Click HERE to view Rev. Whittington’s guided meditation during the service.
A life that works. A life that really, truly, deeply works. I think I might be safe to say that every single one of us in this room would say yes to that. Would we not?
Good! Some of you would. I like that! Yeah! Well, maybe some of you are like, “You know, I need to know: what does that mean? What does it mean, a life that works? I’m a little skeptical. What is she talking about?”
So here, I’m going to give you my definition of a life that works. And we’re just going to check these off. And you tell me — this is congregant participation time; I’m giving you a heads up — you’re going to tell me if this would fit into your definition of a life that works. Okay? Yes? We’re good with that? All right.
So, number one: Feeling deeply, unshakably connected to the Divine Presence within. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Is that a check check on that one? Check check. Okay.
Flowing in effortless financial ease. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Oh, yeah! Check check.
Thriving in radiant healthy and physical vitality. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Check, check.
Loving and being loved in nourishing relationships. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Yeah; whoa! Somebody back there is very enthusiastic for that one; love it!
Waking up peaceful, serene and feeling free. Check, check? I like it! So far, so good.
Joyfully sharing your gifts with the world. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Okay! Check, check, check.
Trusting yourself and your inner guidance. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Okay. Got a couple more.
Feeling aligned with your life’s purpose. [Congregants: “Yes!”] Yes!
And my final one is: Enjoying a sense of spaciousness in time. And what I mean by that is: not rushing and hurrying and a million things to do, but having some space in your time. What do you think about that? [Congregants: “Yes!”]
Did I leave something out? Because I’m willing to add to my list. Chocolate cake. All right. [Congregants laugh] I heard that! You know what? That works for me … very much! So we’ll add — need a pen — chocolate cake. All right. [Laughs]
So that’s our definition of a life that works. And so, I think, again, I’ll say, perhaps everyone in this room can agree that it would be lovely to say “Yes!” to a life where those things occur.
And I want to be really clear about something from the get-go — as the saying goes. Saying “Yes!” to that life does not mean — or saying “Yes!” to a life that works — does not mean that we will never have a challenge. Because as long as we’re in this human experience, that’s kind of the curriculum for this life experience. That, yes; there are bumps and there are blocks and there are challenges. There’s chaos; there’s loss; there’s disappointment; there are things not going the way you want them to go. That does and will continue to happen.
Oh, that’s good news, isn’t it? Yay! [Laughs] Right? Yes.
But here’s the thing: When we are living in the “Yes” of a life that works; when we are spiritually aligned; when we have spiritual tools in our toolkit that we actually use — that’s a key right there — tools that we actually use. We have a lot of tools, but sometimes we go unconscious to them when times get tough. Or is that just me? It’s not just me. We all do that. All right.
If we stay spiritually aligned; if we use our tools that we have and that we get every Sunday when we come here, every Wednesday night when we come here; the readings that you do; the podcast that you listen to … they’re all offering you these amazing spiritual tools. When we use our spiritual tools, we can get ourselves back as we co-create that life that works.
Make sense? Cool. All right.
So, I want to tell you that it is absolutely possible for us to do that. Having that kind of experience where we can get back on track when we get off. And having a life that unfolds as we already discussed isn’t just for the mystics and the monks and it’s not fantasy; it actually can happen to every single one of us mere mortals.
And the question is not: Is it possible? The question is whether or not we are saying “Yes” to that life.
Because, you see, we are always saying yes to something, Always — whether it’s consciously or unconsciously.
And the Law of God is also always saying “Yes” to what we are saying yes to.
Okay, that was a mouthful. I’m hoping you got that. I think I’ll say it again. The Law of God — which is a 20-minute conversation that I’ll condense into 30 seconds. The Law of God is simply the way the Divine Creativity operates. It’s how it works. It’s kind of like the production center of a car manufacturer. It’s the plant where things just … you put in the schematics and the plant just spits out what are in the schematics.
So, creativity is like the schematics and God’s Law is simply the production … which means it is 100% neutral.
And it always says “Yes,” just like that great song – [to pianist and soloist]: Great work! Great work, both of you!
Just as that great song said, God always says “Yes!” to everything. That’s the little caveat here. That’s the little catch in this whole … It says “Yes!” to everything. It doesn’t think to Itself, because It doesn’t think. It’s an automatic process. It doesn’t think to itself, “Well, now, wait; did you really mean that thing that you’re just really saying ‘Yes’ to? Do you really want that in your life? I don’t think you do. But you’re saying ‘Yes’ to it, so, yes; I will bring it about.”
So tonight, we want to look at four things that we can say “Yes” to that make our life work. Sound good? Woo hoo! Thank you! And they make life work. And I love … Some of you know me well enough to know that I love acronyms; I think they really help anchor things and help us remember things.
So guess what our acronym for tonight is? Work – W-O-R-K. Because we want to say “Yes” to and create a life that works. So here we go. Let’s dig into each of our letters.
The first one is W. That is, I believe the letter that the word “work” starts with, and it stands for WORD POWER. Word power.
So, in our New Thought/Unity teachings — Religious Science teachings fall under the umbrella of New Thought — we often say … And this was actually a very famous phrase from Religious Science founder Dr. Ernest Holmes, who said, “Change your thinking” … which, oh, yep; she’s ready to go. Give me a minute! You did. “Change your thinking” — which of course are the words going through our head, right? “Change your thinking; change your life.”
Science has shown us that there are at least — and I think they are now thinking that there’s more than this — at least 60,000, Six-Zero-Thousand, 60,000 thoughts, meaning mental words, that go through our brain every single day. Every single day! Some of them are conscious; some of them are not.
That’s a lot of words to be conscious of, right? That’s a lot of words to try to make sure they are in alignment with what we want. Remembering that the God’s Law is going to say “Yes” to whatever we say.
So how about if we start with something a little more manageable than 60,000 thoughts. And let’s work with the words that come out of our mouths. How’s that? It’s an easier place — a quicker place — to start. And I will tell you that the words that come out of our mouths are very powerful in their creative ability.
I’m going to give you an example. There’s a businessman, and his business was failing miserably. And he’d invested all of his money in it, and his house was in jeopardy, and his car was in jeopardy, his family’s ability to function was in jeopardy. All of his possessions were in jeopardy because he just … he’s mortgaged to the hilt and borrowed absolutely incredibly. And he was at his wit’s end, and he didn’t know what else to do.
So, in a final desperate act, he went to see his minister. Why is that, by the way, always the final desperate act? But that’s a different question for a different sermon. We won’t do that right now. So he went to his minister, and he told his woeful story with tears and hand-wringing and, you know, head-banging and all that.
And so, when he finished the minister said, “So, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take a beach chair and your Bible; get in your car; go to the beach. I want you to set your beach chair out right near the water. Put your Bible on your lap. And just spend some time breathing and being present to God’s beauty and the flow of the ocean and the vastness of the sky. Just be with that and get serene and calm. And then, once you feel like you’re serene and calm I want you to open your Bible and just let the breeze turn the pages. And pretty soon it will settle — the breeze will settle – and you’ll land on a page. And when that happens, when you look down, whatever the first words you see: know that those are a message from God and those are telling you exactly what you need to do to fix this problem. Trust those words and act upon those words.”
So, with that, the businessman left. His minister never heard from him again, as sometimes happens, by the way. [Congregants laugh] But, again, that’s another story for a different time.
But about a year later, the man comes back. And he has his wife with him; he’s got his kids with him. And they’re all shiny and beautiful. He’s wearing a fancy, new, expensive suit. His wife is dripping in diamonds. The kids are amazing. And he hands the minister a wad of money. Now, that’s a good thing to happen, by the way. He hands the minister a wad of money, and he says, “I want to thank you for that advice you gave me.”
The minister says, “I remember that advice. Did you do what I said? Did you go to the beach?”
The man says, “I did.”
“And did you sit in your beach chair with your Bible on your lap?”
He says, “Yes, I did.”
“And you let the wind turn the pages until it stopped?”
“You betcha!”
“And you looked down at the very first words and knew that they were your answer?”
And he said, “Yep!”
“And then you spoke those words out loud?”
And he said, “I surely did.”
And the minister said, “Well, keep me in suspense no longer! What did they say?”
“Chapter 11.” [Congregants laugh]
You didn’t see that coming, did you? No. No. No. That’s very bad. I’m so sorry. That’s a bad one. All right. Words are very, very powerful! They’re very, very, very powerful.
Author Florence Scovel Shinn — in her great book, The Game of Life and How to Play It — writes, “All the good that is to be made manifest in our life is already an accomplished fact in Divine Mind and it is released through our spoken word.”
But we say so much stuff unconsciously, don’t we? Unconscious to the fact that our words are creating. Unconscious to the fact that thoughts are prayers. We sang about that tonight. Unaware that we’re planting seeds in Divine Law every time we speak.
So, we speak words that we never would want to actually have expressed in our lives. We do it all the time! We make self-deprecating jokes. We complain and moan about this or that. We say, “Well, I’m just being realistic” when we talk about whatever it might be. Know that every time we do that, we’re sending in vibrational orders to Universal Law.
I love these words from the founder of Religious Science, Dr. Ernest Holmes: “When the time comes that nothing goes forth from you other than that which you would be glad to have returned, then you will have reached your heaven.”
You will have reached your heaven. That sounds like a life that works to me! So, I invite us to stop affirming struggle and start affirming truth. Only let words come from your lips that you want to have come back into your life. And if you really want to do this — if you really are serious about this — I’m going to offer you a challenge. And here’s the challenge.
Find a good friend. Well, that’s not all of the challenges. That’s it, just find a friend; all right; go home. [Laughs] Find a good friend who you trust and who is kind. We want to do this, and you’re going to be kind in this challenge, as well. You’re going to find a good friend, and you two are going to agree to hold each other accountable for what’s coming out of your mouth.
And so, when you say something that comes out of your mouth that your friend knows you would really not want that to come back to you, your friend is going to call you on it lovingly and kindly. And you’re going to do the same for your friend.
And I’ll bet you don’t have to do that for very long. Maybe don’t do it with your partner. I’m just sayin’ … [Congregants laugh] I’m just thinking that that might not be the best thing to do. [Laughs] I’m just sayin’ that.
So, I offer you that challenge. Play with it; try it. Try it for a week and see what happens. And to see if you don’t start to shift some verbal habits that you might not even know you have.
All right. So that’s our first letter: W.
The next letter is … I started to say zero. That’s not the letter. “O” is the letter. “O” stands for THE ONE THING QUESTION. The one thing question. Hmm. What the heck is that?
So, there was a great book written a number of years ago by Gary Keller. It’s called The One Thing. And, in it, it’s a whole book written around one question. But the question, of course, can apply to anything in your life. The question is this … I’m going to say it slowly and then I’m going to say it again so you can digest it. Because it’s really meaty, juicy, and amazing.
It is this: What is the one thing I can do such that, by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary? Mm hmm. I see spinning; I see smoke coming out of ears! [Congregants laugh] What is the one thing I could do such that, by doing it, everything else will become easier or unnecessary?
That question is like a spiritual tuning fork. It aligns you with divine priority. It brings you fully and completely into the present moment: right here, right now.
And I love these words of Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore, who said, “Let us live in God’s world — not a world of tomorrow or next month or next year, but here and now.”
This one question brings us into the here and now. But we tend to … And maybe it’s just me. But we tend to like, you know, I have a million things going at one time. We call it multitasking. You’ve heard of that phrase, right? And we think we’re being efficient and effective, because we’ve got so much to do. And we’ve got this; and we’ve got this responsibility; we’ve got that. So, I’m going to do this; and I’m going to do this; and I’m going to do this; and I’m going to do this.
And science has actually proven that it makes us way less effective on the one thing we’re trying to do when we’re trying to do 10 one things. And I love this quote that comes from the book, One Thing. He says, “Poet Laureate Billy Collins once said this about multi-tasking. ‘We call it multitasking, which makes it sound like an ability to do lots of things at the same time. But a Buddhist would call this ‘monkey mind.’ We think we’re mastering multi-tasking, but really we’re just driving ourselves bananas.’” [Congregants laugh] Right? Right.
So, when we ask the “one thing” question, it hones us in. It hones us in.
So, I’m going to give you a couple of — just as examples — of “one thing” questions and just see if any that I offer resonate with you. Or you can find your own. But here’s just a few:
What is the one thing I could do to move my health and vitality forward such that, by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
What’s the one thing I can do to express love in my relationships such that, by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
What’s the one thing I can do today to shift my finances such that, by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?
And then listen to the answer. And, oh yeah, one more little piece: Do it. As Nike says, “Just do it.” All right.
So, those are our first two qualities of a life that works. One: we recognize and use our word power to create that life. And we focus on the “one thing” question to bring us into the present moment and be spiritually aligned.
The other two — “R” and “K” — work together. They’re intertwined. I’m going to speak about them kind of separately, but they really are together. And I wish the “R” … I wish work started with “R,” because we should start with this letter. But I couldn’t misspell work and make it work. So, we’re here now.
So “R” stands for the most fundamental thing there is. The first thing actually that’s in our definition of a life that works, and it relates to our RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.
The very first thing we said in our definition of a life that works is feeling deeply, unshakably connected to the Divine Presence within. That’s all about our relationship with God.
And when I was thinking about this, I staarted to think about my sweet mother, who passed away in 2006. And my mom … And I was a minister — a Religious Science minister — the time; had a church. And my mom and I had very different spiritual views. Let me just say we were very different. And that was okay. It didn’t impact anything until it did. My mother became critically ill and was very ready to leave this world. She was done emotionally, physically, spiritually, really. She was done.
She was ready to go, but she wasn’t going. She was still completely cogent and aware and awake, but her body was done and she wanted to be done … but she wasn’t gone. And we found out through a conversation a hospice nurse had with her that the reason she wasn’t gone is because she was worried about my and my sister’s souls. Actually, she was — to be blunt and frank — she was afraid that when we died, we were going to go to hell because we did not believe the way she did.
[Sighs] That was keeping her here: that worry. So, when I found that out, I sat down … I’ll just never forget this moment. I sat down on her hospital bed, I took her hand, and I looked in her eyes, and I said, “Mom, I understand that this is what you’re worried about and afraid of. I want to tell you something. I want to tell you that my relationship — and my sister, your other daughter’s relationship — with God is so good. It is really, really good! So you can trust that and it’s okay. And if that’s what’s keeping you here, don’t give it a second thought!” She passed 24 hours, less than 24 hours, later.
So, I tell that story because I ask you: How’s your relationship with God? Can you say it’s good? It’s really, really good? Because that’s a foundation; a fundamental piece of a life that works.
And, of course, to have a relationship with God that works, we have to have some KNOWING. K-N-O-W-I-N-G-S. That’s our next and final letter: “K.” We have to have a particular knowing which, then, has some tentacles to it.
The knowing that we need, by the way, is not … Okay, I’m going to do something here that scares the heck out of me, but I’m going to try it. Okay.
Knowing is not [begins singing lyrics to a song]: “wishing and hoping and thinking and praying; planning; dreaming each night of his charms.” Wrong song; sorry! Wrong vocalist; wrong everything! But it’s not any of that. You got that? Thank you. Come on! You have no idea the courage it took me to get those notes out. Because I don’t sing like him.
Do you know that song, by the way? Was that a familiar song? Okay; good. Was I kind of on tune? Hopefully I was.
My point is: it’s not any of those things. Knowing is this deep, deep — not even here [points to head]. Knowing isn’t here. Knowing doesn’t come from here. Where does knowing come from? Here and here. [Points to heart and stomach] Here.
What is it that we need to know? We need to know who and who’s we are. Who we are: God in expression. Who’s we are? Something way bigger than we are, and that something has our backs all the time. We need to know that we are 100% provided for at all times. We need to know that we deserve to be loved, we deserve to be prospered, we deserve to shine. We need to know that we are being guided, even when our path is unclear. We need to know that the Universe is conspiring for our good and it has our back. And in times of doubt or challenge or chaos or unsettling things or loss or things not to turn out the way you want, return to that knowing.
And if you can’t do that, that’s why this church is here. That is why this church is here: to help you remember that. This church isn’t here for the good times only. We are here for that, but not just for that. We’re here for times when you forget.
So, you want a life that works? Remember the power in your words and watch those spoken words. Think about that “one thing: question and ask it: What is the one thing I can do in X-Y-Z area of my life, such by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary? Then remember your relationship with God. And knowing who’s and who you are is a key.
When we work in harmony with these ideas, we are saying “Yes” to a life that works.
Namaste.