Spiritual Road Trip | Rev. John Riley

A Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Our Ongoing Quest for Equality

Everything is spiritual. Yes. 60 years ago, tomorrow marks the day where Dr. Martin Luther King conducted his march on Washington and gave his amazing speech. I Have a dream today. I would like to take a moment before my talk to remember, to remember what life was like 60 years ago. You may not have been here, but we know the stories. So take a moment to remember. Take a moment to be grateful, to be grateful for how far we have come. To be grateful for all of the things that we have accomplished in the voice of equality and justice and inclusivity. And to take a moment to realize that we have not reached our destination. That we’re still on the journey, that we are still walking in that direction, and to honor and be a part of that experience. So let’s just take a moment in the silence, knowing our past, grateful for this present moment, we step forward and we are the light, the voice, the path of equality, inclusivity, justice, freedom, and joy for all. And so it is. Amen.

Exploring Life’s Road Trips and Transformative Adventures

Well it has been quite a spiritual journey these last 60 years. And I want to ask you a question as I get into my talk, a spiritual journey. Have you ever gone a spiritual road trip? What is it? Yeah. Okay. have you ever gone on a road trip? Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever gone on something that you know was really exciting and that kind of changed your life or uplift you, something that you still remember? Raise your hands if you’ve ever gone on one of those road trips. I think that’s pretty much all of us. We have that experience of, of remembering just how fun a road trip is. A great road trip. It really, it brings us, we, we set an intention on something, right? There’s some goal or some place that we’re going to, or some we’re really going with intention. It’s not like going to work in the morning.

Navigating Life’s Adventures with Purpose and Presence

It’s not like, you know, commuting to, you know, wherever you’re going during the day or when, when you have to get to the grocery store. That’s a different kind of journey. Can you sense the difference? Yes. So a road trip, really we’re in it, right? We’re there to be in the world. We’re then to experience life all around us and, and just celebrate the, the, the journey that we’re on as we go towards our goal, as we move toward our dreams, our visions, and what we’d like to see accomplished in the world to our destination. And one of the wonderful things that I had the opportunity to do just about a month ago was going a road trip with my wife Tiffany. We were going up to Sonoma State, which it’s a short road trip. It’s not that far to see buddy guy in concert.

Road Tripping Through Life’s Adventures with Buddy Guy

Now, I don’t know if you know buddy guy, he’s 87 years old. He is the Chicago Blues King who inspired Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix and all sorts of great guitarists that I can’t remember the name of at the moment. And here he is at 87 performing in Sonoma. And I have to tell you, the concert was magnificent. This guy is a presence, not only is a great blue singer, but he commands the stage. You know, he’d be playing a song and a few people will start to sing and he goes, hold it, hold it, hold it. This is my song. I don’t want you to mess it up. I’m pretty sure that was what he said So he then tells us the lyrics. So, and he’s pretty much telling the entire congregation, the entire auditorium there to sing along.

And then he starts singing again. And everyone, everyone is singing What a, what a, a master of commanding the room and being present. He was such a force on stage. It was an amazing con concert. And part of the, part of it was that was the destination. But the journey getting there, I was excited about. ’cause I love road trips. I love going on road trips with the family with Tiffany. And we, we were setting off on a Friday afternoon from Palo Alto heading up to Roanoke Park, which is, you know, up over the Golden Gate Bridge. Have you ever drive north on the freeways in Friday afternoon? I mean, how’s that far A road trip?

From Thomas Brothers Maps to GPS Adventures

I was gonna ask you. Well, that was a good question. Deborah was gonna ask me what route I took. Well, I’m so glad you asked me that question, Deborah. Of course, I wanted to make sure I can get to Cinema State. I’d never been there before, so I didn’t know exactly how to get there. And do you remember, I remember back in the day when my dad had the Thomas brother book maps this giant bible of where everything was. Yeah, we don’t need that anymore. Did you know that we have this, oh, it’s down there. We have this little supercomputer in our pockets. It’s, it’s disguising itself as a cell phone, but it’s really, you know, a supercomputer. And there’s a g p s on a global positioning system of a hundred different ones. And I’ve plugged that in so that I can just enjoy the drive. And my intention was to enjoy the drive. Why you laughing? Good luck.

GPS, Intuition, and the God Positioning System

It’s my road trip, dad. And, and so of course there are two main thoroughfares, two main ways you can go. You can go up two 80, you can go up 1 0 1. I love two 80 because it’s, it’s a little prettier over there and, but I was just listening to the G p s and allowing, you know, God, I the supercomputer to tell me where to go. We did leave a little bit early, so we’re heading up 1 0 1 and I’m enjoying it. And I make the intention just to, you know, be present to, you know, we have our favorite music on our road trip music. Anybody have their road trip playlist? Yeah, it used to be on tape and then now it’s on my, on my super computer. I just plug it in. It does everything almost. So we’re driving along and sure enough that global positioning system gets confused. You know how it gets confused right around? It’s like, oh, to save 10 minutes, go three 80, no, go two 80. No, go 1 0 1. And I, and I’m driving and I’m like, what do I do? And I blow by three 80 and I’m heading over here. Good. Take two 80. But that’s gonna take, where’s that taking us? Right? Normally I’m used to either going through the sunset or the mission to get to the Golden Gate Bridge and over the beautiful bridge, and it’s telling me, go somewhere else and I am freaking out. But then the other g p s you may have heard of, you know, the God positioning system
Or I like to call it the Goal propulsion system. It keeps you going in the right direction.

The Unexpected Delays on Our Spiritual Journey

Calm, composed, centered, take two 80. But the, but it said take three 80. It wants us to go the other way. That’s faster. You can turn around if you want to. Have you ever seen those, you know, things. She said, I can turn around if I want to. That really means that if I turn around, I’m not listening to her. And that means I’m in trouble. No, no, I’m good. I’m gonna follow you, honey. So I keep going. And then immediately, as soon as I get on two 80 traffic, see, you can turn around if you want to. No, no, we’re good. So here I am stuck in traffic. Now just, you know, for audience participation, have you ever been stuck in traffic? How exciting is that? Exciting. It’s the opposite of exciting. Well, it depends when I get stuck in traffic, right? I’m going as slow as possible. But what’s my brain doing? It’s starts to race. It’s going, you know, 80 miles an hour in my head. How could I get in this lane? No, no. Get in that lane. Which lane’s going faster? I know it’s gonna be this line. Have you ever done that? Or is it just me? You, okay, thanks, thanks, thanks Petra. I’ll remember that. But that’s what we do. Life has traffic.

Navigating Life’s Roadblocks: Finding Calm Amidst the Chaos

Have you noticed, have you noticed when you’re going down your path towards your goal, towards your intention, towards you’re wanting to be having it be a beautiful day, suddenly something comes along and stops. You suddenly something comes along and says, you know, you can’t go that direction. It’s universe saying, slow down. The reason I know that it’s because I can’t go any faster. I’m in traffic. I can’t go any faster. Slow down, slow down in my mind, get calm, slow down in my body, get composed, slow down in my heart, get centered. Now some of you have those apps and you know, those apps, let’s see what they, they’re gonna redirect us in the traffic, right? If you take this next exit, you can go down this street and up that corner and you’re gonna save three minutes off your time. How many of us take that? Sometimes, sometimes. Heck yeah. Three minutes. So when I get off the road, I’m checking out the car in front of me to make sure, you know, if I see that car again, if I don’t, I know I’ve gone, I’ve gone. So I get on back on the freeway, the traffic’s flowing again. I bypass all those slow people and then all of a sudden I catch up to that car that was in front of me when I got off the road.

Spiritual Bypassing

So there is a spiritual practice that, that there is a, a spiritual principle. Is it Joe? Is are you in here? Is it a principle spiritual bypassing or is it an idea? It’s not a practice, it’s a thing we do. You know, when you know you’re supposed to go in one direction, when the minister says you should pray and meditate, and yet you don’t, okay, I’m talking to myself here. You say, you know, you try to, or something happens and you, you think, no, I can’t go in that direction. Because spiritual bypassing is when something happens that’s, I I screwed up the whole thing anyways, spiritual, bi spiritual bypassing is when you know what the right thing to do is. Nope, that’s not it either. Joe, tell me what it is. I can help. You help me out, Casey. So, One second. Just ’cause I have a mic, Joe. I know. You know, so spiritual bypassing is when you’re not feeling something about what’s happening, you’re just like, all is well, it’ll be good. And, and so you’re not really dealing with what you’re feeling about the traffic to center yourself, right?

Avoiding Inner Growth in the Face of Life’s Challenges

You’re placating something on top of it. Exactly. So something’s happening, like traffic and you’re just saying, it’s okay. It’s no big whoop, everything’s fine. You’re avoiding what’s really going on in you. You’re pushing down the anger, you’re pushing down the resentment, you’re pushing down the message and thinking, I’m gonna take this route ’cause I’m gonna save three minutes and that’s the way I need to go. So you’re avoiding what is there for you to learn and grow from. You’re avoiding the warning signals within you. You’re avoiding that the, the fear and frustration that they’re just simply lighting up and saying, Hey, there’s something in here that you need to deal with. No, no, I’m good. I’m gonna say my affirmation all is well. God is everywhere present and all is well, gosh darn it. And so we’re avoiding it.

Life’s Detours: Lessons from a Road Trip

So that’s that idea of, of getting off the freeway to save three minutes and coming back and realizing that you’re, you’re five rows back now because we’re bypassing what is, what is present and the traffic in our life in that moment is what is present. So we’re back on the freeway and I’m going along and we’re heading to, we’re heading down two 80. And I realize the G p Ss is taking me to the Bay Bridge. Now, the supercomputer agrees with it at this point, agrees with her at this point to go over the Berry bridge to go down to the san the San Rael Richmond, San Rafael Bridge to get back over to bypass Golden Gate and San Francisco and all that nonsense. And I’m sitting here thinking, this can’t be faster internally. And then, you know, all of a sudden the, the wise being next to me says, we’re gonna stop for dinner. I’m like, oh, that makes sense. So we stop, we pull off, we get into Emeryville, we pull off and we go to dinner. And it’s that point when I realize we just passed the building in Emeryville, that tall, one of those tall buildings, floor number nine, where Tiffany and I met.

Discovering Life’s Joys on the Road

We just passed the pier where we used to take those long, beautiful walks where Tiffany and I fell in love, and we went to dinner in the city where we had spent many, many years eating and getting to know each other and celebrating life. And all of a sudden I realized the gift, It’s the journey. It’s not about how fast I can get over the Golden Gate Bridge, which path to take. It’s the journey and being in that moment and celebrating that journey. Now, I think road trips. I fell in love with road trips at an early age because that’s what our family did for vacations. We didn’t have a whole lot of money, but what we had was a a flat bottom racing boat that my dad bought for $2,000 that was always being repaired. And a a 68 Ford truck with no air conditioning. And every year we would go from Southern California up to Bass Lake. It’s about a six hour drive. And Bass Lake is in the foothills of the Sierras, just south of Yosemite. So every year, three times a year during the summer, every major holiday we’d get up and we’d go camping and we’d go boating and skiing and, and it was just, that was joy for me.And I remember they would wake me, they would get me, get me up at three o’clock in the morning and put me in the back of the truck.

Road Trips, Family, and Discovering Patience

Now the truck had a big camper, a a a attached to it with a, the back window was gone. There was a boot. So we can crawl through, you know, this was in the seventies when seat belts were just kind of a good idea. So I’d be, and my dad built a storage system and then on top these big cushions. So there was a giant bed back there, and we would sleep back there, play cards back there and, and and just hang out. And I’d, I’d fall asleep at three. And then I wake up sometime in the morning and, and then, you know, pick my, peek my head through the window and ask that one question that every parent driver who’s been driving for four hours doesn’t want to hear. Are we there? Are we there yet? Nope. That wasn’t it. How much longer? See, I’ve been doing this a while, and I knew by now, we’re right in the middle of the Central Valley, right between Bakersfield and Fresno. It looks nothing like Bass Lake. So I knew we weren’t anywhere close, but it was always the how much time is left, how much time is left, how much time is left? So you know what we do, right? We give the kids those, those games to play.

Finding Adventure in Every Letter

Let’s play the alphabet game. And in our version of it, we had to find words from A to Z that started with the letter. And they, they got very, got very quiet around Q and Z and X and which they were happy about. And and then we would continue on our journey. But it, I always knew when we were close, because we’d start driving into the hills and there’s this one stretch of road, a two-lane highway when all of a sudden there, these granite boulders and, and, and oak trees begin to appear. And it, and it turns from, from brown grassland to oak trees. And then I started to get excited and the roads begin to wind and climb. And then there’s this one corner when you can smell the pine trees, literally smell the pine trees.

From Alphabet Games to Pine-Scented Adventures

Now, back in my neck of the asphalt, there weren’t a whole lot of pine trees in Anaheim. There were some, but it was nothing like the smell you get when you round the corner and all of a sudden you’re in the pine trees. And I knew that within five or 10 minutes I would be able to see the lake. And a few minutes after that, we’d be at the boat launch, the boat would be out in the water. And a few minutes after that, half hour after that, we’d be at the campsite and life would begin. And so that was my experience of road trips, was just getting to that point where I can all of a sudden be in life and count all of the red tail hawks as we’re driving along and, and feel and see all of the beauty that that I got used to and just anticipated, you know, the end of the journey. And that’s now along the way, there were challenges along those ways with a 68 Ford truck and a boat.

Road Trip Tales: Adventures, Breakdowns, and Divine Guidance

One time the tire on the boat blew out. So we pulled over. Of course, my dad is always prepared. He had a spare full-sized tire for everything. It was flat. So, but he always was prepared. So he always had the jack and the tools to take off the tire. And he got everything out. And during that time, our dog, who was with me in the back of the van of, of the truck jumped out onto the side of the freeway and started heading across the lanes. Of course, I’m freaking out and my brother just does the most natural thing. Whistles calls for snicker, was her name. And headed, ran in the other direction. Snicker stopped, turned around and ran after Dave. And everything was fine, even in that stress. His g p s his natural god positioning, this is what you need to do. He listened to that voice. Just do this, you know, dad and Dave set the tires in the back of the boat and sat there like this. And a big semi came by within five minutes and said, get on in. They drove ’em down to get the tires repaired, drove them back. And we were on our way the second time. We left a little bit later during the day, and it got hot during that drive through Central California. And to my knowledge, the engine broke down.

Breakdowns and Unbreakable Spirits

So we’re coasting with the boat under an overpass and just sit there. Now, this is before those supercomputers in our pockets. We didn’t have a cell phone. This was in the seventies. So my dad, I’m freaking out again. My dad, calm, centered, composed new engines. Looked at the engine. We sat around for a few minutes before the California Highway Patrol came up. They, they got a, a a tow wreck. We unhooked, unhooked the boat, left it there, took the truck in to a place and got it repaired. Now, this is in the seventies, and I don’t know if there’s a, a mechanic anywhere who has parts, right? If you have some repair, it’s always, well, we have to order that part. We have to order that part. There’ll be three weeks. So I’m sitting here thinking, oh, our trip is over. No, it was like an hour. They were able to fix the truck. We drove back, we hooked up the boat and we went back on our way. My dad, the whole way, he never swore. He never got upset. He was always that poise, that calmness. He was always centered.

Reflections on the Road of Experience

He was always composed. And our vacation went on. And then I, I got the smell of pine trees again, and all of a sudden I’m uplifted. We’re here. The rest of it. Just a great story. I’m gonna tell in 40, 50 years, I knew it. That’s how it was. When we arrived in Roner Park in Sonoma County for a trip to buddy guy, we got over the bridge. We went through the Marin, the Marin Hills. Got to see the, the, the, the everything change all of the trees if you’ve been there. And I was back to that experience of noticing, of remembering that this is a road. That this is a journey that we’re on a spiritual journey, a spiritual road trip. And so I enjoyed, I’ve never been to Roanoke Park or Sonoma State. I didn’t know where it was. We drove down and all of a sudden there’s beautiful farmlands and rolling hills with pines and a an incredibly beautiful campus. And we walked in into the into the arena just in amongst the hills, amongst the trees. And that began, that was the beginning of that concert experience. Just feeling calm, centered, collected, confident, present. And we enjoyed our journey so much in every spiritual journey, in every spiritual journey. ’cause All of life is a journey.

Learning to Listen to Your Inner GPS

There will be times when we feel the grind, when we feel the grind of traffic, when we feel the need to pull off the road to bypass what’s in front of us. There will be times when we’re stuck in the road, when something breaks. There will be times when we want to save that three minutes. And there will be times when we’ll listen to Spirit and our, and our intuition and know that is the right choice. Sometimes spiritual bypassing. Here’s the advanced portion. Sometimes spiritual bypassing becomes spiritual, bypassing the idea of spiritual. I don’t want to, I don’t wanna go past the lesson. So we have to do our worksheet, but we already learned that lesson. We’re just not ready to let go of it. So the, the spiritual practice becomes our bypass from knowing that we’re worthy, from knowing that we’re whole in the moment, from simply making the course correction. And the way I determine that is whether I’m being directed by the dictator in my head, or if this guy’s calm and I’m in my heart and my intuition takes over and I’m just like, this is the right path. I know that there’s something to, to heal. I know what it is. I’m in the process of healing it and I’m going in this direction.

Embracing Life’s Spiritual Journey: Finding Guidance on the Road Less Traveled

So through all of it, through the unexpected opportunities to experience a wonderful dinner, the challenges to see your dog heading into the freeway anyway, to the road along the way, it’s all spiritual because God is everywhere present that allness of life, love and wisdom is there, is you. The energy of Spirit is always moving you if we’re open to hearing it. And that knowing within us, that still small voice that’s within us. Or sometimes if we’re lucky, sitting next to us, sometimes if we’re lucky, the one who’s changing the tires. Sometimes if we’re lucky, we can hear it in other people’s voice. In our spiritual community, it’s always present when we become calm, centered, and composed. Let’s move to our affirmation, Ethan. I’m going to read the affirmation and then invite you to affirm it with me. I am one with the allness of life. I’m calm, centered and composed on my joyful journey of life.