From Toil To Calling with Michelle Medrano

[00:00:01] This is Josh Reeves and you're listening to the Mile Hi Church Podcast. Tuesdays in September, I'm beginning our Beyond Limits class. It's in person here at Mile Hi. You can find some online classes as well on our website. It's all about the fundamentals of our teaching and I'm so excited to bring the big ideas of science of mind and spirit to this class as we create community, exploration, and talk about what's most meaningful in life together.

[00:00:27] Well, it is a holiday weekend. As I'm sure you know, it is Labor Day weekend. And so I really thought about a message that I could bring that would sort of align with this. And I wanted to talk today about calling. And so my message is entitled From Toil to Calling. And tomorrow being Labor Day, it's interesting that it's the holiday dedicated to celebrating work where we don't go

[00:00:53] to work. This is kind of interesting for those of us who are still working, right? It's a day off for us. And I also, when I contemplate talking about calling, I see it in a very broad base, maybe more than just a profession or what we do for a living. I see purpose in that way also. And yet, I feel very blessed that in

[00:01:17] my life, I was able to discover a deep part of my calling in life about ministry early on in my experience. I came to Mile High Church as a teenager, was about 15 years old, started taking classes when I was 18. And at the age of 18, I was sitting over in what is now our vote building in a class very similar to our Beyond Limits

[00:01:44] class. It was the first class we offered, the basics class. I was minding my own business taking the class. And this voice just bubbled up from inside of me in the middle of a class one day that said, you should be a minister. And my response was, that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard in my whole life. I had been, as I said, coming here. I loved our ministers. I loved Mile High. I loved this teaching.

[00:02:12] I knew that I was home spiritually. But in those years I'd been here, I had never once thought, I want to do what they're doing. It had never crossed my mind. I was attending the University of Colorado down at Denver. I was a communications and theater major. I was very happy with the trajectory of my life. And so to tell you the truth, I rejected the notion pretty handedly right away.

[00:02:34] But I was in pain and struggled for a few years after that because I kept pushing it away. And eventually I even applied for and got a job here at Mile High Church. And as I watched how hard the ministers work, I became even more clear there's no way I ever want to be a minister. No way. No, no, no. And it wasn't until I found myself in the practitioner training classes.

[00:03:03] That work, through the trajectory of our coursework, is very powerful inner work that really truly does break down, I think, a lot of resistance to what the personality has been thinking it's supposed to be doing. And it was in those classes that I found myself one day literally on my knees in tears, feeling that my life was not going the way I wanted it to. And that inner voice said,

[00:03:29] it's because you have not accepted the call. You are to be a minister. And so with great surrender, I remember coming into work the next day, feeling pretty resolved and saying, okay, I'll do whatever I got to do. And I told Dr. Roger Teal that day, I think I'm going to be a minister. And I knew at the time the only school of ministry was

[00:03:54] in Los Angeles and I was going to have to move and go to school in LA. And Dr. Roger looked at me and he said, you know, that's interesting, Mitch. We're going to open a school of ministry right here at Mile High Church. And I felt like I was where I was supposed to be. Now, that's one of the biggest moments for me of feeling that call come up from the depth of my being and dancing the dance of resistance and

[00:04:23] not thinking I was good enough or whatever story I was telling myself. But again, it's not just about profession because that same feeling has found its way into my life in various other subject matters. The call to call someone, the call to reach out, the call to go someplace, the call to do something,

[00:04:48] the call to move my body in a certain way through my life, the call to listen to what I believe I'm talking about today is more than just vocation, career, profession. It is an invitation to honor the call of our soul in every and all realms of living. And that's what I'm inviting us to do.

[00:05:16] My suggestion today is that we labor too hard to make a life for ourselves. That's the toil part. We work too hard. We follow too many rules. We follow too many things we think are important. And we struggle and we feel disconnected and we feel a lack of meaning at times. And we wonder what's wrong. And what if part of

[00:05:45] what's not helping us be in the flow is that we're not honoring the call, the call to what is ours to do. Now I'm certainly not guaranteeing that every time we follow and honor this call, it's all going to go perfectly. Sometimes following that call means that we're going to find ourselves in challenges we didn't anticipate,

[00:06:14] in things that weren't exactly perfectly aligned. But what if that's part of the call also? That the call of the soul is for the soul's highest and best and biggest expression. And that the more we're in alignment with the purpose for which we've come here to live and the more we're listening and

[00:06:38] honoring that call in every area of our life, the more we literally are in the flow. I think when we refuse to do this, we find ourselves feeling discombobulated, exhausted at times, reaching for things and substances and people and lives that don't really support us because we think that's what we

[00:07:04] should do. We find ourselves out of alignment because spiritual living, which we're all about here at Mile High Church, invites us to be in alignment in every realm of our life. That alignment is the goal. Alignment with the inner and the outer in a way that we are in a greater sense of flow. And we are

[00:07:29] building a life and building a self and building a beingness that allows us to feel as though we're truly living our best life. We're not just living and following the rules and doing what we're obliged to do. Rather, we're following things like Reverend Doty read in our readings. We're following our passions.

[00:07:54] We're following the breadcrumbs of energy that call us forward into our best life, our best days, our best choices. Our highest and best living is available to us if we will surrender toiling for calling, if we will surrender struggle and obligation for passion and guidance. That's what

[00:08:22] can happen in our livingness. So a huge part of this then is that we've got to live an awakened life that allows us to discover what it is our soul has come here to do. In the big picture and in the daily life, what is it that our soul, the essence of us is seeking to experience? Labor Day is a great day to

[00:08:48] celebrate. It was established as a day to honor workers, people who have worked to build our communities, who have worked to support families and build our society. And yet it is also a day where we can go deeper and say to ourselves, if I'm going to be in alignment with my soul's work, what is the work

[00:09:13] that I need to do? What is the life that I need to build? What if our greatest work isn't what we do or have done for a living, but what if our greatest work is who we become to the world? Think about that. Is it more important what we do in our career or who we are to the people we share that career with?

[00:09:36] Is it more important that we got a lot of things done and we're really productive or who we were to the people that we encounter in our daily living? Who are we becoming? That is a powerful picture. That is a powerful consciousness. That is a powerful idea to pay attention to. And that work

[00:09:59] is the holy sacred work of discovering the soul's journey, discovering the work that then isn't toil becomes this work of energy, this work of light, this work of love, this work of bringing forth our wholeness, our genius, our greatness. While others might be wondering, what should I do with my life?

[00:10:24] We get to ask ourselves something like, what is spirit seeking to express as me in this life? That is a powerful, powerful question. And indeed, it might appear today that I've got more questions for us than answers. And that's purposeful. The invitation when we're seeking and discovering this

[00:10:48] calling is to be open, to be accepting, to listen to the soul's calling by asking deep questions of ourselves. Who have I come here to be? Not what have I come here to do? What have I come here to express? And those questions are powerful questions. So here's a little bit more about the difference between

[00:11:13] toil and calling. Most of us know the feeling of toiling. Toiling is often and can be an indication that we might be off track if we are putting forth a lot of effort for something, but not experiencing a lot of deep meaning in that effort. Feeling as though it's a bit empty. It can be being very active and doing a lot and getting a lot done, but not feeling a lot of connection with

[00:11:40] ourselves or others in the process. It can be a feeling of, I mentioned obligation. Doing things and feeling that the things I do, I do mostly because I have to. That feeling of I have no choice. I always know that I'm in toil if I'm telling myself, well, I have to do that. I have no choice.

[00:12:03] I'm toiling right there and then. Now it's not that we don't have times where we have things we have to do because we've agreed to them or they're part of the role we're playing in an organization, but it's never what we do, it's how we do it. There are always ways to adjust, ways to be,

[00:12:27] ways to dance with things that allow us to step out of toil and into that feeling of calling. Whereas calling is finding ways to live our everyday life and to make the choices that we make from that deeper place of alignment. Often calling has to do with finding ways to connect things up with what I feel the

[00:12:54] purpose is that I've come to serve this family, this organization, this situation, that I'm in alignment with my purpose, that I'm finding meaning in what I'm doing, that I literally think about it in a different way and discover what is the meaning of what I'm doing. That's a huge part of metapsychiatry, isn't it, Dr. Patty? It's that discovery of not why am I doing this? What's the

[00:13:21] meaning of this? And it takes us into a deeper place. And when we're in alignment with our calling throughout our life, we have often this feeling and this sense that what I'm doing matters. Ultimately, my life

[00:13:42] matters. My presence here makes a difference. I think that's a huge part of why you're here and why I'm here. We haven't just come here to exist, to just spend our days toiling. Each one of us has come here to make a difference. And the question becomes then, are you doing it? Are you just existing? Are you just

[00:14:11] doing as much as it takes to get by every day? Or are you making it matter to your own soul so that by doing that, there's a life and an aliveness that then allows the very presence you're being to make a difference? We all know when we encounter people who are living life in a way that they're

[00:14:36] making a difference, they're contributing to people's lives. And it just often has to do with how they're being. It's not about the tasks they're doing, it's who they're being as they're doing the things that they're doing. And that's a part of calling and how living a life of calling can change everything. Two people can be doing the same job, but doing it very differently. One experiences drudgery,

[00:15:05] the other experiences being on purpose and being alive and on fire for life. The difference isn't what they're doing or the task. The difference is the consciousness and the energy that they're bringing to what they're doing. And that makes all the difference. And it's important for us to distinguish this and pay attention to us, to this. Because our founder, Ernest Holmes, tells us very clearly

[00:15:31] throughout his writing, he says, life is a mirror and reflects back to the thinker what he thinks into it. So the outer activity matters less than the consciousness that we're bringing to it. So a teacher can be answering a call. A retiree can be answering a call. A volunteer can be answering a call. A caregiver

[00:15:58] can be answering a call. Calling is not just about profession, as I've already emphasized. It's about expression. And spirit is always seeking expression through us. When we answer that call, we are giving God that infinite life the opportunity to express beautifully through us in its unique way.

[00:16:27] And therefore, we can do what we do, make the choices that we make from that centered place of the divine expressing through us. Powerfully, magnificently, joyously, uniquely, with energy, with light. And we can, when we're coming from that place, see that we can make a difference as we express these

[00:16:52] qualities of spirit, love, and connection, and harmony, and wisdom that just can pour through us when we're in alignment. When we're in alignment. It's powerful. But we have to look at what are our own obstacles to calling. What are your obstacles to living in your calling every day, to living

[00:17:18] in alignment every day. I think there are three big ones that we need to examine. The first one is fear. Fear. Because most of us have not been raised to say, hey honey, do what you feel is best. Do what you think will be the calling of your soul. Most of us were raised to do things that are

[00:17:44] practical, that make sense, that will get the biggest bang for the buck, will bring us the most money, will bring us the most accolades, whatever it is that was important in our family value system, or our culture value system. And so many of us, to access this energy that I'm talking about, we have to surrender fear because it becomes a habit to be afraid. What if I do the wrong thing? Or what

[00:18:12] if I make the wrong choice? Or what if I disappoint the people who think I should be doing X, Y, and Z? What if I fail? And so we let fear sometimes win. And when we are willing to allow this obstacle to fall away, what we start to do is allow ourselves to trust and to grow and to step into newness. I've seen

[00:18:38] countless examples of this for myself. In my own life, my own mother was doing a life where she was in real estate, whether she was selling real estate or mortgage lending, and then she had this vision for a personal growth company where she could really support people. And so she had to find a way with taking care of three children to go from this pretty steady work, steady paycheck to this new endeavor

[00:19:06] where she was following her calling. So I feel blessed to have had an example of someone who showed me how to follow my calling, not only in my profession, but to live in my life in a way that allows me to be okay with taking the risk even when I'm afraid. Even when I fear I'll fail or even when I fear maybe I'm not doing

[00:19:30] the right thing according to someone else's eyes, that sort of thing, to step forward in that anyway. So we have to surrender fear. And for most of us, we have to surrender the second obstacle, which is comparison. We often will compare ourselves to other people. Well, people at this time of my life should be doing blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or shouldn't be doing blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm too old to blah, blah, blah. I'm too

[00:19:58] young to blah, blah, blah. Whatever the comparison is, we've got our stories and we are looking at everybody else rather than looking right here at our own experience, being willing to stand in our own truth, being willing to measure our worth, not by how much we accomplish out there, but how much we let

[00:20:21] loose of ourself from this inner place to be expressed in the world. That's powerful. Again, the difference that we make, finding our own way, finding our own truth. And this can be challenging because there will be people around us when we start to live out our calling in various areas of our life that might challenge us, that might withdraw their support, that might tell us we're on the wrong track.

[00:20:51] And we still have to be willing to step forward. I know that when I decided to switch to ministry, I finally surrendered. I'd been going to college and my father had been footing the bill for my college. And when I told him that I wanted to go to ministerial school, he withdrew the funding. He said he would not support me in this endeavor. So I found a way to pay for it my own self.

[00:21:19] And it wasn't easy, but I knew that it was a way that something I had to do. And for him, he was comparing me to what he thought I should be doing and didn't appreciate what I wanted to do and couldn't support me in what I wanted to do. And that could have been enough for me to say, well, then I guess I can't do it. But that call still said, nope, this is what you're supposed to do and you will find a way to do it. And so we might find that people will want to say, no,

[00:21:48] you shouldn't be doing that. And that's a huge part of the comparison energy. Sometimes they're comparing us to what they think we should be doing. And we have to find the courage and the strength to step forward and follow our own calling. And the last one, the last obstacle is identity. Identity, old identities. This is especially powerful at this time as we're talking about Labor Day,

[00:22:15] because a huge part of the identity we build for ourselves often has to do with whatever profession we have chosen, whatever vocation we're about. However it is we're making our way in the world. And whether we're still doing that or we've let that go and we've retired or we're doing something else, it can be a challenge to our identity. And it can be very discombobulating to be willing to lay down

[00:22:39] a certain identity. For many people, their identity is, I am a teacher. I am an accountant. I am a minister. I am a mother. I am a father. I am a this. I am a that. Whatever it is that we identify with. But sometimes that identity that's been built out of the life that we've built isn't entirely aligned with this calling within us that says, yes, I've done that. This is part of what I've done,

[00:23:09] but it's not who I am. My profession, my identity with what I've been doing, it's not who I am. It's what I have done. It's a role that I have played. And it's not that we discounted or say it's not important. It is. And often many of us have been lucky to have a role that matches up with our purpose and our passion and our calling. And sometimes we haven't. And the risk that we take

[00:23:37] sometimes as we listen to and follow our calling is it's not our identity. And we have to let that go. So how do we let it go? How do we truly listen for our calling? Well, today is a part of that. I'm inviting us to listen for our calling right here and right now, to use today, this holy day of Sunday,

[00:24:04] of spiritual community, to really ask ourselves and really reflect upon what is life calling me to right now? We have an electric car. And when we need to charge our car outside of our home, if we're out and about, we can put into the navigation that we want to go to this charging station and charge our car. And I love how when we do that, there's a little message at the top of the screen that says that

[00:24:29] the car is preconditioning the battery. It's like getting the battery ready to get charged. So tomorrow is Labor Day and whether you work or not, it's Labor Day. And so it's an opportunity to use the energy of that day to really deepen into the calling. And today, right now on your screen and mind, it says preconditioning. We are preconditioning and setting ourselves up in this beautiful space

[00:24:58] together to say, what do I need to listen to more deeply on Labor Day about my work, my personal work, not my J-O-B, but my work, my soul's work. What is it that my soul is calling me to? And in that regard, I invite you to consider these three R's. The three R's are letting go of resentment,

[00:25:27] resistance, and restriction. Letting go of any part of us that is resentful of other people who are living out their best life and just getting in touch with our own. Letting go of resistance, that part of us that hears that voice like of our father saying, I'm not going to support you in that, or whatever it is. Our own resistance, it's not the best thing to do. I can't do it. What if I fail? That resistance that's built out of fear. Letting go of restrictions that say, I could never do that.

[00:25:57] And just letting those ideas go on this Labor Day to get to the holy sacred work and embrace the three R's that support us. Those three R's are reassessment, revisit, realign. So the work for Labor Day then becomes to reassess what is it that my soul is urging me to do as far as work on myself goes.

[00:26:26] Is that work about the work of my physical health? Is that work the work about my relationships? Is that work about my career or my job? Is that work about something my soul has been calling me to experience and to revisit it? Because I suspect for most of us, just like me who kept pushing aside that call to ministry, I had to revisit it over and over again until I finally could say, okay,

[00:26:55] okay. So I get to revisit. And then I get to realign, align myself with myself. Align myself with that deeper sense of who I am and what I've come here to be. Because I know for sure that the world is waiting upon each one of us to fall into alignment with the truth of who we are.

[00:27:20] And upon doing that, the energy, the light, the wisdom that is available to each one of us is huge. Until that time, as we're in resistance and unwilling to hear and unwilling to see, we can feel and experience the smallness of living. But we are called for bigger things than that. And so here are some questions I want to end with

[00:27:48] to invite us to reflect upon in the days ahead. What brings me alive can lead us to a deeper sense of our calling. What do I love giving? What quality wants to emerge through me? What am I being invited to learn?

[00:28:09] These things are powerful, powerful questions that can open us deeply, profoundly into our deep sense of who we are. We take a breath. We contemplate them. We feel them. We journal about them. We think about them. We reflect on them. We talk about them with the people that we love. And we share together. And we find openings begin to happen.

[00:28:38] And I'd like to close with a beautiful quote from Howard Thurman, one of my favorites that we say around here a lot because it's just so good. Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. And go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Let us follow our calling. I invite us to pray together and I invite our practitioner prayer partners to stand with me now as we pray.

[00:29:06] And remember that after our service, you can come down front and our practitioner prayer partners will be here to do a prayer for anyone who would like one about their calling today or finding their calling or any other subject that is near and dear to your heart. So feel free to allow them to support you in that way. And right here and right now, we celebrate and give thanks for the love and the light,

[00:29:28] the wholeness and the peace, the joy and the infinite presence that Spirit, God, Source is in this universe. It is all there is. It is the love. It is the light. And we fall into this awareness of it as the all that is and recognize that because it is all that is, each one of us is infused and in the midst of it.

[00:29:55] As Martin Buber would say, God is in the midst of us and we are in the midst of God right here and right now. And it is from this place of centeredness and connectedness that I gratefully, lovingly, confidently declare that each of us is experiencing a deeper sense of that which we are called to do, to be, to experience and to express in our lives.

[00:30:21] I accept and affirm that we go forth in this day ahead. And this Labor Day brings with it the gift of self-expression, the gift of our calling rising forth to show the way, to lead us forward in love and light and wholeness. And I'm so grateful for each one of us, for whatever way we already are following our calling

[00:30:47] and whatever ways open up within our soul to lead us forward in this endeavor. For I accept and affirm that we are blessed. And by saying yes, we are a blessing. And so in loving gratitude that this is so right here and right now, I easily, effortlessly and with great confidence release this prayer into the action of that law that makes it so. I let it be. I let it go. It is done. And so it is. Amen.

[00:31:18] Thanks for listening to the Mile High Church podcast. This podcast is made possible by the generous contributions from listeners like you. To make a donation, please visit milehighchurch.org.