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SEASIDE CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING |
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Wellllll, goood morning, Seaside!!! What a joy it is to be with you on this wonderful day in Encinitas. At the second service, last week, I came up with a thought for the summer: we're going to call it 'the no tie summer'. I figured it wasn't going to be a problem because there was nobody wearing ties at either service, last week. As a matter of fact, I looked out at the front row and nobody was even wearing socks. So, no ties for the summer. But, there is one person I forgot to tell. It's like inviting new to the party, when it's a casual party and they come in a tux. We have with us, for the next two months, a wonderful ministerial intern from the Ernest Holmes College at the Huntington Beach Campus. That is Ron Fox. Do you want to stand up, Ron. He's the one with the tie. Welcome. For the next couple of months he will be here assisting us to create Sunday mornings, the men's group. He'll work with the Practitioners and whatever else we can come up with to assist his ministerial education. So, don't hesitate to ask... whatever. So, this month we are working on 'Reflections' -- taking the time to Reflect upon Spirit. Today in particular, it's about 'Reveling in It'. It is about absolutely enjoying the fullness of God; the glory, the joy, the awe, the wonder, the splendor, the Presence Itself -- taking the time to absolutely revel in it. So, I remembered this story that I shared some time ago. I thought, 'Oh, I better not share it again', but I am. For me it is a graphic example about how some 'revel in it' and some don't. It's about three guys who were sentenced to execution by the guillotine. One was a minister. One was a doctor. And, one was an engineer. They went out to the chopping block, or whatever they call that, and the executioner said to the minister, the first one to be executed, 'Do you want your head down or do you want your head up?' He said, 'Well, I'll look up.' He put his head in the choke. The executioner pulled the blade. The blade came down and stopped just before it hit him. The king was watching and said, 'Divine intervention. This man must go. Let him go.' He got up and the minister was very happy. The next one was the doctor. The doctor came up. The executioner said, 'Do you want to face up or do you want to face down?' The doctor said, 'I will look up.' The executioner pulled the blade. The blade came down and it stopped, just, before it got to him. The king said again, 'Divine intervention. He must be pardoned. We must let him go.' The third one, the engineer... 'Do you want face down or face up?' He said, 'I want to look up.' He put his down. The executioner was getting ready to pull the blade, when the engineer said, 'Wait, wait a minute, I see the problem up there.' Some of us just have that engineering, analytical mind that just wants to figure it out!!! Just want to know... We cannot revel in the glory of God, the gifts of Spirit, but want to know how it's going to happen; how it's going to work. When we are reveling in the Spirit, what we are doing is looking at the answers. What we are doing is looking at God. What we are doing is realizing the Presence. What we are doing is enjoying the splendor of life itself, not trying to figure out how our life is going to work; how it's going to unfold out there in the future. But rather, it is living right there in the very present moment and experiencing the beauty of it all. Helen Keller said, "The best and most beautiful things of this world, cannot be seen or even touched. They can only be touched." The most beautiful things in this world, can only be felt. That's where the Spirit resides -- in that feeling place of our being. When we can get out of that analytical, engineering kind of mind that is always attempting to figure things out. Now, there are appropriate places for that kind of analytical mind. I'm not wanting to just shoot it all down. But, what I'm talking about today is taking time to reflect upon the Spirit and the way It shows up in our life. But, what I've noticed is that we've become so busy that we don't take the time to revel in Spirit, in God; to reflect upon It. We are so busy. We are busy-aholics or workaholics or plan-aholics. We are running around so much that we don't take the time to be with ourselves. If we have a moment at home... I know I have sometimes, just turned the TV on in the background just to have noise going on there. So, the mind isn't in that place of quiet or stillness. I even, sometimes, slip off to sleep at night with the TV going. Obviously no one else does. It's a peculiar thing that I've be known to do. OK. Here's one: I've known people -- I know reading is wonderful -- but, I've also known people that just continue to read and read as opposed to just taking time to be with their mind; to be with their consciousness; to revel in the Spirit where It's tapping at the door of our soul, trying to tell you that you are wonderful; that you are splendid. It takes time to walk with God. It takes time to know Spirit, as to what Spirit sounds like and feels like in your world, It's own unique interpretation through your own intuition. Do you take time to watch the sunset? You know if you're doing work, the work will wait, but, the sun won't wait for you to finish your work to go see it. And, that's the thing with God. It's expressing. And your work, and your doing, and your busy-ness will wait for you to take the time to come to know Spirit. Because, right around every corner is grand adventure. Right around every corner, 'round the block is something splendid. It is the Spirit and It is seeking to express Itself in your life, in your world. But, in the busy-ness; in this running around; in the activities that we have to do taking on another project, taking on another plan, doing-ness is so many things that we're not doing anything well... I see a few heads going on that one. I mean do you ever say, 'Yes' and wonder why did I say, 'Yes' to one more project? It doesn't give you much time to revel in the Spirit. What it does is gives you time to be in your head to complete the project, the busy-ness, of doing, the doing-ness. We are just so busy doing not being. There's an old country saying. It says, 'Don't try to catch two frogs with one hand.' I got a kick out of that one. For me it was so graphic. We try doing so many things. Just work on reveling in the splendor of Spirit that is... that is. Do you every see, on TV or in the circus, those guys who get a plate spinning. You know that analogy... they get a plate spinning, then get another plate spinning and another plate spinning. It seemed easy at first, then all of a sudden it's comical with them running back and forth trying to keep it all going. That's what we look like sometimes when we accept all these projects in our lives. Slow down!!! Enjoy the music. Enjoy the day! Enjoy the Spirit! Take time to reflect! Because that's where Spirit is. It's in that time of reflection. It is in that time... It's in the time. It's in that place where we are quiet. There's a sense I have that if we really knew God's love, we wouldn't be going to God to deliver all the goods. If we really believed that God loved us and there was no doubt in our mind, we would come to recognize that God is infinite and full; that it's already been given. We don't have to go to God for the bounty. We don't have to go to God and tell God how to give us the good in our life. What we've got to learn to do is to take the time to reflect; to understand Spirit; to revel in the wonder of it all. Nobody has to tell God to make the grass green or let the sun shine or make the waves do their thing out in the ocean. God knows this. This Life Force, this Spirit knows these things. And if we want to experience greater good in our life, what is essential, I believe, is to stop the busy-ness and the doing-ness and to take the time to revel; take the time to experience; take the time to know at that deeper level that is beyond (as Helen Keller told us) our eyes or beyond our touch, but rather, it is at that feeling sense. But, a lot of times the only feeling stuff that people get into are their fears. What fear does is it constricts the mind. What fear does is it shrinks the periphery. What fear does is it focuses one in on the challenges of living-ness, not upon the good, the joy; not upon the answers; not upon the solutions, it shrinks the mind. There were these two guys that were walking down a river bank. A flood came. A flash flood hit. The skies filled and a downpour and the floods came and it washed these two men into the river. The first guy panicked. He got into the fear. He got into the worry, the concern. He tried to swim over to the river bank. Because of the fear, the anxiety, the worry and all those kind of things and trying to go against the current, he drowned. The second guy, realizing the power of this river and this stream, let go and allowed the current to take him down the stream in the tumultuous turbulence and it ended up dropping him off, finally, eventually, on the bank of some land, which happened to be the town he was walking to anyway. He got there a lot quicker. In our life, if we are taking the time to walk with God; if we are taking the time to understand the Spirit; if we are taking the time to revel in It, and our world gets hit by this tornado or gets hit by the flood, and we get caught in these very strong currents and it is pulling us beyond our ability to control the flow of life, stop fighting it and begin to trust God. Begin to trust the turbulent flow that is taking in the direction in which you have chosen to go. It takes time to be able to live with that kind of trust. But, this is why you take time, daily, to revel. This is why you take time, daily, to meditate. A lot of times you are sitting there in meditation and you don't necessarily get much in that moment. We talked about that last week. It's like you don't necessarily get instant gratification from your meditation, but after days of doing; weeks of doing; months of doing; years of doing, when you find yourself sucked into a river, out of your control, what happens is that rather than drawing upon what appears to be a natural human instinct of worry and fighting and panic, you pull from your deeper subjective of the months and weeks and years of spiritual work that you've been doing and instead of panic, what you get hit trust. And, all that time that you have spent reveling and coming to understand Spirit, services you in those times of challenges; in those turbulent times; in those times in which life seems to be out of your control. Do you follow that? Do you feel what I'm saying? This is the value of taking time, even when it feels like, 'Boy, I could get a lot more letters done in those twenty minutes, than if I just sat and reveled.' Sat and was just with God. Now... this life experience is something that has to be experience ourselves. It's not something we can get vicariously. I mean this concept sounds good, but can you really let go and trust the Presence. So many people go to God believing that they have to pray to God to get them; to save them; to present the opportunity to them; to create this relationship, as if God is with-holding. People prostrate themselves or get down and beg God. If nothing really comes through right away, they start making deals with God, as if God is holding anything from us. God has already given it all. Life is all. That is why what is essential is for us to take the time to come to realize the presence of God. James says that 'if you ask and you receive not, it's because you've prayed amiss.' Praying amiss when we're asking God for something. Because, what you are doing is shutting off the infinite flow by your little mind being placed there. If you can take the time to know God, then what you will find is that you will know God or Life as your life, as your success, as your fulfillment, as your happiness. You will find Spirit showing up in your world. The Intelligence that is guides the universe is the same One operating in your life. It's the One that turned that grass green. It's the same One that is working right there, but, you've got to trust. That trusting comes from doing your spiritual work and meditating and taking the time to revel in Spirit; to know It; to feel It; to sense It. Howard Thurman says, 'A man without God is like a seed upon the winds.' You know a seed is that which has a life. It has the potential to be and yet is caught up upon the winds and is just out there like those guys in the currents of the ocean. It's just floating around, not knowing where it is going to land. But, if you are with God, then you are also like that seed upon the wind, trusting that you will be delivered to that appropriate place, to that appropriate arena, to that appropriate relationship, to those appropriate deals, to that appropriate resolution to whatever it is that you are working on. It's up to you to take the time to make the connection; to work to come to know Spirit; to know God as your very life. Then it doesn't matter where you are. There was this young guy by the name of Harry Day. He had just graduated from high school, was about to go to college, I think he was headed toward Stanford, when his father died. So, he had to come back and take care of the ranch, which was out in New Mexico. I guess it was way out on the boards of somewhere in New Mexico, a lot of acres, an old adobe house, no electricity, no water. It was very hard, but he made the best of it, working the land, out there. He met a lady which he loved and married, Ada-May. They had a child together. The nearest hospital was two hundred miles away in El Paso where they went and had the baby delivered. But, there was no school, for there child to be raised, within driving distance and so they did a home-education, the home-teaching project. They taught their daughter, Sandra, at home until she grew. They said they really wanted the best for her, so they sent Sandra off to a boarding school, the best they could afford. The young girl and her family had determination. She finally did go off to college, to Stanford, which was her father's dream. She graduated in 1952 from Stanford with a Law degree. The best that she could get at that time, the best offering she had with her degree, was as a legal secretary. So, she went off to be an assistant in San Mateo. She moved to Arizona with her husband. And, twenty-nine years after she had begun her law practice, the Attorney General for President Reagan called Sandra Day O'Connor and asked her if she would be the first woman on the Supreme Court. You've got to learn to trust the Spirit. Where It puts you down, whether it's the currents of the water or the winds of the sky. You've got to know that it is that self-determination; it is that connection with your Source, that Life Force, that Energy that makes the difference. It doesn't matter where you live. It doesn't matter what family you were brought up in. It doesn't matter what your history was. Allow your destiny to supersede what your history has been. Close that book, that chapter and begin to revel in the awe of Spirit, because you are a miraculous, unduplicatable, superb individual. There are not two like you. Revel in that unique expression of Spirit that is known as you. Come to know that. Because, when we begin to live in this trust of God; when we learn to live in the sense of love, we are going to experience the miracles of life. Ernest Holmes talks about that kind of love in his book: 'The Science of Mind' 'The essence of love pervades everything. It fires the heart. It stimulates the emotions. It renews the soul and proclaims the spirit. For only love knows love. And, love knows only love.' It fires the heart!!! That's where the passion and the spirit... It fires the soul. Allow yourself the time to live in love. When your world is stirring, know that Spirit is right there. You do not need to get out that analytical mind, what you need to learn to do is begin look for God. Look for that Presence. If you do not doubt the love of Spirit for you, you don't need to be going to God to bail you out of anything. All you've got to do is to come to know the Presence, right where you stand. What happens is you find yourself participating in situations that feel good, that feel right. There was this lady. I guess it was around the holidays. She was going into a store and outside the store was this little six/seven year old guy with tattered cloths, no shoes, looking into the store. She was in that loving place and she looked at the boy and said, 'Come on in.' And, she clothed for the holiday season. She got him some holiday clothes and some shoes. She didn't know him. They were walking out of the store and the little boy looked up at her and said, 'Are you God.' And, she said, 'No, I'm only a child of God.' And, he said, 'I knew you were related.' The thing is: each and every one of us is related. We will know the right thing to do at the right time in our life -- to say the right thing and be with the right people. Not because we're trying to figure it out, but because we take the time to revel; because we take the time to connect; we take the time to know the Presence. And as we take the time to know the Presence in those calm quiet times and places in our life, when we hit those turbulent, what we will find ourselves doing is trusting that current and that flow. And we will find that it will take to those spots in our life that are right, that are wonderful and that are appropriate for each and every one of us. God bless us all. Rev. Christian Sorensen |
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