AIF Week One: Transformational Vulnerability with Josh Reeves

[00:00:00] This is Josh Reeves and you're listening to the Mile High Church Podcast.

[00:00:04] Kudos to you for focusing on your spiritual growth.

[00:00:07] Speaking of spiritual growth, have you had your moment of awe today?

[00:00:11] Dr. Keltner wrote a great book called Awe and it's all about how awe can heal us, uplift

[00:00:17] us and keep us dialed in.

[00:00:19] He's going to be at Mile High Church on November 1st talking about it.

[00:00:22] You can join us in person.

[00:00:23] You can join us online.

[00:00:25] It's going to be fantastic.

[00:00:26] Check out milehighchurch.org.

[00:00:28] If you were to meet someone with unshakable faith, an unshakable faith that had absolute

[00:00:44] conviction that our country was on the right track, that had absolute conviction that our

[00:00:52] children will create a better environment and economic opportunities than we inherited when

[00:01:00] we were young.

[00:01:01] An unshakable faith that people in the world overall were choosing unity over division, choosing

[00:01:12] interfaith inclusivity as opposed to religious exclusivism, choosing oneness over othering.

[00:01:18] If you met someone with such unshakable faith, would you be impressed?

[00:01:23] Yes.

[00:01:24] Yeah, I would too.

[00:01:26] Would part of you think that they were perhaps a little naive?

[00:01:30] Or perhaps they may seem a little out of touch with reality?

[00:01:36] Oh, I like that.

[00:01:37] The kids are getting in on this one too.

[00:01:43] You know, our founder said something.

[00:01:47] He said, our thinking doesn't change reality at all.

[00:01:50] Some people think it does, but it never flattened the world when they thought it was flat.

[00:01:55] It only flattened their experience on a round one.

[00:01:59] When someone knew it was round, he could navigate it.

[00:02:04] And as religious scientists, our denomination here, it's so important.

[00:02:09] It's almost like a sacred duty for us to hold a high consciousness for our country, to hold

[00:02:15] an optimistic viewpoint for our world, to represent oneness and unity.

[00:02:19] Even in the midst of division, we can get so lost.

[00:02:23] But it's also important for us to see what's real, to see what's really happening from time

[00:02:29] to step back and see where we are.

[00:02:34] Kurt Vonnegut alluded to the point that if you're going the wrong direction, to step back

[00:02:39] is to take a step in the right direction.

[00:02:44] In this topic of relevant faith that we're entering into this month, it's interesting to

[00:02:49] say that an unshakable faith has an absolute conviction that God is in all circumstances

[00:02:58] working towards the highest and best in all things, totally admirable.

[00:03:03] A shakable faith, we might say, has room for doubt, for skepticism, perhaps even a little

[00:03:10] bit of anxiety and uncertainty.

[00:03:14] And one of the things I want to point out today is when it comes to relevant faith, it's

[00:03:20] the latter that we may need more of.

[00:03:23] That perhaps a little bit more doubt could strengthen our faith.

[00:03:28] That perhaps to be a little anxious by looking around at the world around you is understandable.

[00:03:35] To be in a time of uncertainty, perhaps it isn't best to make up a reality or manufacture

[00:03:42] something superficial, but to really look, to really listen, not only at the state of

[00:03:48] things around us, but in our own everyday lives.

[00:03:53] And I think that's the first key to a relevant faith is to live not outside of reality, but

[00:04:01] in reality.

[00:04:03] We might also say that the second key to a relevant faith is to recognize that a relevant

[00:04:11] faith isn't something that's fixed.

[00:04:13] It's something that's fluid, that can expand and contract at different times in our lives.

[00:04:22] We might say that a certain pessimism is the opposite of an unshakable faith.

[00:04:28] But if we're not careful, I think they're just two sides of the same coin.

[00:04:33] We may know someone with unshakable faith, but how many of us know someone who's a certain

[00:04:37] pessimist?

[00:04:40] Their theme song is ACDC's Highway to Hell, and there's a lot to burn on the way there.

[00:04:47] Right?

[00:04:48] They have absolute certainty that our institutions in the United States are broken and cannot

[00:04:53] be fixed.

[00:04:55] They have absolute certainty that no, our kids will not inherit a cleaner environment or better

[00:04:59] economic conditions.

[00:05:00] And you know what?

[00:05:01] The little brats probably don't deserve it anyways.

[00:05:06] They have absolute faith in their pessimism.

[00:05:12] That nothing is going to work out.

[00:05:14] Artificial intelligence, take me now.

[00:05:16] Wow.

[00:05:16] I'm ready to go.

[00:05:17] I'm ready to go.

[00:05:19] And we may know a certain pessimist, but I think the truth is it doesn't take much to

[00:05:24] get any of us there, even if just for a little while.

[00:05:28] You start thinking about that candidate who you don't want to win office, and you go there.

[00:05:33] Something doesn't go your way, and you go there.

[00:05:38] Traffic when you didn't expect it, and you can go there.

[00:05:42] That certain pessimism, and this idea of relevant faith, it's somewhere in between this unshakable

[00:05:49] faith and this pessimism, where we begin to take sometimes contradictory realities and

[00:05:56] bring them together.

[00:05:57] I trust absolutely that there's a divine presence in, through, and around everything,

[00:06:01] and I also trust that I better pay attention to the problems and the challenges that are facing

[00:06:07] me, my country, and the world.

[00:06:10] Because if not, I'm living in my version of reality and not in the one that life is calling

[00:06:18] me to step into with greater clarity and knowing.

[00:06:24] Richard Feynman, the great scientist, tells a story of being a young man, and he was out on a nature

[00:06:31] walk with a friend, and his friend, who was a little cocky, he said, hey, you see that bird over

[00:06:36] there?

[00:06:37] Do you know the name of that bird?

[00:06:40] And young Richard answered, I have no idea what that bird is.

[00:06:46] Doesn't your father teach you anything?

[00:06:49] It's a Spencer's wobbler.

[00:06:52] And Richard shares, but it was opposite.

[00:06:55] His father had taught me.

[00:06:58] See that bird?

[00:06:59] His father had told Richard, it's a Spencer's wobbler.

[00:07:03] Well, in Italian, it's a Chudo Lapedida.

[00:07:06] In Portuguese, it's a Banda Peeta.

[00:07:09] In Chinese, it's a Chong Long Ta.

[00:07:11] And in Japanese, it's a Catano Takeda.

[00:07:14] You can know the name of that bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished,

[00:07:19] you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird.

[00:07:23] You'll only know what humans in different places and what they call the bird.

[00:07:28] So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing.

[00:07:31] That's what counts.

[00:07:34] I would say this applies to spirituality, that we can study all those 101 names of God that

[00:07:41] Patty was alluding to in her beautiful prayer.

[00:07:44] And still know nothing about God.

[00:07:48] We'll know a lot about what people say about God.

[00:07:52] But we may miss it out completely if we're not willing to look directly into our lives

[00:07:58] with confidence or with doubt.

[00:08:00] And open up to that deeper experience.

[00:08:04] What does it mean to stop naming your life?

[00:08:07] Good, bad, crappy, indifferent, whatever it is.

[00:08:09] What does it mean to just stop naming it?

[00:08:11] And listen for what it does and what it reveals to us about what our faith actually and really is.

[00:08:22] This leads to the core of the message today, the third key to a relevant faith, which is a transformational vulnerability.

[00:08:33] The willingness to be totally present in this vast mystery called life and to open up to see not what faith can be invented,

[00:08:45] but what kind of faith can be revealed.

[00:08:50] The most difficult day of my ministerial career was on October 12, 2011.

[00:08:58] I was the senior minister of the Seal Beach Center for Spiritual Living in Orange County, California.

[00:09:03] I was sitting on a bench outside talking with my board president and not 50 yards away began the gunshots that would ultimately lead to eight people losing their lives

[00:09:14] and the greatest mass shooting in Orange County history.

[00:09:19] It was a terrible day.

[00:09:24] And you want to do everything you can to help in the light of that tragedy.

[00:09:28] And thank God the police were on the scene like that and captured the perpetrator.

[00:09:34] And our church, just for a short time, just for a couple hours, got to bring in the family members of these victims

[00:09:43] who, when there's a crime scene investigations unit on the scene, they have to do their work for hours and hours.

[00:09:49] And here are these people sitting there waiting to get the official word on what they already know,

[00:09:54] that their loved one has been viciously, terribly taken from them and from the world by a wretched act of violence,

[00:10:06] of a deeply disturbed and demented human being.

[00:10:10] And you're there trying to bring water to these people.

[00:10:13] You're there wanting to be present.

[00:10:14] And to be totally authentically honest, I prayed they wouldn't ask me for prayer.

[00:10:21] Because part of prayer is to be able to acknowledge God in any instance or any circumstance.

[00:10:28] And in that moment, through my experience of that day, I saw none.

[00:10:34] And yet, my prayer, handing a bottle of water, putting a hand on the shoulder,

[00:10:40] avoiding saying things like, it's going to be okay.

[00:10:43] When in that moment, it is anything but okay.

[00:10:45] Okay.

[00:10:46] But my prayer, my prayer was, God, I cannot see you in this event, but please show up in our response.

[00:10:53] Please show up in how we respond to these individuals who've been so victimized this day.

[00:11:00] Please show up in the response of the police officers and the civic leaders.

[00:11:06] Please show up in the community.

[00:11:10] And that's sometimes what a transformational vulnerability is.

[00:11:15] It's showing up transparent in your life.

[00:11:18] Not knowing exactly how the divine or life or whatever you call it is going to show up.

[00:11:24] But to be prepared for it.

[00:11:26] Even if it only shows up through you.

[00:11:28] Through how you show up for other people.

[00:11:31] And as little as I experience the divine in that tragic event,

[00:11:36] I can say with some genuine honesty that I perhaps never experienced God so much as I did on that day

[00:11:44] when it came to how people responded.

[00:11:48] Immediate remembering of hope in the face of despair.

[00:11:52] An immediate expression of love in the midst of such tragic fear.

[00:11:57] A sense of oneness and unity when someone would behave with such little appreciation for human dignity or life itself.

[00:12:07] It was a wretched but then a beautiful experience.

[00:12:12] And sometimes, to be frank, life can be in some moments like a nightmare.

[00:12:20] Shattered by grace.

[00:12:22] It can be like a nightmare that's shattered by grace.

[00:12:29] In the midst of the loss of someone we love.

[00:12:32] A devastating change to a health condition.

[00:12:36] A challenge that we see.

[00:12:38] Or a tragedy that we see in the world.

[00:12:40] Life can be a nightmare that gets shattered by grace.

[00:12:44] Shatters of remembrance.

[00:12:45] Of beauty.

[00:12:47] Of love.

[00:12:48] Of truth.

[00:12:49] Even when we can't see it.

[00:12:51] It speaks, of course, to the famous lines of Leonard Cohen in his song Anthem.

[00:12:56] Where he sings,

[00:12:57] Ring the bells that still can ring.

[00:12:59] Forget your perfect offering.

[00:13:02] There is a crack.

[00:13:03] A crack in everything.

[00:13:04] That's how the light gets in.

[00:13:08] The danger of an unshakable faith is it doesn't always leave room for the cracks.

[00:13:15] We never have to give thanks for our wounds or what put them there.

[00:13:22] But we can give thanks for what they can offer us.

[00:13:26] The light that can shine through those wounds.

[00:13:30] The clarity and wholeness that can come from an experience of brokenness.

[00:13:36] The guide or the principle or the new self that is born as us.

[00:13:41] Even in the midst of the loss of someone or something we dearly love.

[00:13:46] There is that light that can only come through when our faith is relevant enough to be true to our experience.

[00:13:55] And yet true to that divine thread.

[00:13:58] That divine spirit that works within it.

[00:14:01] To come forward in an incredibly powerful way.

[00:14:06] So perhaps the next time you are experiencing an incredible doubt.

[00:14:11] Maybe it's simply a sign that your faith is being reborn.

[00:14:17] Not that there is anything wrong with your faith.

[00:14:20] But that it's being called to a new found experience of God.

[00:14:24] To a new found experience of what you're capable of.

[00:14:27] To a new found experience of what humanity can look like when expressed vulnerably with one another.

[00:14:36] I was having a lunch with a good friend, Joni Inman, a few weeks ago.

[00:14:42] Joni sadly lost her daughter this year.

[00:14:45] And she was sharing with me that Dr. Patty, our beloved Dr. Patty, called her one night.

[00:14:49] And what did Patty say?

[00:14:52] She could have said and it could have been true.

[00:14:54] But she didn't say everything's going to be okay.

[00:14:57] God is right there.

[00:14:58] I'm so sorry for your loss.

[00:15:01] All Patty said was, I just called to cry with you.

[00:15:05] I just called today to cry with you.

[00:15:09] What a beautiful expression to me of a transformational vulnerability.

[00:15:14] To realize that God in that moment maybe couldn't be understood.

[00:15:19] But could be best expressed by two loving people sharing tears over a phone call with one another.

[00:15:27] When we're willing to embrace transparent and transformational vulnerability,

[00:15:33] we can bring a new found creative element to our life.

[00:15:38] If you look through our Adventure in Faith materials this week or go to our landing page,

[00:15:43] you'll see there's a worksheet there that speaks about the transformational qualities of a relevant faith.

[00:15:53] They're qualities that on the surface we may look at and see as flawed.

[00:15:59] Vulnerability, that could mean defenselessness.

[00:16:02] Surrendering, giving up.

[00:16:05] Forgetting, gotta remember everything.

[00:16:07] Leaving, no, no, no, you gotta stick with it.

[00:16:12] Not knowing, no, no, no, I gotta know.

[00:16:14] I gotta be wise and understand.

[00:16:16] And yet if we can sometimes embrace these qualities in our lives,

[00:16:20] they have a transformative ability to bring forth what our life is calling for.

[00:16:26] To heal, to be connected, to embrace a greater prosperity and abundance.

[00:16:32] And I only have time to touch upon vulnerability today.

[00:16:36] But I ask you, where in it, where in your life are you being called to be more vulnerable?

[00:16:46] It could be, where is that space or circumstance in your life where you're most afraid to be vulnerable?

[00:16:54] It could be that place where you love most deeply and profoundly.

[00:17:04] There's an old saying that the truth will set you free, but first it will get you a punch in the nose.

[00:17:11] And sometimes being vulnerable, sharing a hurt, sharing something that's going to take some boldness or some courage to share,

[00:17:22] it's scary.

[00:17:24] And sometimes it may seem like it makes things worse with someone else before it makes things better.

[00:17:29] But that's where a relevant faith comes in.

[00:17:32] That even though the immediate consequence is negative,

[00:17:36] the overall one is merging towards that good.

[00:17:40] Is veering towards greater freedom and greater understanding.

[00:17:46] I've been touched reading the news reports and then watching Netflix.

[00:17:49] There's a new documentary with Will Ferrell in it called Will and Harper.

[00:17:55] And the story starts off with Will Ferrell, who's a famous movie star and was in Saturday Night Live.

[00:18:02] And he had a best friend named Andrew Steele who was a writer, not in front of the camera, but behind the camera at SNL.

[00:18:09] And they became creative partners and did so much wonderful work together.

[00:18:14] And they disconnected a little bit during pandemic times like so many of us did.

[00:18:19] And he received an email from Andrew who is now named Harper.

[00:18:25] And the email explained that Harper now identified as a female.

[00:18:31] And if you could kind of support me, she says as well.

[00:18:36] What a courageous act of transformational vulnerability to even in an email, which can be a superficial form of communication,

[00:18:46] to share one's heart, to share one's truth.

[00:18:50] Ferrell, like many people in Harper's life, may have initially sensed a sense of betrayal.

[00:18:55] How come you didn't tell me sooner?

[00:18:58] Harper, only to understand and ask questions to realize that Harper, her whole life had been betraying herself to a degree.

[00:19:05] And was now coming forward to embrace who she authentically was with the people that she loved.

[00:19:13] It reminds me a little bit of Carl Rogers, and I'm paraphrasing it.

[00:19:17] But he said, that thing in you that you're most afraid to share,

[00:19:21] that thing in you that you might share that if you shared it, you might be excommunicated or made fun of or rejected.

[00:19:28] That thing in you, if you were to actually share it,

[00:19:31] would be the one thing that most resonated with and inspired other people.

[00:19:37] What an interesting principle of life, that what is most personal is most universal.

[00:19:44] And that if we can find and articulate maybe something we haven't even been able to put words to within ourselves

[00:19:51] and articulate them in the safest possible places with people we love and care about,

[00:19:56] we could grow and we could create greater healing.

[00:19:59] And we could release the elephants in the room and embrace a greater harmonic space

[00:20:06] that resonates with our body, our minds, and our souls.

[00:20:11] That's the power of what a transformational vulnerability can do.

[00:20:16] So I invite you to be aware of where you might bring that greater sense of vulnerability to your life.

[00:20:24] What the area is, what the circumstance is.

[00:20:27] There's only a couple thousand people watching, but does anyone want to say where it is for them?

[00:20:36] Good, David. Good.

[00:20:41] Yes, great.

[00:20:43] Great.

[00:20:44] Life's calling for it.

[00:20:45] And if you're just waiting around for God to show up, she may not arrive.

[00:20:50] But if you're willing to be a presence for the divine to show up

[00:20:55] through this skill of transformational vulnerability,

[00:20:58] you can offer something, a vitamin C for circumstance,

[00:21:02] a understanding of someone where they've never felt that understood before,

[00:21:07] and a way of becoming who you really are in a way that your life is calling for

[00:21:12] and needing you to be.

[00:21:15] So with that, as we move into prayer this morning,

[00:21:17] invite any of our incredible prayer practitioners to stand and join me.

[00:21:22] Know that here in this Teal Sanctuary,

[00:21:25] these incredible folks are available for an affirmative prayer in front of the stage.

[00:21:33] And let us be aware of those solid places within us

[00:21:38] that give us inspiration and life and gratitude.

[00:21:42] But let us not turn away from those places where we may experience some weakness,

[00:21:49] some woundedness,

[00:21:51] some unresolved hurt,

[00:21:54] where we may feel not in the midst of knowing,

[00:21:58] but in the darkness of not knowing

[00:22:01] what it is or how something's going to turn out.

[00:22:05] And let us recognize that we meet our God in both places.

[00:22:08] We meet the divine in those areas that are strong,

[00:22:12] that have been nurtured,

[00:22:13] that help us to thrive.

[00:22:15] But also, as we bring a light of grander awareness

[00:22:20] to those weak places,

[00:22:22] to those tender spots,

[00:22:25] to those places that perhaps have experienced a shattering of grace here or there,

[00:22:30] let us know that there is wisdom and depth,

[00:22:34] a divine beauty of who we are,

[00:22:36] not in what caused those wounds or weaknesses,

[00:22:39] but in what we get to bring forth in spite of them.

[00:22:43] Knowing that the divine speaks through all things,

[00:22:47] that God speaks up itself

[00:22:50] without coercion or even invocation.

[00:22:53] If we just listen,

[00:22:56] embody,

[00:22:57] and embrace,

[00:22:58] that we walk this path of life not alone,

[00:23:01] but hand in hand with the infinite,

[00:23:05] that it is friendly,

[00:23:07] that it is familiar,

[00:23:09] that it is the divine memory of all being and becoming within us,

[00:23:13] becoming something unique and fantastic

[00:23:16] as you and your life,

[00:23:18] right here and right now.

[00:23:20] And so it is.

[00:23:21] Thanks for listening to the Mile High Church podcast.

[00:23:28] This podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you.

[00:23:33] To make a donation,

[00:23:34] please visit milehighchurch.org.