Click HERE to view Rev. Jimmie Scott’s guided meditation during the service.
The man goes to the doctor for a complete checkup, because he’s been concerned. He hasn’t been feeling well and wants to find out if he’s ill. After the checkup, the doctor comes to give the examination results. And the doctor says, “I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news. You’re dying and you don’t have much time.”
And the guy says, “Oh no; that’s terrible! How long do I have?”
And the doctor says, “Ten.”
And the guy says, “Ten? Ten? Ten what? Ten weeks? Ten what?”
And the doctor says, “Ten, nine, eight, seven …” [Congregants laugh]
All right. [Laughs] And there’s more!
The patient says, “Doctor, my eyes! I think I need glasses!”
The teller says, “You certainly do, sir. This is a bank.” [Congregants laugh]
So how many people have ever worked towards a goal and struggled for a long time, and you wondered if it would ever happen? Anybody ever? How many people have ever second-guessed yourself for the way that you handled a challenge or adversity because you knew you could do it better? Anybody? And finally, how many people have ever felt lost? And I mean lost: lost your faith, lost your hope, lost your joy? Anybody experience those?
So today we begin our annual Songs of Life series. For the next seven weeks, we are going to look at some famous songs and see what spiritual messages we can get from them. You know, we all love music. I bet we all have certain songs that absolutely touch us or uplift inspire us. Yeah; I’ll bet you we all have songs we remember that take us back to “the good old days” in high school. You know, for me, some of those included “Another One Bites to Dust,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “Rockin’ the Casbah.”
And I bet we also have songs that helped us through a difficult time, that were kind of our theme song, you know, during a tough time, like, “I Will Survive” or “I’m Still Standing,” or mine — from me and my best friend – were from McFadden and Whitehead: “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.”
And so, you know, music is just so amazing. So, we’re going to extract some spiritual messages and ideas and life lessons from the following song. So today we’re going to start with a song by the great songwriter who was inducted at the Hall of Fame in 2001 — inducted by Bruce Springsteen — who is quite a big fan of Jackson Brown. This is his most famous hit, but he also did “Take It Easy,” which the Eagles recorded, and “Running on Empty.”
So today it’s his 1972 hit, “Doctor My Eyes.” And so, this song was a bit of a surprise hit, because the song was kind of sad, negative, and a bit of a downer. It’s about somebody who is kind of desperate. They’re weary and they’re jaded from all the hardships and difficulties; all the pain and heartbreak and suffering of his life, but also in the world.
Initially, the recording company thought it was too much of a downer and asked him to kind of kick it up a lot to be a little bit more optimistic. They thought the song was more in line with Henry David Thoreau’s great quote, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” So they wanted it up a notch or two to be a little more optimistic.
And so this song, to me, is a hit for a couple of reasons. One: the tune is so catchy and the beat is so bouncy. It’s hard not to nod your head and tap your toes to it. And the second one is: it’s very relatable, because we all have struggles. We all wonder at times if we have permanently messed up our lives and wonder if we can regain our sense of joy; our sense of aliveness and happiness.
Now, this is a great song because I think it really inspires a powerful spiritual message. And this morning I want to share with you three of the spiritual practices and insights that come from this wonderful song, “Doctor My Eyes.”
The first one is THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-AWARENESS AND BEING HONEST WITH OURSELVES. The song goes:
Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
And the slow parade of fears without crying …
I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hiding …
Doctor, my eyes, tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long
And the first thing I really love about this song is how aware the singer is that he is stuck; that he is lost; that he is sad; that he is feeling down; and he is not in a good place. And he has a realization that the reason he isn’t in a good place is that his pattern of shutting down and closing off and suppressing his pain — stuffing his pain down to avoid pain, which always causes more pain and creates more frustration and unhappiness — which is not what he wanted. And he’s honest with himself that the way he is living his life is not working. You know, that he’s fully aware that he is not in a good place.
And what I find interesting and wonderful about this is, in his self-awareness, he is so clear in his awareness that he doesn’t blame anyone else for where he is. Even in that negative space, he takes ownership and responsibility for his life and his situation. And he chooses to search within himself to find the answers rather than pointing fingers and looking outside to find fault. He realizes it was his choices, his decisions, the way he chose to live his life and believe and do or not do that has created the turmoil and challenge and difficulty he feels. He knew that he was unwise to live that pattern for so long. He knew that he messed things up, but not in a “shame and blame” way, but in accepting full responsibility for his life.
How many people here have ever made a bad choice? Anybody ever made a bad choice: you know, a bad partner choice; or a bad investment choice; or you took a job that looked kind of good, but your gut said it wasn’t, and it turned out to not be good for you at all?
You know, I’m sure we’ve all sometimes closed our hearts off, because our hearts were broken and we wanted to protect ourselves. So we’ve all chosen to hold a grudge; or sometimes play the victim role; or be an enabler; or pretend that all is well and we’re happy when inside, we really aren’t. It is important for us to be aware of our choices — the good ones and the not so good ones — and the way that they are impacting our lives. Knowing what our choices are and the impact, I find that awareness is actually helpful and very empowering and important for us.
A woman was struggling as she was going through the challenges of life, and she was feeling a bit burnt out. But burnt out wasn’t just because she was working long hours, it’s because she kept burying her pain. And she was emotionally exhausted carrying that burden all the time and keeping it locked up inside of her. And she kept numbing herself and distracting herself from her pain, from her past. And after this pattern went on so long, one day she just suddenly broke down in the middle of a grocery store and started bawling and crying.
And she finally had to face herself and said, “I can’t keep pretending that I’m okay. I need help.” You know, both the woman and the singer are both aware that they’re stuck, and they’re both at the place to finally admit that they need help.
In the song, the singer turns to a doctor for help saying:
I’ve done all that I could …
You must help me if you can
And so he seeks out a doctor: someone with a higher knowledge, higher awareness. And really what he needs is a doctor for the soul to help him with what’s going on inside. Really, he realized he reached the level of his human ability to do anything, and now he had to go deeper to the soul level — to the spiritual level – to get the help that he needed.
Self-awareness is powerful; It is important; but it is not easy work. Introspection, self-reflection,
and then looking at ourselves and being honest with ourselves is not always easy. And it always begins with our willingness to ask and answer these types of questions: How aware are you? Are you aware of the good and not so good decisions and the impact that they’re having on your life right now?
How honest are you with where you’re at? What you’re feeling? What you’re going through? And what you need right now? And are you ready to get some help? To say, “I need help!” And whether it’s from a therapist, and especially from our spiritual life and turning within to Spirit, it is an important thing to be self-aware and to be honest with ourselves if we want our lives to get better.
In fact, Eckhart Tolle says that awareness — self-awareness — is the number one thing and the best first step you can take if you want to change and improve and transform your life. So, the first powerful important spiritual lesson for us from this song is the importance of self-awareness and being honest with ourselves.
The second one is about THE IMPORTANCE OF HOPE. I think there’s a line in here that concerns the singer, and I think we can all relate to it at some point. And it’s a line where he wonders, “Is it too late for me?”
Do you ever wonder: Is it too late for me to fulfill my dreams. Is it too late for me to find true love? Is it too late for me to be happier? Is it too late for me to follow what I’ve really always wanted to do? Is it too late for me to get over the pain of my past? Is it too late for me to find my purpose?
I think we all wonder at times: Have I messed up and is it too late for me to have what I really wanted?
And I love what he puts that line; he says:
Now I want to understand
I want to understand if there’s still hope for me. If a good life and happiness is still possible for me. And while he wonders if it’s too late, you could tell that there’s this underlying sense of hope that he has.
You know, hope is a powerful and essential practice for life. Hope is … You could say hope is spiritual armor, but I like to think of it as a spiritual life jacket. Because hope is a thing that helps us have desire and motivation and optimism. You know, hope is the thing that helps keep us resilient and reduces the negativity and stress in our lives.
Hope is a yearning and an inner belief that there is something greater and better possible, even if I don’t know what it is or don’t know how it could happen.
You know Desmond Tutu said that, “Hope is the ability to see light even in the darkness.” And I really think that this song is a song of hope. According to social science researchers at the Arizona State University Center for Advanced Study and Practice of Hope. Have you guys ever heard of the ASU Center for the Advanced Study and Practice of Hope? I’ve never heard of that, but what a cool place!
But here’s what they say: “Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is a process, and hope takes harder work than you think. It takes work to cultivate and practice hope. We must accept the responsibility for developing hope in ourselves, because hope is powerful and it makes a difference.”
They’ve done all kinds of research showing how more hopeful students actually are better off health-wise, and they’re better off in coping with the challenges and struggles in their lives, both now and also in the future. You know, students who have more hope tend to get better grades, and they tend to have better social and emotional skills and have better connection with their peers. Increased hope has been shown to be more effective in many ways of helping people with mental health issues.
Hope is powerful, and it absolutely makes a difference! But we’ve got to work it. We’ve got to practice it. We’ve got to cultivate it. We’ve got to develop it.
Robert Louis Stevenson said, “It is better to travel hopefully than it is to arrive.” And what are you saying is that hope is a positive mindset that we carry through our living and all of our experiences. And so, we have the responsibility to cultivate hope. And here are the four things we need to do to cultivate more hope.
And the first one is just to set goals, even if they’re small tiny ones, just to see possibilities of good in any area of your life. The practice of that: seeing possibilities, setting goals and intentions.
The second one is to practice gratitude daily. Be thankful, you know, for all the little and many things that are good with our lives.
And the third is to do things that bring us joy. Whatever it is: a bike ride, going hiking, playing cards with your friends. Whatever it is: talking to your sister or your brother on the phone. Whatever it is that brings you joy, because it helps raise our vibration, our energy, which helps us be more hopeful.
And the last one is to honor and believe in ourselves and to honor and believe in others. The more we believe in ourselves and honor ourselves, and believe in others and honor others, the more hopeful we feel about all aspects of our lives.
You know, life is hard, and hope is hard too. But it’s worth the effort. Because hope will uplift us and it will elevate us and actually help us as we work through and travel through the difficult challenges and hardships of life. So, the second lesson from this wonderful song is about the importance of hope and cultivating hope; practicing hope.
And then the final one is about THE IMPORTANCE OF HEALING. Interestingly, this song actually began when Jackson Brown had an eye infection and he had to go to the eye doctor. And it was … Have you ever had when it’s kind of crusty and it’s kind of closed? Well, he had to put drops in his eyes and keep that one eye closed for three days. Interestingly, it was in those three days the rest of the song came while he healed. And then he was able to see clearly again.
You know, in the Bible, the eye really represents perception. You know, these following Scriptures: “We have eyes but cannot see.” “Lift up your eyes and see the fields are ripe for harvest.” “Open your eyes.” “Your eyes are the lamp of the body.”
Sometimes the thing that needs healing the most is our perception. It is in ourselves of how we’re seeing a particular situation. Wayne Dyer said, “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” When we shift our perspective on something, something amazing happens. The things look different and we experience things differently.
An old man was sitting at the city limits and he was approached by someone new coming towards town. And the newcomer said, “Hey, what are the people like in this town?”
And the old man said, “Well, what were the people like in your last town?”
He said, “In the last town, you know, people were cold and they were mean and selfish. They weren’t very friendly or welcoming at all.”
And then the old man, he said, “Well, that’s the kind of people you’re going to find here.”
And then an hour later somebody else comes and says to the old man, “Hey, what kind of people are here?”
And the old man says, “What kind of people are at the last place you were at?”
He said, “Well, they were friendly and they were warm and they were generous and kind. And they treated me really well.”
He said, “Well, that’s the kind of people you’re going to find here.”
It was the same town! And what he’s just illustrating is that it’s our perception sometimes that makes a huge difference in how we experience and react and enjoys all of the situations of our lives.
A young man in recovery from addiction said, “I used to numb because I thought that pain was the enemy. But pain was trying to teach me something: that I need connection, not escape.”
Again: the perception. Is pain the enemy or it is a helper?
You know, anybody ever make a mountain out of a molehill? Ever take some little thing and blow it up that it’s the end-of-the-world kind of thing? It is always our perception that has a huge impact on how we interpret and experience all areas of our lives.
The healing and the whole “Doctor My Eyes” and wanting to see clearly is about healing our own perception; healing the way we look at things.
And we always heard: Is it an obstacle or is it an opportunity?
What do Mozart, Nikolai Tesla, Seinfeld, Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs and Mark Cuban have in common? They were all fired and they all failed significantly. However, their perception of the experience as something to grow with — as a stepping stone, as a learning experience that would make them — stronger was the thing that was similar. Because they all realized that, whatever situation happens in their life — win or lose or fail or fall or whatever — they’re all there, if they’re willing to allow it to teach them, to grow them, to expand them and help them develop and experience a fuller and richer life. Not running away from it; not hiding; but facing it and learning from it.
You know, everything in our life is there to help us. The question is: Are we willing to have the perception and the perspective to see that truth and reality?
And so, if we’re struggling in our lives, if we feel overwhelmed, we need to ask: What in me needs to be healed? And to ask: What do I need to shift in my perspective to help me see this in a different or a better way? What am I meant to gain or learn from this? How is this meant to bless my life and help me? What is it that I need to let go?
And sometimes one of the greatest healings can actually come by just acceptance. What do I need to accept that I’m not accepting right now? Because sometimes that is one of the most healing and liberating things that we can do.
A patient went to the doctor and asked him to check his leg. “Something’s wrong, doc. You know, just put your ear to my thigh and you’ll hear it.”
The doctor crosses; he places his ear on the man’s thigh and he hears, “Give me $10. I’m desperate. I need $10.”
“I’ve never heard such a thing!” the doctor said.
And the patient said, “Oh, that’s nothing. There’s more.” He said, “Put your ear on my knee and you’ll hear more.”
And so the doctor does it again and he hears, “Please, I need $5; $5! Just $5! Please, I’m desperate.”
The doctor says, “Sir, I have never seen or heard anything like this ever.”
He said, “Oh, but there’s more. Put your ear to my ankle.”
And he puts his ear to his ankle and he hears, “Please, I just need $20. Just $20! Lend me $20; I’m desperate.”
And then the doctor says, “You know,” and he looks through all his medical journals. “I can’t see anything. I’ve never heard of this, never mentioned, had anybody say anything. So the only thing I can do is give you an educated guess. And so, what it looks like … It seems that your leg seems to be broke in three places.” [Congregants laugh and applaud]
Instead of “Doctor My Eyes,” I feel like saying, “Doctor, my joke; please, help me. Help me if you can.” [Congregants laugh] All right.
And so, if we’re having a hard time and if we’re struggling, there are three things we need to do. And that is to practice self-awareness, and to be honest with ourselves of what’s going on to the point to be willing to say, “I need help.” And sometimes it’s therapeutic help, and it is always beneficial to seek spiritual help.
The second is the importance of hope. That hope is the thing that allows us to see the light in the dark. And that it’s our responsibility to cultivate hope every day, because it will lift us and elevate us … especially through the difficult times of life.
And finally, the importance of healing and particularly to heal our eyes: to heal our perception of how we’re seeing things. How we’re seeing ourselves and others and the situations in our lives. Because the truth is: they are all there to teach us, to grow us, to help us, and to expand us. Self-awareness, hope, and healing are the three lessons from this powerful and wonderful song, “Doctor My Eyes.”
God bless you all.