As You Believe: New Thoughts on Faith 2018-08-26

**Joshua Reeves** (0:00)
The following talk was given at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, Colorado. Please visit our website at milehichurch.org. I'm so glad that you're here this morning. So glad that I'm here this morning. Such an honor to get to share with you. You know, in the, in the Gospels, when anyone approaches Jesus for healing, or if they are wondering how to heal someone else, Jesus always says to them something like, as you believe, it will be done unto you. Or by your own faith, you will be healed. And a lot of us in metaphysics, we interpret this to mean that whatever you believe, you will create for yourself, which there's a lot of truth to that. But our founder, Ernest Holmes, found what I think is a deeper meaning. You know, he would take this statement, it is done unto you as you believe. And he would emphasize the as. The idea being that our connection with the divine isn't something we locate, it's something that we activate through our own consciousness. As you believe in the spirit, the spirit is done unto you. As you believe in divine grace, divine grace is done unto you. As you believe in God, that spirit is done unto you. You don't have to find it out there in the cosmos. You activate it through the cultivation of your own faith, your own belief. There is a powerful good in the universe, greater than you are, and you can use it. So it's not do you believe, it's as you believe. It's probably a secular way to find out if someone is religious or not to ask them, do you believe in God? But what someone's answer is to me doesn't always show what their spirituality is. You can say to someone, do you believe in God? And he might say yes, but then he goes about cursing how hot it is and watching the news and thinking, oh, the world's going to hell in a handbasket, and struggling somewhere in his life, wishing, just hoping, if there was only someone or something I could turn to for support and guidance. You could ask someone else, do you believe in God? And they could say no, but they may only say no in the way that they're rejecting this idea of a Zeus-like thunder god in the sky. And they may go into their lives in absolute gratitude for the connection and an a-ha, feeling connected to the ground of being. You know, I don't know about you, but for me, you know, one's religion is better defined not by what they say it is, but how they live their lives, right? One's spirituality isn't what they theorize about, it's what they practice and what they embody. It's not do you believe, but as you believe. I love some words from Robert Fulgham, a Unitarian minister that speaks powerfully to me not only this idea of living your spirituality, but how sometimes we get so defined in our religion almost like a political partisan person that we forget the practice and what it means. He says, The older I get, the less attention I pay to what people say or think or hope. I notice what they do, how they live, and what they work for. There's an unresolved argument in the arts and in politics over whether one's words are to be judged in regard to one's life. I come down on the side of integrity. The life validates or invalidates the words. Sound true?
Oratory is empty if it has not been field tested on the battlefield of experience. And I have little use for those who write beautifully and live sordidly, or those who withdraw from the world and issue instructions for how to live in it. Or priesthoods that deny the realities of the flesh, but wish to control the appetites and activities of those who live as whole human beings. If you don't play the game, you can't know enough to make the rules. If you are not engaged in the sweaty work of the world, you should not be in charge of the deodorant concession. And if you cannot find a way to aid progress in human affairs, then know that the snarking cynicism of the sideline critic is a form of plague. And to be one of those is to be a carrier of death, instead of a preserver of life. It's not, yeah, thanks. Thank you, Mr. Fulton.
It's not do you believe, but as you believe. We lost an incredible human being in John McCain yesterday. Lost to the ages.
And he said something not that long ago that I found quite powerful. He said, there is nothing greater in life than when one gives themselves to a cause greater than themselves. There is no greater act in life than when someone gives themselves to a cause greater than themselves. And that to me is what makes Mr. McCain so great because he gave himself to that cause of his country, both in military and in political service. But we're all called, no matter how you choose, to give in to that cause greater than we ourselves.