over-rode my over-thinking. 

It took many times of daily, weekly, and monthly practice - finally, I had embraced the suck, developed mental toughness and discipline. 

And yet, something was missing. Doing these challenges alone was meaningful, but empty. 

God revealed things to learn from these situations and I shared about these experiences with others and I also tracked what I was going through in a way that revealed I needed men in my life outside of what was available in my ‘day’ job. 

I started forming friendships and eventually brought together a small group of men that years later we are still together. 

God put all of these elements together for me and I responded in freedom to learn from them, look at them as experiments to learn from many mistakes, experiences and promptings….to trust God in ways I never have before in my life - and to be obedient to what He was highlighting for me to trust him with and enter into…all while living my day to day life. 

I trusted in Jesus while doing this - not the author of the books I was reading. God is leading me into his Kingdom in unique ways and it was with the men in my foundational group that I shared about this from a Christian perspective. I had never done this before. 

To have a group of non-judgmental men open to what is possible helped me to experience healing and growth as a gift from God that I did not know I needed. 

I learned that the intention of my heart was in union with Jesus and it stays that way as I intentionally pursue faith steps of risk and uncomfortable challenges. 

I will generate and create things, ideas and possibilities - that over time - to step into and be what God created me to be through the preparation of many challenges into my faith, family, fitness, business, finances and friendships. 

I learned that my soul was not fully integrated with God before in the old days and this is what I could not express before, but is now happening - integration of my soul in union with God. 

I have a heart, will and spirit = choices, posture & flesh. 

I have a mind = thoughts, feelings & beliefs. 

I have a body = urges & desires. 

And, I have a community - vs isolated. 

When all of these individual fragments are in union with Jesus - you have an integrated soul. 

With elements that stay in isolated fragments  - you are fragmented and dis-integrated and your soul feels empty, filled with holes, lost or incomplete. 

You can sense it if you relate to this and more so are yearning for it. 

All of these elements in God’s presence are looked at as a whole soul.

Years ago, I went through resources about Spiritual Disciplines and I sensed God drawing me to revisit them again with a focus on silence and solitude…the most challenging for many. 

As I look back on it now - I did not know that God knew what I needed most - was to calm down my overthinking, anxiety, overwhelmed brain, worry that was producing lack of trust in others, myself and God, and because I am an introvert it was keeping me stuck and isolated. He knew that I needed Him to calm my thoughts down, that helped me to hear him prompting me to form friendships that I was avoiding, or to lead my family at home, and more. 

Like many others, I have experience growth in business or overall life experiences that I did not have the maturity to manage it well and I pushed through these experiences so that over time it installed a form of trauma that felt as though I got burned by people, and gave them permission to enter my heart, head, will, spirit, mind, body and I did NOT have a solid community - so I got isolated. My introversion was okay with it..but God was not okay with it. 

My soul was dis-integrated and falling apart over the years so that in 2020, when the pandemic hit my work got halted for 2 months and it felt like a form of relief and yet at the same time with all of what my head and heart was experiencing felt like a massive dose of overwhelm and confusion at the same time. 

So, I called it My Funk with anxiety, confusion, depression and no one around to guide me. 

I was in a Funk. 

I look back on it now and it was a period of time that was in-between stages of life that I had no one around to help me understand it or guide me. It was the consequences of my own faulty choices reinforced by pride and being stubbornly introverted. 

BUT - the preparation of what God took me through earlier with discipline, developing mental toughness and to embrace the suck, I trusted him over my pride - even more and it led to many discussions, resources and guidance based on trusting God with where to go with him purging me of what I no longer needed and with what no longer served him and to train me with what HE wants me to become - which was a huge shift in my identity. The enemy of this world is attacking our identity in Christ….daily. 

I still have the many gifts of being an introvert - but I am no longer isolated or alone. 

When you are in-between stages of life, I learned of a word that mainly artists use of ‘Liminal Space’. It is the space of when a season of life ends and another one starts up but has not opened up yet, you are in an in-between space of unknown. 

It can cause panic and overwhelm if you are unprepared for it. 

I have learned that it is what you do in that space that makes a huge difference. 

You numb out, eat a lot, sit on the couch, get all in your head, stay isolated and all of a sudden a door opens up and you are NOT prepared for it and you miss it. Over and over. 

Or, you train, stay in God’s presence, meet up with men of understanding, train some more, fast, worship, pray, learn about silence - and when a door opens up - you are prepared for it. 

This resource was developed from my time in that liminal space - and I shared it with others that were experiencing their own version of time between doors closing and opening. 

It helped them. 

I met with men one on one and then in groups and I knew something was working as most times the mens stories were changing and they did not thank me for what was going on and actually I was not expecting them too, but what I was NOT expecting was their wives to approach me and thank me in private - that’s when I knew something was working well. 

This takes work and some men found the work to be challenging and chose to stay the way they are - that is their choice. Staying comfortable is easy. 

I went from telling my own broken stories to telling a new story of how God is transforming my soul and I learned that other men want in on that as well. 

If you are in that spot - then I encourage you to continue on with these sessions and over time let me know what new story God is writing along with you - in union with him. 

Living life with an integrated soul is worth the short term discomfort of allowing God to purge and train you into a new season - that only he knows what doors will open - and you will be prepared for them. 

My story is my own. 

You do not need to do 75 Hard, go into the cold water, or have a business of your own as I have - these are things God led me into for my own well-being and to help me understand things in my own unique way. 

If we meet up, you may have your own challenges God has led you through and with understanding you may find that he was and still is preparing your for what door opens soon. 

James 1:2-4 tells us to consider it pure joy whenever we experience trials. 

Are you avoiding trials? Are you stuck in a funk? Do you have a man a few steps ahead of you?

Maybe you just do not know what to do or feel stuck because you are isolated?

Are you numbing out in some way? What are you doing in YOUR Liminal Space? 

We can address these in the pages to follow - you are NOT alone and you are in the right place right where God wants you to be - with a community that responds in freedom to help you. 

And with that, I consider it pure joy to have you with me through this resource. 

Feel free to reach out to me at [email protected] 

For now, 
Scott Musgrave: Founder of The Freedom Response