Being Free, Part I with Roger Teel

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Mile Hi Church Podcast. We're so glad you're here. I'll bet you're

[00:00:05] here because you are a spiritual seeker and we just happen to have all sorts of

[00:00:10] classes at Mile Hi Church online and in person. Come and learn more about the

[00:00:16] depths of your spiritual nature. Come and learn about how to expand and create

[00:00:22] the life you want. Our classes start the week of September 9th. Go to

[00:00:27] MileHiChurch.org and click on classes to learn more.

[00:00:31] Alright, this is a two-part series called Being Free. If I don't get it this week

[00:00:36] I've got next week to give it another shot. Alright? Being Free. The aim of this

[00:00:44] today is to empower a more dynamic realization of our true potential

[00:00:50] and our opportunities for spiritual mastery. Now it's pretty clear to me that

[00:00:57] there are times when each and every one of us stumble over ourselves. A list for

[00:01:04] me is extensive. Very, very long. I was thinking this week of back in 1988 I'd

[00:01:11] met and fallen in love with Erica. We'd set the date. Her family flew out

[00:01:16] and I was excited to introduce her mom and dad to the congregation. And what do I

[00:01:20] do? But I get up there and I call her father by the wrong name. I said, Bill and

[00:01:24] Millie Smith. I said, wait a minute. Bob and Millie Smith. Well the

[00:01:28] congregation got a kick out of my suffering because that's sometimes how

[00:01:33] you are. They just howled and I wanted to find a rock to crawl under.

[00:01:39] But the good news is that beloved Dr. Bob, a man who by the way he and Millie are

[00:01:46] watching online right now. I love you guys. But Dr. Bob over the years I have

[00:01:52] loved that man so much. But it began when he found it hilarious also and

[00:01:58] forgave me. So we could go ahead and get married. Yeah. My stumbling over

[00:02:03] myself is a long and storied tradition. And I believe that's true for you too. I

[00:02:09] do. Now the most troubling times when we stumble over ourselves are those times

[00:02:18] when we give our power and possibilities away to people or circumstances.

[00:02:26] Thus essentially agreeing to enter into their prison, to become a prisoner. Now

[00:02:34] I'm talking about the times when we yield to the hindrances, the

[00:02:40] frustrations, the setbacks, the heartbreaks in life. Times when we feel

[00:02:45] constrained and confined, chained whether it's to nagging problems or

[00:02:51] difficult people. Maybe it's a painful past we think will always haunt us.

[00:02:57] Sometimes we feel in prison to a decision we made that we regret and we

[00:03:02] feel insurmountable or maybe it's an ongoing personal pattern that continues

[00:03:09] to sabotage us time and time again. Now the tendency if we're facing any of

[00:03:14] that or anything else like that is to begin to identify ourselves as a

[00:03:21] captive to that situation. And it's made even more limiting when we make

[00:03:28] excuses for what's going on and we defend how stuck we are and how

[00:03:35] powerful and imposing the situation is. We argue for that and as has been

[00:03:42] said, argue for your limitations and they're yours. They're yours. Now from

[00:03:49] the outset here, beautiful ones, with all my heart I invite you to take this in

[00:03:56] that freedom is the birthright and the essence of every one of us now and

[00:04:05] unto forevermore no matter what we face. Being free is both a calling and a

[00:04:14] power within every one of us. I'm going to ask this wonderful AV team to put up

[00:04:20] some words by our founder, Dr. Holmes, Ernest Holmes. Take these in. He wrote

[00:04:24] declare your freedom. Know that no matter what others may say do or think

[00:04:29] you are a success now and nothing can hinder you from accomplishing your

[00:04:34] good. All the power of the universe is with you. Feel it, know it and then act

[00:04:41] as though it were true. It's a great statement and he's hinting at some

[00:04:47] tremendous power but hear this, hear this. To access this tremendous inner

[00:04:53] power he speaks of requires that we must claim and activate our free

[00:05:01] spirit while we're in the very midst of whatever we have felt has imprisoned

[00:05:07] us. Whatever we felt or feel is confining us, constricting us, limiting

[00:05:13] our lives. Yes, right in the midst of the hardships, the apparent failure,

[00:05:22] the deep and challenging path, whatever it might be. We're called in

[00:05:28] the midst of that to get back in touch with something we've never lost. We may

[00:05:34] have turned our back on but that we are free spirit, getting back to being

[00:05:41] free. Now if we determine that our freedom and our greater empowerment

[00:05:47] waits for people in situations to change then we're just going to stay

[00:05:51] stuck. We'll stay stuck. I continue to be tremendously inspired and

[00:05:58] humbled by this man. This man is Victor Frankel, the Austrian psychologist,

[00:06:07] philosopher and Holocaust survivor. Now in his epic, epic, round-down book,

[00:06:13] Man's Search for Meaning, he talks about what he went through in the

[00:06:20] Nazi concentration camp and the great horror and the agony that took him to

[00:06:29] what he felt were his limits although he discovered there was more in him and

[00:06:35] we'll talk more next Sunday about that. But the thing about him and that he

[00:06:39] writes about is he had a moment when in the midst of all that agony he had

[00:06:47] a breakthrough realization that he put in these words. Everything can be taken

[00:06:53] from a person but one thing, the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude

[00:07:00] in any given set of circumstances to choose one's own way. And then he went

[00:07:08] on to say later on what a man actually needs is not a tensionless state or I

[00:07:17] worthy of him. So, so powerful. Everything can be taken except our ability to

[00:07:26] choose our attitudes. Now I think that there are some folks who suffer from

[00:07:34] psychosclerosis which is a hardening of the attitudes and that's something

[00:07:43] though that there is a remedy for. Thank God. You see, Frankel seized upon his

[00:07:52] inner freedom while still in that horrific, horrific experience. You see gang,

[00:08:02] they couldn't take being free from him and nothing can take being free from

[00:08:11] you and me. Not really. Oh, we can imagine ourselves constrained, imprisoned,

[00:08:20] chained but the ember of our free spirit glows on. It waits to be fanned into a

[00:08:29] flame and that's what I want to do today. Absolutely. Now most of us have

[00:08:37] not had as dire an experience as Frankel's yet I'm sure every one of us has

[00:08:47] had our very trying, very difficult, very hurtful times. Times that may have

[00:08:54] brought us to our knees the wind out of our sails and we don't know what to do.

[00:09:03] Maybe that's what brought you to church today is that you need that

[00:09:09] something can help you not just stand up but step forth. And what I really want

[00:09:17] you to know is that what we're talking about today is not some abracadabra

[00:09:22] that's going to magically dissolve all the challenges or problems. No, but what this

[00:09:29] is about today is about an awareness and practices that can restore us to the experience of being free.

[00:09:43] And out of that we then can exercise at a higher level our sacred capacity for choosing,

[00:09:54] for deciding what shall go on within us no matter what's going on around us or to us.

[00:10:03] That's what it's about and then when we realize that we have this God given ability we reorient

[00:10:13] ourselves to life itself and we find that there can be new strength, new insight, new

[00:10:20] inspiration and oftentimes it's the opening through which good things can begin to happen.

[00:10:28] It's what gave Frankel the power to maintain and then later on to serve. It can work for you and me too.

[00:10:36] So this brings us to the first of three steps of empowerment I want to offer us today

[00:10:41] and the first one is actualize your free spirit now. Whatever's going on for you today

[00:10:50] I invite you during this time together right here to actualize that free spirit energy within you.

[00:11:02] It can lead you forward it can lift you up. You see freedom is not a state of affairs it's a state

[00:11:09] of heart and freedom is not the result of improved or changed conditions it's the demonstration of

[00:11:18] transformed awareness that's what our freedom is and in the very midst of the turmoil of life.

[00:11:27] Oh I invite you to make a sacred pilgrimage to your center to the intersectional area.

[00:11:40] I invite you to feel like you're going there right now to a space in you so pure

[00:11:47] not invaded by anything else a space where there's light there's an energy we want we need

[00:12:01] it's that space where we can commune with God's idea of us not what the world has said or our

[00:12:09] fears proclaim but God's idea of us as magnificent beyond measure

[00:12:16] God's idea of us as free and ever-evolving consciousness and we come upon this

[00:12:27] and we have the realization as has been written that yes we're in the world

[00:12:32] the world of effects the world of dense matter the world of of change and of challenge

[00:12:40] but we're not of it I am in this world but I'm not of it and as I pray that you're sensing that space

[00:12:53] a free energy free life within you uncluttered unlimited as you sense that

[00:13:01] I invite you to anchor it and expand it by celebrating it

[00:13:05] yeah in the midst it seems outrageous but in the midst of problems challenges

[00:13:11] heaviness hardship there's power in celebrating something deeper and greater in you and there'll

[00:13:17] be people who think you're crazy but that's all right the world is needful of crazy people

[00:13:24] like that like you celebrate you know the Israelites in the Babylonian captivity

[00:13:36] suffered at the hands of the Babylonians and after days of slave labor they would still creep

[00:13:41] down to the riverside and they would take instruments liars harps out of the reeds and the willows

[00:13:46] and they would play music and they would dance because their bodies were enslaved but their

[00:13:52] spirits remained free and they celebrated that Paul and Silas were beaten up by the

[00:13:59] Romans and tossed into jail but they sang praises to the divine and an earthquake happened and it blew

[00:14:07] open the doors of the prison and they and all the other prisoners were set free which indicates

[00:14:12] that they were probably terrible singers or or that they had found a key to unleashing the

[00:14:22] power of a freedom within them that could never be limited nor constrained and I want that for us

[00:14:34] take a risk to feel it right now and let's proclaim it I've got a couple of affirmations

[00:14:41] that we can speak our word about this let's share this one together I am free and magnificent

[00:14:49] spirit right now now this next time I want you to say it with feeling to your heart

[00:14:57] all right again I am a free and magnificent spirit right now yeah let that think in

[00:15:10] and then I offered this one together I rejoice in the mighty freedom of my true self now some

[00:15:21] of you sat there and said I rejoice in the mighty freedom so this time this time perhaps we couldn't

[00:15:33] say it with our full heart and mean it how about that let's go together I rejoice in my mighty freedom

[00:15:40] of my true self feel that spirit moving within you saying oh yeah yeah that ember being fanned

[00:15:51] into a flame this is the supreme spiritual stand that we can take that we must take

[00:16:02] it recorded in the book the fifth chapter of the book of john is a time when Jesus

[00:16:08] journeyed to the pool at Bethesda now it was said that this pool was a healing place and that

[00:16:17] regularly angels of God would stir up the waters in that pool and whoever got into the water

[00:16:25] when that happened was healed of whatever their affliction so Jesus went there and when he did

[00:16:32] there were lots and lots of hurting and sick people around he was particularly drawn to one man

[00:16:40] the man was lame and he had been laying by that pool for 38 years 38 years I'd say there's a bit

[00:16:54] of procrastination going on there or resistance at some level and so Jesus went to this particular

[00:17:03] person and he kind of bluntly confronted him by saying will you be made whole in other words

[00:17:13] what's going on are you willing are you willing to rise up and be whole well the man replied

[00:17:23] in sometimes a typical human way with his excuses and he said well sir I have no one to put me in

[00:17:30] the pool when the water is stirred up and someone always gets in before I can so obviously that's

[00:17:41] his story of limitation which he has been living over and over and over again and we have a capacity

[00:17:48] to live out stories of limitation over and over and over again I mean for goodness sakes occurs

[00:17:55] to me that if he even perched himself at the very ledge of the pool he could at least roll over into

[00:18:00] it when the waters were stirred up but something about how he designed his experience was saying

[00:18:06] it's just not possible and everybody gets in my way and it just doesn't work out for me but you

[00:18:11] know what Jesus didn't even respond to any of that he didn't respond to how this guy had

[00:18:17] spent 38 years not fully involved in his healings and he simply said rise take up your bed

[00:18:28] take up thy bed and walk and the man did and he was made well illustrating for us symbolically that

[00:18:38] higher energy of consciousness teamed with action can overcome inertia and self pity

[00:18:45] and all that keeps us imprisoned because it's not what we face that imprisons us as much

[00:18:52] as our own stories and our own inertia and how we get down on ourselves and believe more in the problem

[00:19:00] more in the situation than the mighty spirit of the living presence within us

[00:19:06] so we can all get shackled and limited in this life absolutely and at the same time we're all

[00:19:14] sitting beside an infinite pool of intelligence and ideas and possibilities at the same time

[00:19:25] we feel shackled we're right by this sea of possibility and we then can open to that

[00:19:36] unless we're stuck in our excuses and lift up the power of the situation over the power of

[00:19:42] something deeper within us now Jesus represents the higher self the god self

[00:19:50] our spiritual natures christ consciousness within us christ within us our hope of glory is that

[00:19:56] and that christ energy from time to time will come to us even when we're stuck in our stuff

[00:20:04] and say hey you're ready now you're ready for a prison break you're ready to say yes

[00:20:15] to something so fundamental and true about you a light that will not go out

[00:20:23] indeed our freedom is often just a step of willingness away let me also share with you about

[00:20:28] the most important person and gift in my life and that is my beloved Erica she's here somewhere

[00:20:37] well disguised from me i can't find her out there oh good Erica shared with me a story

[00:20:50] and i've written about it in my book it touched me so deeply it was about a time in 1985 it began

[00:20:56] in 1985 when her first husband mark died in dealing with leukemia so there was Erica a single mom now

[00:21:05] with two boys three and six years old so Erica responded amid her grieving by being very strong

[00:21:14] and keeping things together she had a circle of friends that she and mark had developed

[00:21:21] and they were they were good to her and supported her and she kept moving on

[00:21:27] with the typical courage that i know of her after about a year

[00:21:34] she met a fellow and started a new relationship but she shared with me that you know it was nice

[00:21:42] and i enjoyed him but it wasn't what i had and it wasn't what i wanted but then again i had it

[00:21:51] and so over the next year she experienced a circle of friends and her growing sense of i don't know

[00:21:57] if i want to stay in this circle of friends in my next chapter and i don't know if that's

[00:22:02] the energy i want the boys growing up in and i don't know about this relationship but

[00:22:07] then the inner battles would go on that we might all have had in similar ways like well it's so hard to

[00:22:12] break up it's so difficult to make change especially when others would be astounded and

[00:22:19] disappointed in you and and tell you you're you're wrong it's just so tough and so this tug of

[00:22:26] war was going on within her something in her saying yeah but i want more so she would often

[00:22:33] pack up the boys and take them from houston down to galveston to the beach and they'd play in the

[00:22:38] beach and she had her her free time and one day she was there the boys were playing and she was

[00:22:43] reflecting and thinking about this that was going on that insistent something that said this isn't

[00:22:48] enough and she had what an a shift in consciousness which she now calls her cloud talk it was as though

[00:22:58] she went to a place where she had died in her own thinking she had died and she was sitting on a

[00:23:06] puffy white cloud and looking down upon her life and she could see that her life had gone this way

[00:23:13] and it could continue on the same way and it'd be all right but then she saw another path

[00:23:21] and that path wasn't entirely clear but it had energy it had possibility and then the old tapes of

[00:23:30] you have but i still have all this and it's okay but then a part of her said these words all you

[00:23:56] and within a couple of weeks she made a range but she didn't really know where she wanted to go

[00:24:00] she just knew that life was saying it's time and she thought of maybe florida maybe denver decided

[00:24:06] i'll give denver a shot so she she scheduled three days to be in denver and if she found a

[00:24:11] rental home in those three days she'd stay if not who knows thank god on nine p.m on the third day

[00:24:21] she walked into an oddly painted house and loved it and rented it from the couple

[00:24:29] then within a couple of weeks she had all of her belongings packed up and shipped out here

[00:24:34] then she went and turned her van in and and bought a huge Chevy four-wheel drive blazer because

[00:24:43] she was going to snow country with two boys and she got in that blazer and did what that guidance had

[00:24:52] said she simply left yeah among the hue and cry of many around her but she left it wasn't easy

[00:25:02] she told me she cried all the way from houston to dallas and then she drove in a better state

[00:25:07] all the way to denver but she left and then she got here and set up house and then somebody

[00:25:13] told her about a rather odd and unique church in alameda and garrison and she had begun studying

[00:25:19] metaphysics so she gave it a shot the second sunday was she was here she walked out the doors of the

[00:25:26] vote center and came through my line and it all began it all began and so a lot of things go on

[00:25:49] within us i know when we think of that but i tell you what that to me is how we can be called to live

[00:26:03] and her story gives us the second and third point that i want to share with you gifts i want to give

[00:26:11] you and that's second one is embrace your heart's purpose now not later having stirred up a sense of

[00:26:18] your free spirit no matter what's going on then search your heart what am i about not so

[00:26:24] not necessarily what specific things you want to go do unless you know but what's my inner purpose

[00:26:30] here maybe it's to grow through this experience maybe it's to say yes to a higher calling what's my

[00:26:35] heart's purpose okay what's the stirring within my heart it's about the opportunity to connect

[00:26:42] with our deepest most fervent most passionate why in this life why am i here what's my next

[00:26:51] opportunity now the ego the ego wants to know exactly where we're headed what it's going to look

[00:26:56] like how it's going to all unfold or we're going to stay put and that's why a guy stays by a pool

[00:27:03] for 38 years but i remind you erica didn't know where she was going to go and she had no idea

[00:27:15] what would happen what she had was a newfound commitment to her purpose a bigger better life

[00:27:26] for herself and our boys and we meet and mary and i'd adopt those boys and love them to the core of

[00:27:33] my being and i give thanks that she didn't let all the yabba inner and around her sweep

[00:27:44] that purpose under the route and then the third thing that extends from her beautiful actions

[00:27:53] brave your higher path now brave your higher path now instead of waiting in a bed of excuses and

[00:28:02] reasons why take the first steps that you can take even if you don't know the end

[00:28:10] take the first steps trust that something's going to mold you lead you guide you shape

[00:28:14] you inspire you strengthen you we're called to purpose fueled trust walk in this life a purpose

[00:28:25] fueled trust walk but here's what i know is that that free spirit in us fueled by a heartfelt

[00:28:37] purpose and the willingness to step forward our boldest bravest steps toward what is best for us

[00:28:47] will prosper us support us grow us and make us lights in this world

[00:28:56] something brought you here to church today maybe at a deeper level than you would have thought

[00:29:04] but it's maybe to hear somebody who loves you say you're incredible you're not defined by what

[00:29:13] you have ever faced or by what you face now and you're also not imprisoned by it the situation

[00:29:22] may not change took a while for fronkel to get free took a while for the israelites to free

[00:29:28] themselves from babelonia but you stay the course you step boldly forward and you will see yourself

[00:29:39] step to a new level of strength clarity and then you'll know hey i can have that joy

[00:29:51] that nothing extinguishes because there's no thing in this world that can ultimately contain me

[00:29:57] not discouragement not defeat not death nothing can contain nor limit the spirit of the i am that i

[00:30:10] am in me and thus as the poet wrote and declared it is well with my soul right let's take this into

[00:30:27] prayer oh precious ones breathe deeply with an out breath sense that you're shedding the sense of

[00:30:47] weightiness a sense of chains if there are those that seem to bind and take another deep breath

[00:30:59] and let your shoulders fall back and your heart be elevated a new posture of possibility

[00:31:14] and sense that precious beautiful heart let your energy be there in your sacred portal

[00:31:24] that leads to the sanctuary of your being your heart and feel it warming quickening

[00:31:38] let your breathing become a natural gentle rhythm a rhythm of peace and sense

[00:31:55] no i am that which the spirit has created me to be i am this free spirit i am free and abundant

[00:32:15] and powerful consciousness i may go through many things in a lifetime

[00:32:28] yet none of them diminishes me nor imprisons me and therefore i no longer grieve the spirit as it

[00:32:41] is written but i celebrate i celebrate truth in the midst of it all and thus i am becoming

[00:32:50] mighty in the midst in this moment i celebrate i feel some energy rising within me opening me

[00:32:59] further to the directives and the vision of my heart be with your heart there what's its

[00:33:11] deepest direction and you may not know all of the ifs and whereabouts and details

[00:33:25] and yet it can lead you there and receive its initial gift of spiritual assurance

[00:33:41] comfort and strength for you still are the glorious spirit precious beautiful god ordained

[00:33:51] spirit and nothing ever diminishes that and you can hit your wagon to that energy and see

[00:34:01] where it takes you this is the healing space of god's love received and activated in our heart of

[00:34:09] hearts and thus i know with great joy the sanctity and the sacred essence of spirit

[00:34:20] embodied in each and everyone here each and everyone everywhere and i know that sacred

[00:34:26] spirit is a light that can never go out i know it's shining in this place ever so

[00:34:31] brightly i know you carry it forward from this place into your circumstances and your relationships

[00:34:37] into whatever is going on in your life and the light shines brightly in the darkness

[00:34:42] comprehend of it not and the way is made clear feel the joy in this feel the deep joy

[00:35:02] of this homecoming and we stand in trust that from this place of being free

[00:35:14] we are guided forward to become even more fully embodied spiritual beings

[00:35:24] so i give thanks for the shifts for the healings for the changes that naturally

[00:35:27] are the byproduct of this i give thanks for the healings of mind body emotions and

[00:35:32] situations for you for me for all who are receptive that the glory of our souls might

[00:35:38] shine forth ever so brightly now i know this is truth active in us right now we leave as free spirit

[00:35:49] ready to create to choose to savor the miracle of life thank you thank you all giving spirit

[00:36:00] for this and more than words can say

[00:36:04] may we celebrate and be grateful and so we now let it be releasing this

[00:36:12] art of consciousness into expression to grow and abound in through and as us and so it is

[00:36:25] and amen thanks for listening to the mile high church podcast this podcast is made possible by

[00:36:32] the generous contributions from listeners like you to make a donation please visit milehighchurch.org