Finding Your Direction

Finding Your Direction with Rev. Josh Reeves. What does adventure suggest to you? Some place different? Something exciting or unknown? Maybe even a little bit scary? Or could it be a place you’ve always longed to go, what you’ve always longed to do or who you’ve always longed to be? Maybe the real you on the true adventure of your soul?

Transcript

So in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,

She finds herself at a fork in the road.

And she meets a character named the Cheshire Cat.

And she asks him,

Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?

That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

I don't much care where.

Then it doesn't matter much which way you go.

As long as I get somewhere,

Oh,

You're sure to do that if you only walk long enough.

And there's a lot of depth in this phrase.

It was encapsulated well decades later by George Harrison who wrote a song called Any Road.

And he said,

If you don't know where you're going,

Any road will take you there.

See,

When it comes to the wonderland of our lives,

When it comes to our own life adventure,

There are powers both visible and invisible that set into motion the grand adventure when we do two things.

First,

When we have a willingness to bring forth what is within us in a greater way in the world.

And secondly,

When we have a direction,

When we have a vision or a calling,

That's when the magic of life begins and we meet our Cheshire Cats.

That's when we meet our scarecrows on the yellow brick road.

That's when we encounter our Dumbledores.

Anybody have a Dumbledore in their life?

That's how we meet our our Yodas.

By bringing forth what is within us and answering a calling.

And this morning I want to talk about some rules of the road as we get our adventure beginning.

And the first one is this.

If you don't know where you're going,

Any path will take you there.

If you don't know where you're going,

Any path will take you there.

Without a vision,

There is no adventure.

If someone asks you what's your vision for your life and your answer is whatever,

It's not an adventure.

If you're living the Mitch Hedberg style of life where you say,

I'm just going to find out where my dreams are going and catch up with them later,

You're not living the grand adventure.

And I love our country.

I love our capitalist culture.

I love our culture of success.

But I think over time,

Sometimes we lose the understanding of just how creative our own consciousness is,

Of our own ability to create our own path as opposed to following ones that may be made up for us along the way.

I'm not a big survey person,

Always taken with a grain of salt,

But there's some interesting surveys out there.

There's a poll that came out from allaboutcareers.

Com that reported that over half of college graduates surveyed,

Leave college not knowing what they want to do.

Another survey from a Harris poll showed that the number one reason kids 14 to 23 years old wanted to go to college was financial security.

Is that the best way to live your life when you're 14?

And a Gallup poll released just this year showed that college graduates who now have jobs,

Only 26 percent of them like what they're doing.

40 percent of them now say that what they require and desire most in life is purpose and meaning,

And they're not finding it at work.

So there's nothing wrong.

In fact,

It's wonderful to have college.

It's wonderful to have mom and dad and have connections.

It's wonderful to live in this culture where there's so many different paths to success.

But we have to remember as well that when it comes to truly living a great adventure,

It has to be your own path.

Joseph Campbell pointed this out when he said,

If you can see the path in front of you,

It's not your path.

It's somebody else's path.

And when we don't know where we're going or what we really want,

We wind up living somebody else's life.

Campbell adds to this.

He said,

A friend gave me a list of things that let you know when you're old.

Some of them are silly.

Others are serious.

One is when you sink your teeth into a juicy steak and they stay there.

Another is when your back goes out more often than you do.

Or when you see a pretty girl,

The garage door flies open responding to your pacemaker.

The real serious one is when you've gotten to the top of the ladder and find it's against the wrong wall.

How many of us have climbed that ladder that wasn't really our own,

But something someone else set up for us?

He said,

Climb this.

Give your time to this.

Give your passion to this only to get to the top and realize it's not our path.

It's not our way.

As cynical as it may sound to say if you don't know where you're going,

Any path will get you there.

The lucky news as we hit to rule number two is the opposite is also true.

If you do know where you're going,

Any path will get you there.

If you truly know where you're going,

Any path will get you there.

Isn't that a comforting,

If not inspiring thought to know if I have clarity about my heart's desire.

It doesn't matter which way I choose at the fork in the road,

That desire is going to grow up and become for me.

All that being said,

Some of us may take the long way around.

Some of us may dig a ditch for ourselves and stay in it for a year or a decade.

Some of us may get married a couple more times than we needed to.

For some of us,

Our scarecrow may wind up having tattoos all over his face.

Our Dumbledore may have a prisoner number.

But the deep truth is when you really know what you're here to discover,

What your life adventure really is about,

You can go in a multitude of different directions and your heart's desire will find you.

Do you know why you're really here?

I think I know why I am.

I'm here to understand what it means to truly love and be loved.

I'm here to see if I can learn to live in full appreciation of the good of my life,

Not before or later,

But while it's happening,

Now.

I'm here to make the world hopefully a little better than before I came into it.

I'm here to be a blessing and hopefully in turn to be blessed by that.

Now,

I may do that by becoming a doctor or a landscaper,

A minister or a bartender.

My belief is that the soul really doesn't care about the content.

Your soul is really concerned about the context of your life.

And I'm a big believer that there are intentions of the heart that we set,

Sometimes very early in life.

Sometimes we're on a path and we're very comfortable on it.

Everything seems really dialed in,

But the adventure calls.

The seed we plant in our heart starts to grow and we have a greater calling to realize what it means to love and be loved,

What it means to feed the hunger the world has for the gift that you were born to bring.

It was not an easy experience when Dr.

Roger invited me to move to Colorado.

It was quite terrifying.

Those people a mile high are scary.

Gosh,

They might hug me to death.

But I was on a comfortable but wonderful and fulfilling path.

And see,

The thing about an adventure is no one can make it for you.

Willy Wonka can sign the chocolate factory over to Charlie,

But he can't give him the adventure.

Someone can build the yellow brick road,

But you have to walk on it.

Yoda can teach you about the force,

But you're going to have to use it.

And so when I was invited to come to Colorado,

It was under the understanding of moving into something that was unknown.

The real calling and perhaps the calling for your great adventure is to have the courage to let go of where you are.

I had to let go of Southern California.

I had to let go of my beautiful church.

I had to let go of the beach and the ocean.

I even had to let go of In-N-Out to move into the unknown.

And there's an aspect about the familiar.

If you can trust your heart,

Trust what your heart seeks in its adventure,

You can step into the unknown with some confidence.

I had to realize I didn't know if I would be here with you for 10 minutes or for 30 years.

But that's the adventure.

Because if you know the step ahead of you,

It's not your path.

You've got to keep walking,

Got to keep moving and to see what might grow up in its place.

For me,

I had to form a little mantra for myself.

And the mantra went like this.

I don't know where I'm going,

But I think I know how to get there.

I don't know where I'm going,

But I think I know how to get there.

You don't have to know where your path is leading to know that you're on the right path.

What I mean by that is if you show up to any path willing to bring forth the treasures and the jewels that are within you,

It can only lead to the same destination,

The embodiment of your heart's desire.

It's not which path you choose at the fork of the road that decides the true course of your life.

It's what you choose to live from that sets forth the direction and the foundation in which your adventure can grow and thrive.

I love how the Catholic teacher Thomas Merton put it.

He said,

You do not need to know precisely what is happening or exactly where it is all going.

What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment and to embrace them with courage,

Faith and hope.

A third rule of the road for us as we get our adventure in faith going.

It's not I'm sorry.

It's about the connections,

Not the destinations.

It's about the connections,

Not the destinations.

It's wonderful to know where you want to go.

It's wonderful if you have a destination in mind.

But there's great error in what we might call destination thinking,

Where you obsess so much about the destination that you forget about enjoying the ride.

And how many of us have been or have had a child who on that road trip shouts from the backseat,

Are we there yet?

Are we there yet?

My son Gavin likes to do that.

Are we there yet?

And I like to get very Ram Dass be here now with him.

Gavin,

The real question is,

Are you here yet?

Because there really is no there until you are here to experience the there more fully.

Oh,

Dad.

Yes.

I quickly become the Tweedledum in his story when that happens.

Mom,

Are we there yet?

Yes,

We're just looking for a parking spot two hours to go.

And you know,

At least our kids are honest about it.

Many of us are in destination thinking all the time.

We just don't want to admit it.

Financial security.

Am I there yet?

Mr.

Wright,

Is he here yet?

That perfect job that I want.

Is it is it is it there yet?

Am I there yet?

We have to begin to learn that there's a different voice within all of us other than the screaming child in the backseat trying to get to the destination.

There's a there's an inner voice.

There's an inner voice.

And it's speaking all the time.

And it's saying,

I am right where I need to be.

Everything is in divine right order.

All is well with my soul.

You don't have to believe it.

But can you listen to it?

I'm right where I need to be.

Everything is in divine right order.

All is well with my soul.

It's that voice when we can hear it and embody it that gives us all the tools that we need to experience the fulfillment of the journey and every step.

Can you say it with me?

I am right where I need to be.

Everything is in divine right order.

All is well with my soul.

The problem with destination thinking is we can get so caught up in it that we never learn to develop the consciousness that can truly arrive.

We never build the ability to truly appreciate fulfillment.

We never learn to train that muscle that can fully appreciate the wholeness of our lives in an instant.

Right where we are.

That's why we have to learn to tune in to that soul's voice a little bit more than the worried or obsessive child that can't wait to get where he or she thinks they ought to go.

Life isn't about the destinations.

It's about the connections.

It's about the quality of your relationships.

It's not about the big plans.

It's about those little open opportunities that come.

It's about those little openings.

An opening to be kind.

An opening to tell someone you care about you love them.

An opening to give yourself the gift of being present and having an epiphany for your life.

It's about taking advantage of all those those little openings that allow us to call forth our life adventure in incredible and profound ways.

A final rule of the road for us today.

If it feels like work,

It's not an adventure.

If it feels like work,

It's not an adventure.

You remember the story of the of the bricklayers?

Man's walking along.

He sees someone laying bricks.

He says,

What are you doing?

Man says,

What does it look like I'm doing?

I'm building.

I'm laying bricks.

OK.

Goes walks a little further.

He sees another man laying bricks and says,

Hey,

What what are you doing?

He says,

What does it look like?

I'm building a house.

Guy can't wait to get his paycheck and go home.

Walks a little further and there's someone else laying bricks.

He says,

What are you doing?

And the man's eyes light up.

And what does he say?

I'm building a cathedral.

That brick laying consciousness where we're working on someone else's time,

Where we're trying to build someone else's path.

It keeps us limited.

It keeps us encased.

What we need is that cathedral consciousness to say what I'm co-creating with the divine in my life is a gift to divinity,

A gift to my heart,

A gift to what is most beloved all around me.

To be able to settle in and bring that cathedral consciousness into our lives is to see that every relationship,

Every step of the journey is all in bringing about that greater experience of our wholeness,

Our well-being and a greater amount of grace.

As mentioned before,

To start the adventure in your life,

You really need two things.

The first,

That desire and that willingness to bring the deeper aspects of yourself into your life,

Into your relationships,

Into what you do.

It takes bravery,

Courage to do that.

The second thing you need is a is a vision,

A calling.

You don't have to know exactly where it leads,

But it can be like your guiding star where you follow it along and things come up like you may have thought they would and other things come up that were greater than you ever could have imagined.

Those two elements set the adventure into motion.

But there's a third element,

An element that when practiced and embodied really helps you complete and find the prize.

And that's the willingness to be a blessing,

The willingness to be of service to others.

The realization that the world brought us forth not to destroy it,

But to serve it,

That it's implanted in each of us something that it needs to grow and evolve,

Not just for humanity,

But for all of life.

To be willing to give our heart to the adventure to serve others is to find that completeness of the adventure in each step of our lives.

Do you have that courage to bring forth what is within you?

Can you listen for that vision?

Can you articulate it and keep articulating it?

Can you be willing to begin each day,

Not just in service to yourself,

But in service of those around you?

When we can bring these things together,

We can live our life with greater clarity,

Greater awe,

And greater wonder.

We can step off the precipice with faith and confidence.

Or as Terence McKenna put it,

He said,

Nature loves courage.

You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles.

Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under.

It will lift you up.

This is the trick.

This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted,

Who really touched the alchemical gold,

This is what they understood.

This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall.

This is how magic is done,

By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.

Step into the adventure with courage and confidence,

Yet remember that voice of your soul,

Reminding you always,

I'm right where I need to be.

All is in divine right order.

All is well with my soul.

Reviews

Thanks for sharing, resonated with me, as I’m on that path but don’t know 🤷 🙏😊

A beautiful talk. My vision is to be a blessing. 💜

Amazing! I am so inspired!

Wow! The wisdom and timing of the words were perfect.

Mile High Church...thank you

Loved the message and the imagery. We’ll done and much appreciated🙏

Much needed 🙏❤️🦋

Inspiring, great talk to start my beautiful blessed day💝

🥰🙏🏻❤️

Thank you 🙏

Fantastic. Extremely uplifting and a great reminder of some fundamental truths: enjoy the journey, don't follow someone else's path, everything is in divine right order.

This talk was grounding, fun and so lovely. Thank you

I really really needed to hear that today, thank you 🙏🏾 💜

Really enjoyed this. Well worth listening to. Thank you!

Lovely. Humorous and insightful. Just what I needed right now. Thank you 🦋

I like the humor & the message. Thank u. I AM right where I need to be!

Extremely powerful practice. Profound. Definitely a go-to while I move through this transition. Thank you so much.