AIP Week Three: Cultivating Abundance Generosity with Michelle Medrano

[00:00:00] Welcome to our Mile Hi Church Podcast. This is Michelle Madrono and so happy that you're here.

[00:00:06] Have you ever heard of the Enneagram? It's one of those personality type systems where you learn

[00:00:12] about yourself, and I'm getting certified in teaching it and doing a workshop at Mile Hi Church

[00:00:16] Friday night, June 7th from 6 to 9 p.m. And then all day Saturday, June 8th, and you can come to

[00:00:22] one or both of those, go to MileHiChurch.org to get registered and learn all about yourself

[00:00:27] through the eyes of the Enneagram. I am happy, happy, happy to be completing our three-part series on

[00:00:34] cultivating abundance today, an opportunity that we have had to deep dive into how to have a more

[00:00:41] abundant life. In the first week, I defined abundance as anything in our life that we would

[00:00:47] love to have more of. It doesn't matter whether it's more time or more energy, more friends,

[00:00:53] more connections, more opportunities, more money, whatever that might be, in order to have that more

[00:00:59] that our heart desires and nothing's off the table in that regard. We must cultivate an attitude

[00:01:07] and energy, we must cultivate abundance. We must believe and learn how to really be abundant

[00:01:16] beings of life. And so we've been looking at that in three parts and looking at mindsets

[00:01:22] and looking at habits and looking at our sense today of generosity, how to be more generous in

[00:01:30] this regard. Now I want to start out right away because when I say this and when I go into this

[00:01:35] talk, I've given talks about generosity many times in churches over the years, this church and other

[00:01:41] churches, and oftentimes people immediately kind of tune out because there's this sense

[00:01:47] that we might have had from the past that the ministers up there talking about generosity

[00:01:51] because they're going to try and talk me into giving to the church. I need money, they want

[00:01:56] money, they need my money. And so there might be this like I'm going to turn off and tune out

[00:02:01] right now and just take a little nap. And I would like to say that while I absolutely pray

[00:02:08] and am a stand for Mile High Church to continue to prosper in every way so that we continue

[00:02:13] to retain amazing people like Karen Thomas and our other staff and ministers and all the

[00:02:19] things that we do here, I trust that Mile High Church is an idea in the mind of God and that

[00:02:24] we are prospered. And I believe wholeheartedly that the way into a greater life of abundance

[00:02:33] includes the willingness to be generous in every way. It's not just about money. Money's just

[00:02:39] a small part of it actually. It's about being generous of heart, being generous

[00:02:44] in sharing our love and support and sharing words of kindness and acts of kindness with other people.

[00:02:51] It's about being generous in giving our joy and ideas and our creativity into the world.

[00:02:58] It's about cultivating a generous heart in every way so that our mindsets and our habits and our

[00:03:07] actions reflect this generosity. And we don't do this because we believe in some capricious

[00:03:14] God that's out there keeping track of all of our generous acts. We do this because we know that at

[00:03:21] the core of an abundant life is an open heart, is a heart that can love, loves humanity,

[00:03:32] loves the causes that they care about whether it be a church or charity, loves the life that

[00:03:38] they're living, the earth and the places they want to go and see and the things they want

[00:03:42] to do, loves the people in their life. And a generous heart then is a heart and being of abundance.

[00:03:52] I love that song that the choir sang right out of the prayer about perhaps the light today's

[00:03:59] the day we'll get the light. Perhaps the light is right here because it really goes with the

[00:04:04] vision that I've been having ever since I started working on this talk. It's that

[00:04:09] we don't need to get more, we need to be more. We don't need to draw more good to us,

[00:04:14] we need to expand from the inside out to make welcome more abundance. And we've been talking

[00:04:21] about techniques to do that and today with the heart conversation I started out this series by

[00:04:29] saying week one would be about the mind and mindsets, week two would be about the body

[00:04:34] and the habits the way we move our body in our life and today is the day of heart.

[00:04:38] Today is the day where we get invited in regards to abundance and general living

[00:04:44] to say am I willing to be an open-hearted space of life, an open-hearted generous space of life.

[00:04:52] And I see it like the aperture of a camera for a while I was a photographer in high school

[00:04:59] and I loved how I could see with my camera that I could open the aperture of the camera

[00:05:06] and when I did so more light would come into the lenses and provide more light to then take an image

[00:05:14] of whatever it was I was working on and when I closed the aperture it got smaller and there was

[00:05:19] less light available. Nothing changed about the level of light in the room unless I turned

[00:05:24] a light on or off but everything changed about the aperture of the instrument that I had to take

[00:05:31] the picture and what I'm suggesting to us today is that generosity opens that aperture up

[00:05:39] because it's our natural state of being it's what's pouring forth through us

[00:05:42] it's what God is as us and the more we open up that aperture which often is located and

[00:05:50] centralized in the heart in the feeling nature in the love that seeks expression through us

[00:05:57] in that generosity that naturally wants to rise out of us the more we open that up and are that

[00:06:05] presence the more abundance we then experience because we can't help it we can't help but draw to us

[00:06:15] more and more of that good that God is because we're being willing to be a channel for it

[00:06:21] we're being willing to be an expression of it we're being willing to be vulnerable enough and it is a

[00:06:27] vulnerability to give ourselves away in this way to be generous of kindness and love might mean we

[00:06:35] get rejected or people don't always understand us or people think we're weird or whatever it might

[00:06:41] be but it also has to do with standing in our worth standing in our worth we have suffered far too long

[00:06:52] on this path of human experience believing that if I could just get more I would be happy if I could

[00:07:00] just get more good to come to me if I could just grab hold of more of that love and more money

[00:07:05] and more time and more I could just be so much happier if I had more all the while what it really is

[00:07:13] if I could give more and be more if I could share more if I could stand in my divine worthiness

[00:07:22] and then give you love and support and uplifting words and kindness and not only the people that

[00:07:30] I know and care about but if I could give that back to humanity oh that's the kingdom of heaven

[00:07:38] on earth just take a moment with me and just imagine what would a world be like where everyone was

[00:07:45] being generous was giving was open like that how might I help what can I do what do you need

[00:07:59] how can I support you today I'm here for you these are the words and energetics of an abundant person

[00:08:09] and the reason that someone who can do that is abundance is because they're in divine receivership

[00:08:18] they're in a state where they're already receiving see many of us think it's about

[00:08:24] giving first and even our founder Ernest Holmes has something to say about that and it's not necessarily

[00:08:30] that I completely disagree with the founder okay I completely disagree no I'm just kidding I

[00:08:36] I don't always align with him what he says exactly the way he says it but I love this sentiment

[00:08:41] and it's similar to what Rev. Amira shared earlier in the readings when he says we

[00:08:45] should give of ourselves in love and in service to others in a spirit of generosity and good

[00:08:50] fellowship to refuse to give is to receive refuse to receive for everything moves in circles

[00:08:57] real giving is the givingness of the self a kind word a thoughtful act perhaps just a smile can help

[00:09:05] lighten the burdens of others and what he's talking about and what many will say is it's

[00:09:10] better to give first but here's my theory my theory is you can't give anything unless

[00:09:15] you've received it you can't give away something you don't have you you bankrupt yourself if you

[00:09:22] give more time to people than you have time to give you have to be in receivership of divine love

[00:09:30] to really truly give it so I think the first step is really about being in receivership

[00:09:37] and the number one issue we have about that is all about our worthiness am I worthy to receive

[00:09:44] the abundant love of the universe am I worthy to receive the unconditional love of the divine

[00:09:51] because I've done this and that said this and made these mistakes maybe I'm not so worthy an abundant

[00:09:57] person releases all that and stands in the full measure of that love and is in receivership

[00:10:07] at a heart level feels it as a warm energy that bathes them and supports them and uplifts them

[00:10:16] and is good at receiving john d rockefeller junior says gracious acceptance is an art

[00:10:23] an art which most never bother to cultivate we think that we have to learn how to give but

[00:10:29] we forget about accepting things which can be much harder than giving accepting another person's

[00:10:35] gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you so at the human level we get a gift all you

[00:10:42] shouldn't have what would it be like if we said well you should have and I love it at the level

[00:10:51] of the divine I'm not worthy what if it's I'm totally worthy and I stand in the light of the

[00:10:59] divine we never ever saw a moment where Jesus the master teacher did not stand in that worthiness

[00:11:06] of the divine presence of God and we look at spiritual lights throughout the ages beings that we

[00:11:14] admire and and can reflect upon their their beauty and their grace and their amazing presence

[00:11:21] that blessed our planet and not see that they were in receivership of that presence an abundant

[00:11:30] person is in receivership of that presence they let themselves open the aperture of their own inner

[00:11:40] being in a way that it just flows through them powerfully it's not a selfish thing then

[00:11:48] it's not a please give me so I can have more I need more give me give me give me give me it's

[00:11:54] an opening of divine receivership of the energy that life is always seeking to give to us

[00:12:01] so I have some specific ways that I invite us to consider in opening up that aperture of our being

[00:12:09] some of them are going to be very familiar and some of them may seem counterintuitive

[00:12:14] and the first one was also pointed to in our readings today it's giving forgiveness

[00:12:21] generous forgiveness I'm teaching that abundance class on Tuesday nights using the law four laws of

[00:12:30] financial prosperity that Edwin Gaines talks about and one of her laws is forgiveness so

[00:12:36] I'm going to say right here and right now with the time I have today I don't have to

[00:12:40] time enough to share the amazing genius of Edwine's words steps of forgiveness and such so

[00:12:48] you're welcome to come and join us Tuesday night right here in this room or online

[00:12:52] to learn more about those steps what I want to say today and what I want to invite us to consider

[00:12:58] is that forgiveness is generosity because as many teachers have taught us throughout the ages

[00:13:05] forgiveness is never for the perpetrator for the other person

[00:13:09] forgiveness is never for the person who did us wrong yes in our everyday relationships when we

[00:13:15] are forgiving it can help us stay connected to the people that we love and it often has to be

[00:13:20] a practice in our relationships with up close and personal but there are people that I've had

[00:13:26] to work on forgiving that I've had to have boundaries that I'm no longer in life with them

[00:13:32] I don't know where they are or they've moved on to another plane of existence does that mean that

[00:13:37] my forgiveness my ability to forgive them is now gone no it's not because that all lives in me

[00:13:45] that ability to forgive is about me it's not about someone out there and it's not even about

[00:13:51] God God doesn't keep track God's forgiveness it's also about opening up to that love that

[00:13:58] God is because God the infinite presence the divine the intelligence of this universe

[00:14:03] it's not holding anything against us I saw a cartoon about forgiveness the little boys doing his

[00:14:08] prayers at the end of the night and and is saying to God okay as soon as you forgive me about this

[00:14:14] will you please tell Santa Claus for me this concern our little souls have our big souls have

[00:14:24] that somehow somewhere someone's keeping track and we're not worthy of the kingdom somehow

[00:14:32] but what we can see and sense is that we are absolutely worthy of the kingdom and when we

[00:14:38] forgive what it does for us is it allows us to claim our inherent worth to return ourselves

[00:14:47] to ourselves to even embrace what we learned the strengths that we developed from the experience

[00:14:56] that took place some of my favorite stories of human experience are people who were wronged

[00:15:02] powerfully challenged and wronged betrayed and hurt who have worked and worked to let it go

[00:15:09] and to forgive and then out of that beautiful work go on to go forth and help other people do the same

[00:15:18] this is part of the human experience and yet what happens at the deep level of our being is that

[00:15:24] when we let go of some wrong that happened to us and we let go of all that we've made up about

[00:15:31] ourselves around it we increase that aperture the way Edwin Gaines says it she says that

[00:15:40] if we refuse to forgive we are clean to self-defeating feelings such as guilt shame

[00:15:48] blame hurt and resentment and when we do this we cannot feel truly worthy of having the best God

[00:15:57] can give us we cannot and will not accept God's gifts because we think we're unworthy we're holding

[00:16:06] on to resentment I've used the example of the garden a lot in this series and last week talked

[00:16:12] about the patches of garden this week what I want us to understand is resentment is like a toxic

[00:16:19] pesticide that we go out to the garden and we think I'm going to spray the garden

[00:16:24] to get rid of those weeds and in the process I might kill a weed or two temporarily but I also

[00:16:31] what do I do I kill all the beautiful stuff too it's toxic toxic toxic pesticide to our soul when

[00:16:41] we hang on to our resentments and hang on to our grudges and when we find ways to be free

[00:16:50] that's what forgiveness is setting ourselves free and by the way of course it's not just about other

[00:16:56] people some of us are probably sitting here going I've forgiven everybody in my life yeah that's no

[00:17:01] big deal have you forgiven yourself the resentment we have towards ourselves the things we hold

[00:17:08] against ourselves the ways we feel we're unworthy because of what we did or what we didn't do or

[00:17:14] what we could have done better they are toxic just the same way and when we learn to forgive ourselves

[00:17:22] to actively proactively just extend love and gratitude take in the lessons we've learned

[00:17:32] and move forward we begin to see the garden of our life bloom powerfully magnificently as the

[00:17:42] aperture grows and the light pours in and the photosynthesis of the soul can take place

[00:17:49] and expansion happens forgiveness is a huge part of the abundant life and we must walk that path

[00:18:00] to have more of it the other things that I want to invite us into are probably familiar

[00:18:07] the first one generous service to other people and it is about volunteering and doing good work in

[00:18:14] the world and how can I go out and serve that's part of it it's also about the everyday willingness

[00:18:20] to be of service to the people I share my life with I sometimes get so busy going about keeping

[00:18:28] my schedule keeping track of everything I've got to get done that I am looking down at my to-do

[00:18:35] list and not looking up at the people in my life really seeing them really asking today

[00:18:43] how could I be of service to that person today really sensing that someone just needs a hug or

[00:18:50] needs me to call them and just say how are you doing today these are ways that we serve each

[00:18:55] other that we're generous to each other that we don't ignore the signs of seeing somebody in

[00:19:00] stress or possible upset that we actually go the extra mile to reach out to them and I sometimes

[00:19:08] find structures help me a little bit so I'm one of those people who loves tithing my money because

[00:19:16] it gives me a 10% structure to do that but I also have applied it to time so here's my logic

[00:19:23] see what you think of this there are 24 hours in every day and we're probably awake about

[00:19:28] 16 to 18 hours a day hopefully so if I'm tithing 10% of my time to be of service to others that's

[00:19:36] 1.6 1.8 hours every day and that might mean that I'm just sitting in prayer and sending prayers to

[00:19:42] everyone in my life that I love and care about sending prayers to people around the world it might

[00:19:48] mean that I'm actively helping someone I'm at the grocery store and I see someone who needs help

[00:19:53] it's never going to be me getting the thing off the top shelf though I will admit that

[00:19:59] but I'm good at the lower shelves really good at those it may be me just feeling someone

[00:20:06] pass through my mind some of you in this room I have occasionally I'll be just doing something

[00:20:11] and your face is in front of my mind suddenly and a text goes out immediately hey you just

[00:20:15] came through my mind I'm just sending you a little love how are you doing today

[00:20:19] because in my mind we're so connected that sometimes the invitation to serve my 1.6 hours presents

[00:20:29] itself and if I'm too busy I'll set it aside oh yeah I just saw a carly out there it's no big deal

[00:20:34] I'll see carly later whatever rather than hey how are you what's going on not is anything wrong

[00:20:41] not dramatic stuff just hey I'm just thinking about you an invitation to be of service

[00:20:48] and so we can we can find that we are happier and that aperture goes bigger and bigger for us

[00:20:56] one of the things that I loved years ago was that whole random acts of kindness movement

[00:21:02] that swept through our world and one of the reasons I loved it so much is it came with it

[00:21:07] and not an anonymity oh I said that word really good didn't I anonymity it was the opportunity

[00:21:15] to be randomly kind and never get any no one would ever know that you're the one who put that

[00:21:25] quarter in their parking meter or bought their coffee as they drove through the drive-thru no one

[00:21:31] would ever know that you went and paid off their kids school lunches or that you did some

[00:21:36] volunteer act you showed up in the middle of the night and cleaned and swept the floors or

[00:21:42] whatever it was the opportunity to give and have no one give you credit for it

[00:21:54] being generous to others and the last one is having generous compassion for other people

[00:22:04] extending grace to people constantly extending grace especially people I don't know

[00:22:11] who make choices I don't understand who say things that seem crazy at times to extend grace

[00:22:20] to say I'm not in their world I'm not living their life if I need to understand why they said

[00:22:26] what they said I might reach out to them if I don't know them well or don't know how to get them

[00:22:32] maybe I let it go and just send them love and compassion the opportunity to be more compassionate

[00:22:39] versus judgmental making wrong second guessing or just outright toxically critical of other people

[00:22:54] you want to close that aperture down go ahead but if we want to open ourselves up

[00:23:02] and have that life that I invited us to envision at the beginning of this message

[00:23:07] it's going to require that we give that stuff up and rather we allow ourselves to extend generosity

[00:23:19] to try to understand that we can't possibly begin to know what someone is going through

[00:23:26] when they make choices if we're not personally connected to their lives we can't know and so why

[00:23:33] even spend a moment especially if it's at all negative postulating and theorizing and coming up

[00:23:40] with things that we're making up about people it's an opportunity to just understand that what

[00:23:48] motivates people to do and say things is their personal motivation one thing that's helped me I

[00:23:55] mentioned this in the announcement video is that I have for many years studied this enneagram

[00:24:01] so looking forward to my workshop on it I hope some of you will come and join me but

[00:24:05] I can honestly say that the study of this nine point system had it's all about motivation not

[00:24:12] behavior and so what it's helped me to understand without putting people in boxes and saying oh they

[00:24:17] must be that or they must be that I can see what motivates people from a compassionate viewpoint

[00:24:24] through the enneagram and it helps me go oh maybe that maybe they're just wanting to be seen today

[00:24:31] maybe they just need a little uplift maybe I could be of greater service to them rather than

[00:24:38] making them wrong because they were so loud or they were trying to get my attention so voracious

[00:24:43] did you clearly see how they were love and compassion extended joyously powerfully

[00:24:51] because it's who we are it's because we know that we want to open that aperture of the heart

[00:24:58] and live from that place st. Teresa of Calcutta says to us intense love does not measure it just

[00:25:07] gives when we are in the presence of that intense love that God is as us

[00:25:15] the desire to give and be generous is a natural out picturing of it this is part of how we know

[00:25:22] we're there is that we can feel that urgency I want to give I want to support I want to let go

[00:25:31] I want to stop being so negative I want to let go of judgment I want to be a person of light

[00:25:37] a person of increase a person of divine love in order to do that I've got to practice these practices

[00:25:45] I've got to live from these teachings I've got to stand in that truth so to recap our series

[00:25:52] we started out with letting go of mindsets and working with mindsets that we've taken on

[00:25:58] that we've acquired that we've absorbed through our life and came up with some specific ways

[00:26:03] that week to really change those mindsets to plant new seeds and then last week we talked about habits

[00:26:10] ways to treat and move our feet to move in our world and create and cultivate habits that uplift

[00:26:17] our new mindsets and today being generous I am a generous abundant being claiming it owning it

[00:26:26] living from it cultivate abundance on behalf of yourself the people you share this life with

[00:26:33] on behalf of our world we all benefit from it we all benefits please take a moment with me now to

[00:26:39] pray let us pray together I invite our practitioner prayer partners to stand with me and I remind us

[00:26:46] all that after the service is complete if you would like a a time of prayer it takes about three

[00:26:51] to five minutes come forward and let one of our wonderful practitioner prayer partners

[00:26:57] extend themselves in prayer for you on behalf of you today

[00:27:00] and so we surrender into this moment of cultivating the presence

[00:27:10] allowing ourselves to turn towards the light much like a flower in bloom turns towards that sun

[00:27:18] and allows the warmth of the sun to nurture it we do that now with every aspect of our being

[00:27:24] with every cell of our being for truth is that God that living presence of life is absolutely

[00:27:31] activated in every cell of us and every nook and cranny in every thought and idea and every mindset

[00:27:38] and every action we take in every moment of generosity the power and the presence that

[00:27:43] God is as us is fully expressed and so here in this moment now together in this prayerful

[00:27:50] joyous moment we allow ourselves to be touched and transformed by that light and feel the heart

[00:27:57] center opening more and more to let that light through us out into this world on behalf of

[00:28:06] every other human we share this beautiful earth with on how on behalf of every animal and plant

[00:28:14] every part of creation we say yes to this divine generosity that seeks expression through us

[00:28:23] we are in receivership of God now and as such we go forth living this out in our lives

[00:28:34] magnificently powerfully joyously consciously I accept and affirm that this is the truth

[00:28:42] of us here and now and that this week is a week of divine generosity bursting into creation

[00:28:51] through this beautiful beloved community we are the light we live the light we share the light

[00:29:00] we are an expression of divine light this is the truth of us now and I'm so grateful to see it

[00:29:09] to accept it to feel it to affirm it here so grateful that this is what is so

[00:29:18] and out of this gratitude I release this prayer now into that law into that rich soil of creation

[00:29:25] that receives this prayer like a beautiful seed that begins to burst forth into life

[00:29:31] into the world of form I let go I let it be it is done and so it is amen