Finding Joy in Your Life | Rev. John Riley

It’s that time of year! Isn’t it? Isn’t that how the song goes? It’s that time of year when we start to decorate the trees, decorate the boughs (with holly?) and we drive around the neighborhoods and we get to see all of the beautiful lights and how our neighbours have done their Christmas decorations. Or perhaps it’s the season — the holiday season or the holy nights or the holy weeks that we are going through, whatever traditions that you might have that bring up that sense of joy within you, that seems to come at this time of year.

For those — not everybody; it doesn’t always come for everybody because for some people, there is a little bit of a challenge during the Christmas season or the holiday season, however you want to look at it. Sometimes there is a little bit of a challenge that we bring as well. But that sense of joy that we receive, that upliftment, that experience of joy that we get during the holidays, we just want to hang onto, don’t we? We may find it throughout the year. It might be a specific song that we listen to that raises us up. Anybody experience that before, how a song can lift you up? Yeah. It might be a special event during the year or a call from a friend or an interaction that we’ve had that lifts us up, and we feel that sense of joy. Have you experienced that in your life?

The Inner Reflecting to the Outer

The wonderful thing about that is that it’s not really the outer experience that we are tuning into. It’s a reflection on what’s inside of us. It’s touching that inner joy that’s always available for us. We can see that that’s true because sooner or later all of the Christmas decorations come down, except for that one house down the street. Sometimes you might look at it and say “Well, it’s past January. It’s time for those to come down.” Or you might say, “Look how beautiful that is. It’s still bringing me joy.” Sooner or later those lights that are left on all year long just become kind of white noise to us. Just like, “Oh, I just don’t even notice it anymore. It’s just normal. So, I am no longer joyful when I see those lights.” That is because the things that are outside of us, the source that we are putting outside of us is not the true source of our joy. The sources that are out there are triggering our resources inside, are allowing us to experience that or reflect on that which is already present within us, even a great song that we love.

I remember the songs when I was a teenager and growing up in high school and college and how much I love them and how much they mean to me, and how much they still mean to me. In fact, I went to see a concert of one of those bands from way back when; you know, early 2013. Somewhere in the 80’s. I don’t remember. I’m too old to remember the 80’s. I was like, “Okay, I’ll go, it can’t be that great.” It’s actually, it’s most of the band except for the lead singer but the lead singer was pretty much everything. I loved it. They played every song. I sang every song. I went home and I was filled with joy. Then I went the next day, I turned on the radio and I started listening to it again and it’s like, “Yeah okay I’m done.” Click. Because it wasn’t the song or the experience that was really triggering the joy within me. It’s that own internal joy that is already there, that’s reflected out into the world around us and I am just aware of it. So, with a conscious awareness I can say, “Yes, I am going to experience my own sense of joy.”

The Happiness of the Allness of Live

Charles Filmore talks about this idea of joy and he calls it the happiness of the allness of life. The happiness of the allness. He called it God. I like to call it the allness. Take it away from that anthropomorphic being that we grew up with. The allness of spirit, the allness of divine love, the allness of divine wisdom, the allness of the universe, the happiness in the universe. I think therein lies the key. He brought this — I want to quote him here because he talks about it from the standpoint of” joy and gladness are strength-giving, especially if the mind is fixed on things of Spirit”. There is our lesson. Fix our minds on things of Spirit.

This was inspired by the quote from the Nehemiah, the Hebrew book Nehemiah chapter eight, verse ten, “The joy of the Lord is my strength”. The joy of the Lord. The joy of this Christ consciousness, the joy within us that comes from that infinite supply is my strength. When we draw upon that infinite supply, joy is its natural outcome.

There will be times in our life, in our human ego-ness, there will be times in our life when we will not feel joy, when we feel the opposite of joy. We will feel frustrated, we will feel grief, we will feel sadness. We will feel all those things because that is life. In that allness of life, because we are feeling those things the key is not to push it away, just allow it to be. Just allow it. It just is. And continue to resource that inner presence of Spirit, that infinite source of joy, even in those situations.

I have some friends and family that talk about, “Oh Unity, that’s that everyone-is-happy-all-the-time church, right? Everyone has to be happy.” You don’t have to be happy. That is not the point here. The point here is that we are happy. That joy naturally comes to us when we attune ourselves with Spirit, when we put ourselves in alignment with the allness of life, with the allness of consciousness. When we tune into that and put our attention on that intention, that is when it naturally bubbles up. That is when we see it in the world. That is when we are open to it when we hear that favourite song or when we see those favourite lights, in July, on our neighbour’s house.

Tuning into Joy

Now, joy can show up in different ways. It can be a quiet, content, contentedness. It can just be an inner feeling. It could be the inner serenity that we create, when we are in the moment, when we are flowing with Spirit. It could be an exuberant joy that we are expressing out into the world. When we are in tune with it, we see those people. We are open to it and we get excited. When we are not in tune with it, it’s like, “Oh, there they go again. She must be from Unity.”

So, in this realm, this idea of tuning in to joy we have been going through this experience of the art of abundance and we are at the very last chapter on this here. It’s living a life worth living. A life worth living. What does that really mean? A life worth living. We talk about abundance and a lot of times people automatically go to the idea of money. I don’t think money, in and of itself, is what we are looking for. But what we are looking for is an experience, an experience of perhaps freedom that we think money will give us. I know many people who have a lot of money but don’t have a sense of freedom because they made money now the object of what they are going for. They made status the object instead of the experience of what all of that can bring you.

When we turn our focus away from that experience of the allness of life and put it into a Christmas tree or money or status or the things that your neighbours and friends are going to say good things about you for, when we make that our source of joy, it is so limited. We are limiting ourselves because when they say, “I didn’t like what you did last year” or “Last year you had great decorations, this year not so much. Where are the decorations?” So, we need to put our experience and remember to set our intention to live from that.

The Ten Rules of the Art of Abundance

So, during this process, what I am going to do is just recap very quickly the ten rules that are associated with The Art of Abundance, the book by Dennis Merrit Jones. What I want you to do is really contemplate each rule and look within yourself and see, “Am I feeling joyful about it or is it just pissing me off?” Is that a spiritual thing to say? Sorry. “Is it moving me out of my joy?” Really think about it and take a note of it. If you want to write it down just write the number. Joy check, plus. Anti-joy minus. You ready?

Rule number one: “Be one with life. God is everywhere present. The secret is knowing it. The secret in life is that you are one with the universe, the original and only source of all abundance. You were born to be the pure potential of abundance that already exists. Claim your abundance. To claim your abundance, you must be willing to leave the confines of your current comfort zones.” So, we were practicing mindfulness daily. Plus, or minus.

Rule number two: “Be aware that you live in an expanded universe. Train your mind to focus on the principles of abundance knowing the universe is constantly conspiring to assist you in creating a life of abundance”, creating a life worth living, of freedom, of joy, of contentedness. Plus, or minus.

Rule number three: “Be accountable for your consciousness” (dang it). “Take time daily to develop your awareness by questioning your own belief system, your automatic thoughts, your words, your actions and align them with the allness of life.” Our practice was a-b-c: awareness builds consciousness. Plus, or minus.

Be focused. Your mind is powerful. What you focus on is how you see the world. When we are focused on trying to see our joy out there or some condition to happen for us to feel joy, then we are looking out there for that condition and when it doesn’t happen, by definition, we are in the anti-joy stage. So set your intention and focus your attention on the principle of abundance in your life. What are you grateful for in your life?

Rule number five: “Be in the flow, to mindfully witness and personalize the flow of every area of your life and your feelings about it. An affluent life is one that is open, that is operating within the law of circulation, inviting abundance to flow in and flow out of our lives in intentional and measurable ways.” So be in the flow of it, instead of resisting it.

Rule number six: “Be passionate. Live from your consciousness of love, your consciousness of harmony, your passion that is within you. Your life will open up to new possibilities allowing you to explore beyond the safety of the known and go where you have never gone before.” Plus, or minus.

Be blessed. Rule number seven: Knowing that you are blessed. “Knowing that you are blessed originates in your heart. Make blessing your life a daily ritual, knowing that in doing so you are accessing and directing the principle of abundance in a very proactive way.” Know you are blessed and then bless. Send that energy out. Plus, or minus.

Be of service. Rule number eight: “ To serve is to extend your essence, your energy, to others in a manner that enriches and makes their lives better. It’s a priceless gift when extending to others unconditionally. It places us directly in the flow of abundance.”

Rule number nine: “Be courageous. Expanded abundance awaits those who are willing to come to the edge of their own perceived boundaries.” That is where our fears lie, when we come to the edge of our own perceived boundaries and continue and push on through them.

Apparently, there is no rule number ten. I think it was “do good”. Rule number ten: Do good. Live life to do good. Live purposefully.

Now, as you are checking your score card, take a look at the ones where you have a minus sign. Take a look at the ones that are really getting you on edge or you have your yeah-buts. “Yeah, but this, this and this.” That is the place where you need to focus. We need to practice that fifth principle that gets Lisa all excited. Woohoo. Everyone ready. Whoo. Yep, I have three people with joy in their hands. These are not spirit fingers. These are spirit fingers. There we go. Look at that joy. Yeah.

That is just the area that you can put some more focus in, you can lean into and find ways, ”How I can look at this a little bit differently. How can I look at it and see that there is a lesson in here for me? That if I practice a little bit more, if I looked at my life a little bit differently, I can experience more of that inner joy, I can see it well up within me, I can see a little bit more of that idea of abundance expressing through me as prosperity, prosperity in my relationships, prosperity in my career, prosperity in my thinking, in my creativity, prosperity in all areas of my life, without making that prosperity the object of my life?”

An Expression of Who You Are

It’s merely an expression of who you are. That is really what the art of abundance is about. It’s about living who you are, allowing that inner light to shine, allowing that radiant light to shine in every circumstance. Sometimes it might be contemplative quiet joy.

So, I invite you this week to really think about, what does joy mean to you? Take it into your time of meditation and really contemplate it. “What is joy? How am I seeing it expressed in my life? How can I live it more fully? How can I be that mirror for someone else? Because if someone else is giving me joy, then boy, I can give someone else joy, simply by being who I am, simply by expressing that love, that creativity, that kindness, that compassion that we talk about this time of year, so that they can see it within themselves, so that they can connect with it within themselves.

That is the true gift that you have to give, is to be a mirror. Now, don’t go buying me mirrors for Christmas. It’s okay. I’ve got plenty. But that is who you are, a reflection of that divine essence, a reflection of that creative process, a reflection of that divine energy. That is the idea that Unity calls the Christ, that Christ consciousness, that higher consciousness, that spark of divinity that is within each one of you. As we live more fully from that, that is when joy becomes second nature. That is when, regardless of what is happening around us or to us or in us, there is still that foundation of inner peace. There is still that foundation within us of inner joy. We live from that foundation.

I would like to go to our affirmation. I am going to read it once and allow you to really embody it and then we will affirm it together.

With the joy of Spirit within, I am one with the Abundance of life.

Together:

With the joy of Spirit within, I am one with the Abundance of life.

Take a nice deep breath and see if you can experience that. See if you can feel that. See if you can know that. Even if you can’t sense it or feel it now, apply your power of faith, to know that it is there even when you can’t sense it, even when you can’t feel it, simply knowing that there is an inner resource of joy within me.

Color This Day Beautiful

I would like to close by reading a poem from the book, Color This Day Beautiful, from the amazing Unity author, Joyce Riley, aka mom. Full disclosure. These books are available in our bookstore. Who knew? The poem is entitled Abundance. An abundance of Spirit. Let me start over. I am having trouble with the word substance. Abundance, by Joyce Riley.

An abundance of Spirit substance is made manifest through me.
I can be a thimble, a pail, or a deep and rising sea.
The unceasing love of Spirit is centered deep in me.
I can keep it bottled up or let it pour through me.
The ebullient joy of Spirit is singing merrily.
I can be a silent voice or let it sing through me.

Prayer for Protection

And now for our Prayer for Protection. Together:

The Light of God surrounds us;
The Love of God enfolds us;
The Power of God protects us;
The Presence of God watches over us;
Wherever we are, God is!
And, all is well.

Love and blessings everyone. Have a wonderful week. Namaste.