Yes x 3 with Josh Reeves

**Josh Reeves** (0:01)
This is Josh Reeves, and you're listening to the Mile Hi Church Podcast. Labor Day weekend, Samira, Jackie, and myself are facilitating a Meditation in Prayer retreat. It's about meditation and solitude, but it's just as much about connection and community. We'll be creating a space of healing, introspection, and inner joy and fun. So, consider joining us, learn more about this and all sorts of stuff at milehichurch.org. Once in a while, not very often, someone will ask me, Josh, when did you get the call to ministry? When did you say yes? And the answer for me is that there wasn't a single yes. It was kind of an admission. It was an admission to what I was saying yes to my whole life. I had to ask myself at a young age, Josh, what is it that truly brings you joy in this life? And the answer for me was, what is our initiative this year? Healing and community. There's something so powerful about spiritual community when we loosen ourselves from our self-invented isolation to be with other people in awareness of a power for good greater than we are that allows us to learn who we are in the midst of other people and to connect with that higher power. Nothing more healing. Nothing more powerful for me. I had to ask myself as well, what skill do I have that I want to continue to build on and grow? Can't fix a car, not very good at math, but I can show up as sanctuary for people. It's a great skill and something I want to continue to grow the rest of my life to reflect back to people the best I can, the truth of who they are, whether it's at church or to the guy behind the counter at AutoZone. I love helping people to see who they are. Lastly, I had asked myself, what if it was taken from my life would cause me to lose that sense of meaning and joy? And the answer for me is quality of connections and consciousness and relationships. Not only the relationships that I've built in ministry in my time and the science of my movement, but dedicating myself to the spiritual practice called the science of mind, so that I can deeply connect with the people I love the most. It's been the greatest gift of my life. The reason I'm a minister isn't because I'm a master of this teaching, it's because I need it the most.
We all have a story of yes.
We just have to admit it. We can look back at our lives and see the momentum that we've built in alignment with our virtues, our values, and where we want to go, and we can see how it shows up in incredible ways. Sometimes we have to move past the story of no's that we've built up around it. But when we know what our yes is, and we learn to allow it to harmonize with this infinite good that we teach here in religious science, then we're rocking, then we're rolling, then we really have the spiritual momentum to live amazing, fantastic lives. Because that's the heart of this teaching. You and I are surrounded by an infinite, limitless good available to us at all times. And all you have to do is just say yes.
And as we align with that good, it begins to demonstrate in our lives in incredible ways. Ernest Holmes speaks to this. He said, If the gift of life is already made, then our part must be to accept, receive, believe in, and use it. Your first step is to come to a more complete realization of who and what you are. Your next step is to enter into a more definite understanding of your relationship with this power. Your final step is to use this power for yourself and others. If you want to know if something is religious science, two things. One, the idea has to be fluid. It's something you can evolve in and grow in every time you comprehend it. And yet at the same time, it has to be practical enough that you can put it in your pocket. It has to be expansive enough to keep us growing in the idea and practical enough that we can put it in our pocket. And what Holmes shares with us is an everyday recipe for living a great spiritual life. To become conscious, so aware of this divine presence that it becomes aware of us as well. To know it is infinite good, infinite love, infinite grace expressing itself. To realize, oh my goodness, the truth of that power is the truth of me as well. I am a part and an expression of this vast, infinite good. It is the truth of every cell of my being. And now that I know it to be true of myself, I can know it to be true of others as well. I can look at this tangled up necklace of pearls that is our world and see that good making itself known and through. And the most beautiful thing about this teaching is when we open up to be a blessing to others, guess what happens? We get blessed by this incredible good. But you've got to say yes.