Click HERE to view Rev. Rogers’ guided meditation during the service.
So how do you do life? Are you one of those that kind of waits to see if it’s safe, if it’s good? And then you dive in? Or do you dive in first just knowing that it’s going to be fabulous?
See, I want us to really look at the way that we do life. Because the way we do life actually matters. And some of us start from a place of insecurity, fear, worry, where we kind of want to check things out first. We don’t want to get too far; we don’t want to get to overcommitted. We don’t want to go all the way in until we know that we’re safe. And then when we decide that we’ve figured out that we’re safe, then we kind of launch ourselves into life.
And there’s some of us that just say, “Heck with it. I’m diving in! I’m going! I’m going to trust life; I’m going to trust myself; I’m going to trust my God. And I’m just going in and I’m going to just see what happens.”
And I want you to just kind of pay attention to how you do your life. Like, do you have a spirit that just says, “Jump!”? Or do you have a spirit that says, “Nahhhh … I’m going to wait right here just to see how things go and then maybe I’ll jump if nobody else gets eaten alive”? Right?
See, I wanted to do this series. And what I’m doing is: I’ve picked four highly successful people. And I wanted to see how they say they were successful. Because sometimes when you’re really successful, the reason that you think you’re successful may not really be the reason you’re successful. But we all have an idea in our mind why we’re successful when we look at the things that have allowed us to be successful in our life.
And so we began last week with looking at Oprah, and Oprah’s belief in the power of intention. And the power of intention is the decision to actually create an experience before you launch into it. And in Oprah’s mind — and she uses Gary Zukov’s book, The Seat of the Soul, Chapter 7 on Intention — and she says, “It changed my life, because what I realized is that I could set an intention for any experience.”
And when we talked about that last week, what I wanted you to see is: Are you an unconscious doer? And an unconscious doer is someone who goes through the motions, but they never really set an intention for what they want from their life or an experience or the moment. They just kind of go through the motions.
And tonight I want to look at Buffett. Warren, not Jimmy. And I want to look at a speech that he gave almost 20 years ago at …. It was a lecture that he gave at the University of Florida — the business school. And he happened that one of the MBA students popped a question to him. And he asked the billionare, “If you could live a happier life — if you could live over again — what would you do? Would you make any changes?”
And his response was that he actually felt like he’s been a very happy man. And he turned the focus on to the student and said, “You know, I want you to look at making great choices in your life: in your career; in your finances; in your health; in your relationships.” And then he said the four words that became the focus of this speech: “DO WHAT YOU LOVE.”
He said, “The way to do it is to play out the game and do something you enjoy all your life. By associating with people you like. I only work with people I like. If I could make $100 million with a guy who causes my stomach to churn, I would say no.”
Now, you might say, “Well, that’s easy for a billionaire! You know, that’s really not the life I know.” And what I want you to see tonight is: What if doing what you love actually was transformative? How many of you have heard that idea – “Do what you love”? Right? It’s not a new concept for any of us, right? But the question then becomes … Not if we understand the concept, because the concept’s not hard! I mean, we’ve all heard, “Do what you love!” The real question is: Are you living that? Because it’s not helpful if you’ve heard, “Oh yeah, do what you love,” but you’re not doing it!
Like, there’s this moment where we actually get to decide: Am I doing what I love, or am I not doing what I love? Because most of us have a long list of reasons why we don’t do what we love. Like, we could. And yet, some of the time — we spend so much of our time — not doing what we love. And we have an excuse for why that is.
So, if you did what you love — if it had to be like a 7, 8, 9, 10 on your scale of 1 to 10; if it had to be what you truly love — how much of your life would have to change? How much of your life really is what you truly, deeply, profoundly love? And how much of your life are you going through the motions or doing what you think you have to do?
Will you say with me, “I love my life!”?
Together: [with congregation] “I love my life!”
One more time like we actually mean it: [with congregation] “I love my life!”
Now, how many of you when you say that, the inner voice within you says, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”? Right? Because for most of us, I don’t think we’re loving our life! I think we’re spending a whole lot of time going through the motions, but we are not loving our life.
And what would happen if you had to decide today that you were actually going to spend the majority of your time — 70, 80, 90% of your life — doing the things that you love? Because what I believe: When you do what you love is the highest form of abundance. It’s the highest form of you honoring the values and who you are as a person.
“I love my life!”
Together: [with congregation] “I love my life!”
A quote from Jim Carrey: “I learned many, many lessons from my father, not least of which is that you can fail at something you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance doing what you love.”
Marc Anthony — the singer, not the Roman politician — said this: “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
They asked Mahatma Gandhi, “Mr. Gandhi, you have been working 15 hours a day for 50 years. Do you want to take a vacation?” Gandhi smiled at them and replied, “I’m always on vacation.” Right?
So, I want us to look today and to see how much of your life are you loving. Because there is this belief that says, “I can’t love it until it works; until it fits; until it looks just right.” And I’d like to suggest tonight that the more you love your life, love is the transformative tool.
Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity, said, “Love is the great harmonizing power.” And we keep waiting until our life is perfect for us to love it. And I’d like to suggest tonight that, as you love your life, you actually unleash your life to be the highest level of good. That the more you love your life, your life will actually rise. It will get better! Because you’re bringing more and more love into your life. And the more love you bring into your life, the better your life’s going to be!
That we are waiting in judgement in our life, that: “When my life gets better, then I’ll open my heart and love it.” It doesn’t work that way! The more you love your life, the more your life becomes a greater and greater and greater level of good.
Now, I have this belief. And this belief is that, when cranky people die, there is a special place in heaven for them. Because, for most of us, we have this belief that heaven’s going to be so fabulous. Right? And when you die as a cranky person, your tolerance for ecstasy is really low, right? Really small. And just because you don’t have a body anymore, your emotions have been the way they’ve been your whole life.
So you die as a cranky person, and I believe that there’s a special area in heaven where they put all the cranky people until they get over themselves [congregation laughs] and learn to embrace the ecstasy of God! And then, once they get over themselves and learn how to be happy and be in love and have a great life, then they unleash them on the rest of us. [Congregation laughs] But they don’t really have permission to come out until they get over themselves.
So if, God forbid, this were to be your last night, would you go to the happy section? Because you loved your life? Or would you go to the little safety zone, where they would keep you safe until you got happy? Like, what would it be like for you?
Because I absolutely believe that, as we learn to love our lives, our lives are transformed.
“I love my life!”
Will you say that with me? [With congregation]: “I love my life!”
Now, does everything have to be perfect before you love your life? No! It’s never going to be perfect! Life on this planet isn’t perfect. Jesus said, “In the world there is tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” I’ve overcome it!!!
And so the way that we overcome it is that we love it so much that we actually call it to a higher level of good. And I want you to see, over and over again, that when we’re stingy with life, life tends to be stingy with us. And that the highest level of good is when you decide that you want to love it.
I have a woman I worked with many years ago. And she worked at an assisted living. And one of the stories that really had an impact on her soul was a story where she would give the tour of the new assisted living. And it was a new resident. She was showing them the dining hall and all the things that they had at the assisted living. And she came into the lady’s room after she gave her the whole tour of the place and she said, “I think you’re going to be very happy here.” And the lady said to her, “I already love it.”
And what I want you to see is that is actually a sign of spiritual maturity. That when you make the decision that, in every experience, you’re going to love it, you actually take every experience to its highest level. And you actually bring more good to it.
You know, doing spiritual community … Sometimes people will say to me, “Well, Richard, I was feeling really good on Wednesday night so I didn’t come to church.” [Congregation laughs] Like, really? “Yeah, I was feeling good.” And I said, “Okay, so you and I have a different vision of spiritual community.”
Because my vision is that we all come together, right? And if you’re feeling good, I guarantee God’s going to plop somebody near you who’s not feeling good. And your goodness, your joy, your love, your happiness is going to impact them and change their life! And when you’re not feeling good, you come to spiritual community and then somebody lifts you up! And as we bring our love, our joy, our power, our presence into this experience, it creates a greater experience for all of us. For all of us!
Today, what if you had to love your life? “Oh, my God, Richard! I’d have to start all over!”
Like, what if you had to love your life? Could you do one day fully in love with your life? Could you do one week fully in love with your life? Loving every bit of it? Bringing all your love and your joy and your passion to one full day or one full week? And could you imagine that, if you could do that day after day after day, that the love, the joy, the presence that you would bring to your life would change it!?!
We’re not here waiting for life to get better. We’re here to bring our spiritual presence into life and transform it.
So here’s five ideas that I want to share with you. It’s why I want to make a case for I think we just need to be about loving our life and loving it in greater and greater ways.
First one: When you love your life, you’re actually aligned with your highest values. Like, whatever you love … The moment you bring your love to a moment — to an experience — you’re actually aligning with your highest values. And you actually experience the life that you were born to live. that the more we keep our heart closed — the more we stay in judgement; the more we stay in resistance to life — we actually are not living a life that’s authentically us. But the more that you love your life, you actually move it to a higher level.
Two: When you love your life, you will be surrounded by your tribe. And this is really important! Because when you love your life, you’re actually going to draw to you the people who share your values; the people who share your light; the people who share your good. But if you’re walking around cranky, you’re not going to find your tribe. Because you’re not going to be attracted to them, and they’re definitely not going to be attracted to you! Right?
So the first one is: When you love your life — when you live the life that you love — you align with your highest values. Second one: You’re surrounded by your tribe.
Third one is: When you live the life that you love, you’re always going to be growing and learning. When you love your life, you’re committed to living your best life. You’re going to be a lifetime learner! Because when you love something, you want to get better at it; you want to learn from it; you want to grow into it! And the more you love your life, the more life becomes a constant learning growth opportunity. That you’re always learning and growing in every experience. But when you don’t love your life — when you’re living from the “Bah; Humbug!” place — you literally stop learning. You stop evolving. You stop changing. Because your crankiness doesn’t allow you to grow.
Four: When you love your life, there’s a natural optimism; a natural motivation. Because sometimes life is hard! And when you love your life, it actually moves you to a higher level of good.
Together: “I love my life!”
Together: [with congregation] “I love my life!”
Now, the fifth one: If you live the life that you love, make sure that it loves you back. [Laughs] Right? Okay; here I go, right? And I’m going to get emails, but here we go anyway.
If you love tequila, does tequila love you back? How many of you ever had a date with tequila? [Congregation laughs] Anybody have a date with tequila? Now, if you have a date with tequila, the next morning do you feel like you’re living the best version of you? Anybody? No! You think that’s the best …? Well, God bless you! [Congregation laughs] Right? Right?
So what I want us to see is that, when we love our life, we have to love it beginning, middle and end. Because sometimes we love things at the beginning, and the middle’s not so good! And the ending’s really not so good! That when you love your life, you have to love it beginning, middle and end.
Like, have you ever eaten really spicy food? Right? And you might have loved it in the beginning. But you don’t really love it so much in the middle, and you really don’t love it at the end! [Congregation laughs] Right? Because it’s not fun!
And what I want us [laughs] to really look at tonight is that, as spiritual beings, we have to love the beginning; we have to love the middle; we have to love the end. Because we’re committed to loving every bit of life to the very best of our ability. And I believe with all my heart that all of us could love the life that we’re living right now in a greater way! And the greatest way to transform our lives is to bring all of our love to every moment, to every experience. To live the best version of our life and to watch as that love lifts us higher.
So, you ready? Here’s your homework. I want you to pretend this week that you’re five. Have you ever seen a five-year-old who has complete permission to do what they love? Like, a five-year-old who has complete permission to do what they love: They get to wear their Batman T-shirt or their tutu. Right? They wear the clothes that they love; they eat the food that they love; they do the activity that they love. They have such an easy time connecting with what they love, and living a life that expresses that. As we get older — hence, a little crankier — it’s harder for us to really believe that we could love our life.
This week, I want you to love your life. If you want to wear a tutu every day to work this week, I say, “God bless you!” Right? If you want to wear your Batman costume all week this week, you get to wear your Batman costume all week this week! If you want to eat the foods that you love — to do the things that you love — I want you to unleash the highest level of love in your life. And I want you to experience how good life can be.
Because most of us, many of us, some of us are just going through the motions. And what if tonight you made a decision that you were going to love your life from this moment forward?
Together: [with congregation] “I love my life!”
Together: [with congregation] “I love my life!”
Will you pray with me?
I invite you to open your mind, your heart, your soul to the activity of God. Today, we open our hearts all the way to life. And we dive in! We don’t hold back. We’re not running scared. We’re diving in! And we allow ourselves to love our life. Jesus said, “Love the Lord, your God, with all your mind, all your heart, all your soul” and to love your neighbor as yourself. Well, tonight we’re going to practice that by loving our life with all that we are. And so it is. Amen.