75 Years of Unshackled

When I was a teen, I would go to sleep listening to the radio. One night while scanning the channels I came across a radio show called "Unshackled", and I have listened to it regularly since then.  The stories depicted have been a source of inspiration over the years.

Unshackled! is a radio drama series produced by Pacific Garden Mission, in Chicago, Illinois, that first aired on September 23, 1950. It is one of the longest-running radio dramas in history and one of a very few still in production in the United States. They produce Christian dramas of true stories of individuals who have faced desperate situations and how they found a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Unshackled is now celebrating their 75th anniversary on over 3,000 radio stations, six continents and fifteen languages.  It is available on YouTube, Smart TV channels and various radio stations.

The UNSHACKLED radio program began under the leadership of Pacific Garden Mission’s Superintendent Harry Saulnier. Harry yearned to reach the masses for Christ and earnestly prayed about the possibility of a radio program.

For a short time in 1945, Harry had a 15-minute program called “Doorway to Heaven” on station WAIT. On this program, Harry often related the true stories of individuals who had been saved at Pacific Garden Mission. This opportunity fueled Harry’s desire to continue sharing testimonies of changed lives using the popular radio drama format of the day.

Thus, on September 23rd, 1950, the first UNSHACKLED recording session was scheduled. The script was written by John Gillies, who worked at WMBI in Chicago. Clear channel radio giant WGN agreed to air the program. This first program was about the famous Billy Sunday — Chicago baseball player turned evangelist.

The show is produced from the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Illinois.  Pacific Garden Mission is a homeless shelter which was founded in 1877 and is the largest homeless shelter in Chicago and the oldest continuously operating rescue mission in the country.

For more information on Unshackled, visit:  https://unshackled.org/

When Your Prayer Goes Bad

What do you do if you pray and things get worse?

I will be honest with you that this really messes with my head. I mean, how can this be? When you are praying sincerely for a need in your life and it gets worse instead of better, what are you supposed to think about that?

Why even pray then?

It’s probably one of the hardest things to deal with. I have prayed for people to be healed and they died.

Okay you are probably hoping that your name is not on my prayer list right now. Well I’m not saying this always happens but when it does, it throws me a bit.

Ultimately we have to realize that God isn’t our personal genie. He doesn’t grant our wishes just because we ask.

In the Book of Exodus, we are reminded of the Israelites’ after Moses and Aaron had appealed to Pharaoh to let the people go. God had heard the cries of the Israelites, and sent Moses to plead on their behalf. However, instead of helping the situation, it hurt! Pharaoh severely cut the supplies needed for their work. The situation seemed to become worse and even Moses became discouraged.

The Israelites already were tasked with making bricks with straw but now had to maintain the quota without straw.

Thanks Moses!

The story could have ended there, but Moses took his confusion and complaints to the Lord. Even more significant, he continued to obey God in spite of negative circumstances. Moses was full of doubt about his own abilities, and he was discouraged about the Israelites anger towards him, but he still continued to follow God’s path. We all know the outcome. God used his obedience to bring about a miraculous deliverance—just when things seemed impossible. In the end, terrible oppression made liberation seem even more incredible.

Even when the answer to our prayers go in the opposite direction - or worse - we can’t give up. God’s timing is crucial and He doesn’t rarely shares with us what He’s doing. Trusting is hard but a necessary part of prayer.

The old Hymn says “trust and obey”. When the answer doesn’t come we need to lean into the trust.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Experience

Today my wife and I attended the 99th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We both grew up watching the parade on TV every year. I never thought we would actually get to see it in person.  We decided to see it live today.

It was an awesome experience.

Our day got off to an early start.  We got up at 6 am and took our subway to the 57th-7th station. It took us about 20 minutes to get there.  We walked about a couple of blocks then started looking for a good place to watch the parade.

No, we didn’t have a place in front of Macy’s. Only Macy’s employees and VIPs get to sit in those bleacher seats that you see on TV. We watched the parade from close to the start near Central Park.

Yes, there were crowds. We both got bumped around and constantly fighting for position. We were also near a rather lively group which keep everyone entertained while we were waiting for the parade to start.

You could feel the excitement when the start of the parade got to us. The floats, marching bands and balloons marched by us. The balloons were amazing to see in person. The entertainers didn’t stop to perform for us like you see on TV.

My favorite balloons were Bluey and Minnie Mouse.  I also liked the Sesame Street float.     

The hardest part was standing for over four hours. My feet and legs are sore now and may need a couple of days to recover.

I am glad we did this and had this experience. Would I do it again? Yes, most definitely. It was worth seeing in person.