Episode 19: Rooted & Recovered - Triggers, Temptation, and the Fight to Stay Free.

What if freedom isn’t the absence of struggle but the presence of a fight you refuse to lose?

In this raw and powerful episode of Rooted & Recovered, Dan Pyles unpacks what it really means to stay free after the initial breakthrough. Recovery doesn’t end the war; it just starts the training. And sometimes, the hardest battles come after you’ve already said yes to freedom.

This episode isn’t for the ones still trying to decide if they want change—it’s for the ones who already have, but still feel the pressure, the pull, and the punch of temptation that hits when you least expect it.

From middle-of-the-night urges to silent shame loops, Dan gets real about the landmines that still lurk even years into recovery—and how to fight them with truth, tools, and grace.

Whether you're one day sober or a decade in, this one is for you.

Key Highlights:

• Why temptation isn’t failure—but silence often is
• What triggers really are (and why they scream louder in secret)
• The difference between trying harder and rooting deeper
• What grace-based resistance looks like in real life
• Why success can be just as dangerous a trigger as pain
• Tools, truths, and tactics to stay grounded when old habits come knocking

Scriptures Covered:

2 Corinthians 10:5 • 1 Corinthians 10:13 • Matthew 4:1–11 (Referenced) • John 10:27 (Implied)

 Final Truth:

Triggers are real—but they don’t have to rule you. You don’t need to be flawless to be faithful. And you don’t have to be perfect to keep moving forward. Every time you say no, every time you get back up, every time you choose grace over shame—you’re winning the fight to stay free.

Transcript

0:05

​This world doesn't hand out healing. It offers quick fixes, cheap pies and empty promises, but real recovery, it takes roots. Roots that dig deep into truth, into identity, into the unshakeable grace of God. We're not here to sugarcoat the struggle. We've lived it. Addiction, shame, relapse, regret, but we've also seen resurrection. We've seen what has. Happens when broken people get anchored in something real rooted and recovered is more than a podcast. It's a battleground for the soul. A place where scars tell stories, where scripture speaks louder than shame, where freedom isn't just a word. It's a war we win daily. So if you're tired of surface level answers, if you want truth that convicts, hope that heals, and conversations that cut through the noise, you're in the right place. Welcome to Rooted and Recovered.

Dan: 1:13

Welcome to another episode of Rooted and Recovered. I am your host, Dan Pyles, and I just wanna say it's an honor and privilege to get to continue this journey that we call recovery together. Thank you so very much for hanging out with me today. Um, as we continue season two of Rooted In Recovered. Today's episode is titled Triggers Temptation. The fight to stay free. Now family, let's talk about, let's just talk about this for just a moment. Let's talk about something real. And I'm not talking just church re, I'm not talking just Instagram or Facebook reel family. I mean the kind of real that wakes you up. Sweating at 2:00 AM the kind of real that whispers old lies into your new mind. The kind of real that makes you question. Am I really free or am I just faking it better now? Come on man. I know I'm talking to somebody today. I know I'm not the only one that's felt this way. I'm talking about that really makes you question, am I really free? Am I really sober? Am I really saved or am I just learning how to fake things better in life? Now, family, this is for the ones who've already been to rock bottom. Who've already gotten clean, who've already tasted the grace of God and still fill the pool because family recovery doesn't end the war. You know what it does? It just starts the training. We think that recovery is the finish line. Family recovery is the starting line because now we've got to learn how to live life sober. Now I've got to learn how to feel emotions again. Like we talked about now I've got to learn how to be a dad or a husband and a productive member of society, family. Just recovering from drugs and alcohol is not the finish line. It's the starting line. It's where the training of life begins. You can be a year sober, you can be five years healed. You could be preaching on Sunday morning and still find yourself one trigger away from falling back into a thought, a fantasy, a habit, a secret that you thought was buried, and you know what family. That doesn't mean that you and I are broken beyond repair. You know what it means? It means we're human. It means that you and I are in a fight. So let me be clear. Temptation isn't failure. I wanna debunk that lie. Temptation isn't failure feeling, it doesn't mean you've fallen. You know what it means. Family it means that you and I are still standing. But what is failure? It's silence. It's shame. It's pretending you don't have a weak spot when you know you do family. That's failure. Recovery isn't just about not using, it's about learning how to stand when the pressure mounts. It's about identifying those landmines in your soul before they go off. You see triggers are like alarms. They don't just tell you what's wrong. They reveal what's unhealed. They scream for your attention. That song, that smell, that old neighborhood, that text from a number you deleted, but still remember. That anniversary of the worst day of your life, that news story that hits too close to home. The lonely silence after midnight when no one is watching you and you just want to escape again. Family. That's the war. And in this episode. I'm not gonna sit here and we are not gonna sit here and pretend it's not real. Today we're pulling the curtain back. We're talking about how to face it, how to fight it, and stay free even when every fiber in your flesh wants to cave in. Because here's the truth, you and I are not weak, fulfilling it. We're not disqualified for wrestling with it. We are not a fraud because the struggle didn't magically disappear after the altar call. You see family, when I got clean, I still had a recovery process I had to go through. I did not. When I gave my heart and life to God, he didn't take everything away from me. I had to flush dope down the toilet. I had to go through the recovery process and it was not easy. We think that the moment that we give our heart and life to God that everything just magically disappears and everything now all a sudden is, is unicorns and rainbows and and sugar cereals, but family, sometimes Sometimes in life, we are just gonna have to take a bite of that sandwich and it's not gonna taste good. It's not gonna feel good. It's not always your spiritual walk. Your recovery walk is not always going to be magical. But see, freedom. Isn't the absence of temptation, it's the ability to say no. Even when everything in you is screaming and wanting to say yes, it's learning to sit in the tension of the trigger and choose truth anyways, it's rewiring your responses. So that you don't just run from something, you run towards someone. Catch that. That's freedom Family. When you have developed enough stickum in your life that you don't run from something, you run to someone because here's what the enemy doesn't want you and I to realize. He. Can't make you go back. Do you hear me? The devil does not have the power, the authority, or the ability to make you, and I go back. But what he can do and all he can do is lie loud enough that you and I forget how far we've come. And let me tell you something, you and I. Have come too far to go back now. I don't care if you have been in recovery for 10 minutes, you have come too far to go back now. You didn't survive all that hell just to hand the keys back over to your past. You didn't claw your way out of darkness just to sit in silence while the enemy whispers guilt over your growth family. This episode today is for the fighters. The ones who are tired, triggered, tempted, but still choosing freedom. It's for the ones who are refusing to go numb again. Who would rather wrestle in the light than hide in the darkness? Because family, you and I were made for more than relapse. We were made for victory. And no matter how loud the trigger screams, God still speaks louder. She triggers family. They're real. I am not gonna get up here and disqualify triggers. I'm not going to downplay triggers. I'm here today to validate them because I have dealt with them and there's still times in my life that I still get triggered. They are real, but they don't have to rule you. And let's be honest, triggers aren't imaginary. They're real. They come outta nowhere and they punch you right in the gut. It can be a certain smell, a song, a season. Maybe it's a social media memory that pops up and takes you right back to the pain that you thought you were past. Sometimes it's not even something external. It's a thought. Maybe it's a mood shift. Maybe it's a feeling that you just can't name. But here's the truth. You can feel a trigger without being owned by it. Triggers are signals, not sentences. They, don't mean you failed. they mean. There's still something inside you that's healing. So what do we do? What do you do? You name them. You don't ignore them. You bring them into the light because what stays in the dark will keep you stuck in cycles. Listen to me on that family. Listen to me. You must bring those triggers into the light because what stays in the dark will keep you stuck in cycles. You can't control what pops into your mind, but you can control what stays. Let me be clear to you. You are not your thoughts. You can't always stop that. The intrusive idea that tries to make a home in your head, but you can stop feeding it. You can stop renting space to it. You can evict it the moment it starts unpacking shame and condemnation in your life. You know why? Because second Corinthians 10, five tells you and I to take every thought captive. That doesn't mean that that thought's not gonna show up family. It means. You and I have to refuse to let it run the show. Think about this for a minute and be real. Be real with yourself. A relapse starts in the mind before it ever shows up in your body. A spiral begins with one unchecked lie un left to grow in silence, a breakdown begins. With a buildup of unspoken triggers, but here's your power. When that voice whispers, you haven't changed, you can respond. I've been made new. When it says, just one more time, you declare I've already died to that lie. See, recovery isn't about avoiding temptation. It's about facing it with tools and truth. You see family as much as I would wish we could, and I hope we could, you can't wish temptation away. Jesus himself was tempted. You know what he did? He responded with scripture. You see, because the enemy is strategic, this bum knows your weak spots, and he doesn't waste time attacking what's strong. He goes after what's wounded. That's why your defense just can't be, well, just try harder. It's got to be root deeper and here's what recovery with God looks like. You build awareness and you start to recognize patterns before they come problems. You lean into accountability. You stop isolating. Why? Because you have someone you can call, maybe that's a sponsor, maybe that's a, a friend, your counselor, a therapist, your pastor, a family member. You develop spiritual reflexes. You don't wait until you're halfway into your relapse. Before you pray, you learn to pray at the first flicker of temptation. See, this is the difference between surviving and staying free. First Corinthians 10 13 tells us, and this is our scripture focus for today. No temptation. Has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. Listen to this, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Let that sink in. Your struggle isn't strange. Others are fighting it too. Family. Your weakness isn't bigger than his faithfulness and your temptation always has an exit sign. God never traps you. There's always a way out. It might be hard. It might require calling someone. Turning off your phone, hitting your knees, but there is a way out. And freedom isn't about finding it once. It's about choosing it every time. I love that portion of the scripture. But when you are tempted, he will always, Provide a way out so that you can do it. Why? Because it says God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. See, feeling tempted doesn't mean you failed family. It means you're fighting. You know what failure looks like? Failure is giving in and then giving up. That's not you. That's not me. Not anymore family. We've come too far. You and I have tasted too much grace. You and I have fought through too many battles to lay down our swords. Now, yeah, temptation might knock on the door, but it doesn't have to get a seat at your table. You can be tempted and still choose freedom. You can feel weak and still be held strong by the spirit of God, and you can want to give up and still take one more step forward. Let's get brutally honest for a minute. What are your biggest triggers? Not the ones that you tell your accountability partner. Come on, family. I'm talking about the real ones, the quiet ones, the ones that creep in when you're tired, alone and nobody's watching. Is it rejection? Boredom. Loneliness. Maybe even success. sometimes success is a trigger. Why? Because when things are good, what happens? We drop our guard. We start thinking, you know what? I've got this, and what happens? We stop clinging to grace. And we start managing our recovery on autopilot. But here's the dangerous truth. Unattended triggers become open doors. See, there's a difference between surrendering your triggers and simply trying harder not to act on them. Some of us pray over our cravings. Hold on to the coping mechanism just in case we say we've laid it at the altar, but we keep a key to the back door just in case. This whole grace thing that Dan keeps talking about doesn't work out today. That's not surrender. That's survival. And survival will wear you out. The longer you try to manage triggers with willpower alone family, listen to me, the more discouraged you'll get. You know why? Because willpower eventually will run out. But grace builds strength. Grace builds endurance. You see, grace doesn't just forgive your relapse. It fortifies your resistance. Grace isn't a magic eraser that wipes away failure while you're trying to knuckle your way through life. It's a foundation, it's a strategy. It's a strength that comes from knowing that I'm not alone in this moment of weakness. I'm not the sum of my thoughts. I have the power to choose differently. I have a savior who has already defeated this battle at the cross. Here's what grace based strategy looks like. Know your early warning signs. Not when you've already picked up the drink or that substance or that old behavior, but the first thought that takes you there. Track it, write it down, recognize the pattern, and begin to create interruptions. What do you do when temptation hits? Do you run to scripture? Do you call someone? Do you worship? Do you step outside for a second and breathe journal? Do you speak truth out loud? Build those interruptions like a fire escape plan before the fire starts. And every time you feel shame creeping in. I want you to pause and say this. This is not the voice of my shepherd. I'm not being shamed. I'm being shaped family. Ask yourself today, what moments or mindsets make you most vulnerable? What's the difference between how you've tried to fight temptation in the past? How God is asking you to fight. Now, what is your way out first Corinthians 10 13. When temptation flares up, have you confused? Being tempted with being defeated? See, this is a spiritual, this spiritual reflection isn't about pretending temptation doesn't exist. It's about calling it what it is and then calling on the one who has already overcome it. You don't have to be perfect family to be free. You just have to stop doing it alone. The fight to stay free is real, but so is the grace in your life that surrounds you. And as we get ready to wrap this podcast episode up today. You're not weak because you still have triggers in life. You're not broken because temptation still knocks you're human. The goal of recovery was never to erase your humanity. The goal was to heal it, redeem it, strengthen it. The old you used to run, but the new You knows how to stand. But here's the truth. Family triggers don't disappear overnight. Temptation doesn't always come knocking on the door politely, and freedom isn't always the absence of struggle. Sometimes it's the presence of a fight you refuse to lose. Every time you resist, even when it's messy, every time you reach for grace instead of shame, every time you get back up again, instead of giving up family, you're winning. You don't have to be perfect to be free. You don't have to be flawless to be faithful. You just have to be willing to keep showing up, to keep surrendering, to keep fighting. So let this be your reminder today. There's power in truth. There's strength and surrender, and there's freedom on the other side of every single fight. You come too far to turn around now, family. You have come too far in your journey to go back to Egypt. You got to believe me. You got to trust the process family. The Bible tells us that he will give us a way out. We just got to trust the process. I love and honor you, family. Thank you so much for hanging out with me, and until next time, you know the game. Stay rooted, stay recovered, and let's get to work.

25:58

You are not just surviving. You are becoming, becoming rooted in truth, becoming recovered by grace, and becoming the person God always knew you could be. Thanks for joining us on Rooted in Recovered. If this episode stirred something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, live it, let it take root. We'll see you next time right here where scars become testimonies and hope rises from the ashes.