The Resilience Way with Josh Reeves

[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.

[00:00:28] Albert Camus was not the poster child for positive thinking. He was a novelist whose two most popular works were The Stranger and The Plague. But Camus is a perfect example of my message today, The Resilience Way. The Resilience Way. Camus moved to

[00:00:57] France in 1940, just before the Nazis moved in. And he joined the French resistance and fought all throughout World War II, seeing the agony, the injustices, the pain, and the terror that that war brought upon the world. And when it was over, he returned to his home country of

[00:01:20] Algeria to where he grew up as a child. And he experienced immense healing, remembering, and awakening there. He shared in a meditation, perhaps someday when we are ready to die of exhaustion and ignorance. I shall be able to disown our garish tombs and go and stretch out in the valley under the same light and learn for the last time

[00:01:48] what I know. There's something powerful in returning to the place where we grew up, to discover that part of us never left, to bring it back to ourselves. Not just to walk under the trees, but to converse with them. Not just to lie by the riverbed, but to dream there. And Camus discovered something about himself there that he

[00:02:17] sums up best when he shared, in the middle of winter, I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer. In the midst of winter, I discovered there was in me an invincible summer. Will you say a version with that with me? And if you're willing, I invite you to hold your hand over your hearts because I want you to know that this is the truth about you.

[00:02:46] In the midst of winter, I discovered there was in me an invincible summer. Yes, you have that invincible summer within you. And this is the ground, the foundation of the resilient way. Indestructible spirit.

[00:03:14] Intouched joy. The joy of being alive itself. The happiest people I know aren't the richest. They aren't the most beautiful. They aren't the most talented or even the most well accomplished. They are the most resilient. The happiest people I know are the most resilient.

[00:03:40] If you were to ask me who I admire most in life, I might read through a list of men in history. Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr. But when I think about my own personal life, there are a few men there, but the list is almost all women. Older women who taught me so much how to live.

[00:04:04] Women who were often subjugated at times, who had to work twice as hard to achieve opportunities that were denied, sometimes opportunities, who invested themselves in others in such incredible ways and put up with so much you-know-what to become radiant lights. Not man-hating, but man-making. And making me the man that I hopefully am today.

[00:04:30] I remember one of these women, Barbara Charwood, she had me take her to lunch at her favorite restaurant for her 90th birthday. And she kept asking me if I needed to use the restroom, which was a little strange. I said, okay, Barbara. And so I did, and I came back and sat down. She said, did you see it? Yes, Barbara, I saw it. What did you see? I saw the sign. What did the sign say? It said, men to the left because women are always right. And she laughed and laughed.

[00:05:02] The term I would use for that invincible summer that is within all of us is unconditioned joy. There is such thing as a joy in a summer within each and every one of us that is untouched by the seasons. That is the magnanimous nature of your very soul. It is the joy and the thrill of being alive itself.

[00:05:28] It is the recognition that there is something within you, no matter what the challenge may be, that is always greater than that challenge. This is the foundation and the ground of resilience to recognize no matter what is happening to me, I have the ability to respond with the light and power that is within me. Viktor Frankl, who survived a concentration camp during World War II, famously put it this way.

[00:05:58] We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into triumph, to turn one's predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation, just think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer, we are challenged to change ourselves.

[00:06:29] The individual most responsible for World War II was Adolf Hitler, someone to me who lacked resilience. He was bold, but he lacked resilience. The reason why is because he didn't have the walls, the brick or the mortar of the resilience way, which is conscience. Conscience.

[00:06:54] The ability to do the best you can to do the right thing moment by moment, no matter what it may cost you. He lacked that quality. He had been in World War I, which Germany lost, and instead of looking in the mirror, became fanatical about blaming other people for failure. He didn't look in the mirror,

[00:07:21] but he began and cultivated this politics of blame, of victimhood, that said it's this minority's fault over here, it's this country's fault over here, it's this ethnicity's fault over there. And he built and he worked up his people, and he destroyed his own people, as well as launching the deadliest loss of humanity ever, that ever took place in history. Totally lacking of conscience.

[00:07:50] It's interesting to think that the world could produce such an individual, while at the same time producing another individual contemporary of Hitler's, Mahatma Gandhi, who embodied conscience in every way, shape, and form. Not a perfect person, but where Adolf Hitler started a war that set his own people back decades. Mahatma Gandhi freed his people without ever raising a fist,

[00:08:21] through the power of conscience, doing the right thing over and over again, and believing that conscience was in each and every individual, so that when they saw his actions, they could not help but be called to that very conscience. Did you know that Gandhi actually wrote a couple letters to Hitler? Can I share them with you? July 23, 1939. Dear friend,

[00:08:51] Friends have been urging me to write to you for the sake of humanity, but I have resisted their request because of the feeling that any letter from me would be an impertinence. Something tells me that I must not calculate, and that I must make my appeal for whatever it may be worth. It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to a savage state. Must you pay that price for an object, however worthy it may appear to you to be?

[00:09:19] Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately stunned the method of war, not without considerable success? Anyway, I anticipate your forgiveness if I've erred in writing you. And a portion of his second letter. That I address you as a friend is no formality, I own no foes. My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind, irrespective of race, color, or creed.

[00:09:48] I hope you will have the time and desire to know how a good portion of humanity who have been living under the influence of that doctrine of universal friendship view your action. We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents. But your own writings and pronouncements and those of your friends and admirers leave no room for doubt that many of your acts are monstrous and unbecoming of human dignity, especially in the estimation of men like me who believe in universal friendliness.

[00:10:18] Such are your humiliation of Czechoslovakia, the rape of Poland, and the swallowing of Denmark. I am aware that your view of life regards such spoilations as virtuous acts, but we have been taught from childhood to regard them as acts degrading humanity. Hence, we cannot possibly wish success to your arms, your sincere friend, Mahatma Gandhi. Now, you might say, Gandhi, what's the use? Okay, I say, Gandhi, what was the use?

[00:10:49] But I think Gandhi understood conscience that when you lose faith in one man, to some degree you lose faith in all men. That when you lose faith in one person, to a certain degree you lose a little bit of faith in all people. We must appeal to that higher consciousness in all, recognizing that they may not realize it, they may not embody it,

[00:11:17] but we try again and again and again, as difficult as life may be. When I think of conscience, I think, like you, of Jiminy Cricket. From Pinocchio, my favorite Disney movie. My favorite songs, Give a Little Whistle and Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide. If my daughter were here, she would tell you, I cannot whistle, that's why I'm not singing it to you. And of course, the New Thought Anthem, When You Wish Upon a Star.

[00:11:46] When your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. In the novel Pinocchio, written in Italy in the 19th century, Jiminy doesn't have much of a starring role. I think he's just on one page of the book, and little Pinocchio is out of control. The cricket appears, and he tells Pinocchio over and over to follow his conscience, and this is how Pinocchio responds. At these last words,

[00:12:16] Pinocchio jumped up in a rage, and snatching a wooden hammer from the bench, he threw it at the talking cricket. Perhaps he never meant to hit him, but unfortunately it struck him exactly on the head, so that the poor cricket had scarcely breathed to cry, crick, crick, crick, and then he remained dried up and flattened against the wall. Life is tough. There's no changing that, but the resilience of consciousness

[00:12:45] is to seek to do the right thing, again and again, no matter what. Perhaps Gandhi wrote that letter, not to Hitler, but to himself, so that he could see and behold higher truths. This is Practitioner Recognition Month, and this is what our practitioners do. I don't care if I'm the last person on earth to see the truth about you, you're not going to change my mind. You can apply that to

[00:13:15] a figure in world politics. You could apply this to a loved one suffering in addiction who seems hopeless. You could apply this to someone who betrayed you and broke your trust. There is nothing you can do to sway me from knowing the truth of who you are. Some people never change. We're all changing all of the time. Each and every person, no matter how

[00:13:44] wrecked the lot they have created themselves may be, can change. Conscience is doing the right thing over and over. Spirit is the foundation. Conscience is the walls, the brick, and the mortar. And then there's hope, which is the ceiling of the resilience way. How large is your resilience? How much can you hope? The Roosevelt's were two of the most important people

[00:14:13] in the 20th century. We'll leave Teddy for another sermon. Franklin and Eleanor both brought new thought ideas and principles to the American psyche. going through the Great Depression, Roosevelt would do his fireside chats, which weren't meant to share information, but to uplift the hope of Americans. And it worked. After America

[00:14:43] was attacked by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, the first person he quoted was Thoreau, who said, there is nothing to fear but fear. Nothing to fear but fear. Eleanor Roosevelt, in the midst of Jim Crow, discrimination, held a positive hope, either contributing to or helping to create organizations and movements that helped bring a greater level of equality into our country. Adelaide Stevenson,

[00:15:13] who was the ambassador to the UN, shared at her funeral she would rather light a candle than curse the darkness. She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness. How about you? A lot of us have a lot of candle lighting to do. Eleanor Roosevelt was known to carry the following poem in her wallet. I read this. I don't know for a fact, but I'm going to share it nonetheless. It's a poem

[00:15:42] by Henry Van Dyke entitled Thoughts or Things. May have been influential on an Ernest Holmes guy decades later. I hold it true that thoughts are things. They're endowed with bodies and breath and wings, and that we send them forth to fill the world with good results or ill. That which we call our secret thoughts speeds forth to earth's remotest spot, leaving its blessings or its woes like tracks behind it as it goes. We build our future thought by thought for good or ill, yet know it not, yet so the universe

[00:16:12] was wrought. Thought is another name for fate. Choose then thy destiny and wait, for love brings love and hate brings hate. And hope brings hope. Not naivete, not turning away from injustices that we see in the world or tragedies, just belief in that invincible summer within us that is available to all people,

[00:16:42] that is available in all situations. There are those who would argue that us human beings are not good for this world, but I tell you we are here to bring forth that spirit, that conscience, and that hope that the world needs to progress into being an expression of God's brilliance, of God's beauty, of God's plan, the resilience way.

[00:17:11] Albert Einstein was also someone who lived through World War II. He had to struggle with consulting around this new device that human beings were creating that could destroy humankind itself. And of course, we all know of his great scientific accomplishments. I have always been an appreciator of Einstein's dishevelment. There is a famous picture that was allowed to be taken

[00:17:40] of his death the day he died. Doesn't that make you feel just a little bit better about yourself? And in one of the last interviews that Einstein ever gave, it was to two college students. It was published after Einstein's death. The title of it was called Old Man's Advice to Youth, Never Lose a Holy Curiosity. And the two young men got to pick Einstein's brain on a number

[00:18:10] of topics, scientific, but also of the nature of God and life. Einstein didn't believe in God in the theistic sense, but he believed in this most important thing in life that he shared with these two students. He shared the important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity,

[00:18:40] of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries to merely comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. Spirit is the foundation, conscience the walls, hope the ceiling, curiosity the windows. It's how we let the light in. Resilience isn't about not knowing,

[00:19:10] but not knowing. Who is the person to you of greater faith? She who stands firmly in her convictions and her belief, or she who stands courageously not knowing in the midst of life's great mysteries. I respect the first, but to me it's the second that really embodies the kind of faith that recognizes that resilience builds with the recognition that we don't

[00:19:39] know everything. and I'm willing to bet for each and every one of us that there is a place where we are lacking curiosity that's nipping at us, that's cutting us, that's harming us. It's a story we've become so sure of that it's eating at our resilience. And I'm not saying the story isn't true. All I'm asking you is to open up those windows

[00:20:09] and to be curious once again, to be open-minded, to be willing to see something a different way. That curiosity allows a new kind of light in. James Thurber put it this way, he said, there are two kinds of light, the glow that illuminates and the glare that obscures. What kind of light are you following? Unbreakable spirit,

[00:20:39] conscience, hope, curiosity. These are the resilience way and they are all 100% absolutely true of each and every one of you. Practice these virtues and they will carry you exactly where you need to go. Closing today, I have a few questions for you to ponder and reflect upon as we move into a time of prayerfulness.

[00:21:12] The first is where am I called to remember my indestructible spirit? Where in your life right now are you being called to remember your indestructible spirit, that invincible summer that is the truth of who you are? Where am I called to be a presence for conscience in my life? Right now in your life there is a place where the truth is yet to be told. Do you have

[00:21:42] the courage enough to tell it, if even only to yourself, so that change can begin to take place and align in a greater way with the truth? Where in my life is hope called to be renewed, reinvented, and born again? Where in my life is hope called to be renewed, reinvented, and born again? Time to raise the ceilings. And lastly, where must I be curious so that new light

[00:22:12] can enter and help me to grow? Where can I find that courage to practice a new found curiosity so that new light can enter and help me to grow? Honoring that invincible summer, Emmanuel, the light of divine beings within each and every one of us, may we do all that we can to fathom the mystery of life every day a little

[00:22:42] bit more. And as we do, it reveals itself not in answers, but in living life's great questions. I know that living the resilience way brings healing. It brings vision and perspective. It brings receptivity and newfound abundance. It brings a sense of unity. unity. It brings the ease and peace of mind that does not come easily, but through hard and courageous self-love

[00:23:12] and willingness to grow and deepen. Giving thanks for the right here, right now. And so it is. Amen. Thanks for listening to the Mile High Church podcast. This podcast

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