The First Step to Creating a Future | Rev. John Riley

You ever feel like you need a vacation? So, think about the last time you had a vacation. You had that thought, “I need a vacation”. So, for me, I grew up, when I was growing up, in elementary school we always had vacations every Memorial Day weekend. The family would go camping. So, we had a very inexpensive racing boat that was converted to a ski boat. So, it could very easily pull twelve people out of the water and inevitably broke down during the trip and that was just part of the trip. My dad would get in there and start fixing the boat. Around this time, mid-March as finals and grades — I don’t know I was in elementary school; we didn’t have finals back then — but it felt like, I can feel the anticipation of Memorial Day weekend and I started to feel that idea that I needed a vacation. 

Back then, I didn’t have to worry about it because all I knew was I was getting in the truck at three in the morning and we were heading up to Bass Lake or Shaver Lake or something. When is the last time you felt like you needed a vacation and what was the first thing that you thought of when you thought, “I need a vacation”? What was the first thing? Anybody? Relax. Have fun. Oh my God, you guys are so advanced. I thought the first thing was going to be, where we go. To the beach. Where are we going to go? Hawaii. Then what do you think after that? See family. Where are we going to stay? How are we going to get there, what to eat? 

So often we go so quickly to the “how”. How are we going to do it? How are we going to get there? How are we going to afford it? And then the “what”. What are all the things that we want to do and accomplish and do while we’re there, because we’re on vacation. 

So, whether it’s — I remember a long time ago before we were married, Tiffany and I took a trip to Italy and it was a four-week trip, I think. It was fantastic. Way back in the day. We were both in high tech and we had everything planned out. Every hotel, every activity, and halfway through it, we just kind of broke down. We said the heck with it. Because we forgot our why. We went right to the how and the what and then we forgot why we were there — to enjoy it. It got to be like, you got home from vacation and needed a vacation from your vacation. Anybody feel that way? Because we are so busy doing it that we forgot that we were there to relax, to de-stress, to have fun. And hopefully those things happen along the way, but it wasn’t our focus. 

Beginning the Journey

So, as we begin any journey, whether it is a vacation in your life or whether it’s a goal that you have or a career that you are following, whatever that future looks like, you are building your future now in this present moment. That’s what we’re doing as a spiritual community. It’s like we are back together again, for the second time — I said I would never say that word again — it’s just like, nope, we’re just going forward. But it feels different for me because this is the time where we are going to build our future. 

The first time when we opened in August was like, we are just going to wait and see. Let’s just open slowly. It will be what it will be. We might have to close, and we did. Now I’m not saying it’s still going to be with what is. We might have to close. Whatever. But we are looking at it, let’s look at it from a different perspective of what’s our why. Why? Why continue to come to church? Why continue to come to your spiritual center? Why open the bookstore? Thank you, Mary, for doing that. Why — and I hadn’t planned on it — why do all these things? 

Come back to our “why” because the rest will follow. The “what it is” will come right after that. There are many ways to do it. There are many things that we could do, but let’s get back to the why. So, we’re building our future and it all begins in this present moment because in this present moment is when you are creating, right now. Whatever that vacation is or that future is for us, whatever that goal is or that dream is, you are creating it right now. Even if you are not thinking about it, you are still creating it. We create it through the power of faith. 

Faith as One of the Twelve Powers

I want to take just a brief moment to talk about faith because there is some — it’s easy to misunderstand and there’s a lot of things that people look at and it’s not quite what Unity teaches. I want to tell you what Unity teaches to the best of my ability in this present moment so that you might have a deeper understanding of it and see how it affects you in your life. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m saying this is what we have found to be true for us when we practice it in this way. 

So, faith, the idea comes from — Charles Fillmore talks about this — one of the co-founders of the Unity movement, in case you didn’t know. He talks about faith as being one of the twelve powers, one of those abilities, those spiritual abilities that we all have within us. So, it’s more than a belief. It’s more than a frame of thought. It is a power within us, and he derives it from the twelve powers from the twelve apostles. 

Peter was the very first apostle and Peter represents faith. “Upon this rock you will build our church”. Metaphysically and metaphorically what he is talking about is this idea of the Christ consciousness, of building that consciousness within you that lifts you up, that aligns you with God, that brings you closer to one another. That idea of that higher consciousness, that — you might call it your super consciousness is one of the terms, that better self of you — that is where we want to come from, and faith is the first component and the most important component to start your foundation of that idea. 

Now, faith comes from our knowing of our oneness. We talk about oneness a lot, but the oneness is this idea that you are one in the kingdom of God. See, because Jesus, the master teacher, Jesus the Christ, once said, “seek first the kingdom of God”. Seek first that consciousness, that awareness. Seek first that realization that you’re already there. 

We are going to take a deep breath because that’s hard for us to imagine sometimes, isn’t it? Sometimes our brain is focused on the “what’s going on” in our life. Sometimes our brain is focused on, “How in the heck am I going to get from here to the end of the month? How am I going to pay my bills? How am I going to finish that test, finish that project, get ready for the friends that are coming to visit on vacation and plan for all of the things that we’re going to do while they are here on vacation? How am I going to get there?” We are so focused on the how and the what that is out there in the future, that we are not here in the present moment. 

The consciousness of God, that’s what oneness really is. If we are all, as Rusty said, God is everywhere present and in all things and in all beings. So, God isn’t just here and here. God is in every atom in the universe. If God is everywhere present, as we say — as I like to quote Eric Butterworth, God is in you like the ocean is in the wave — if God is in you, then you are already in the consciousness, that God consciousness. We just have to align ourselves with it. That’s where faith comes in. 

The Difference Between Faith and Believing

Now, some people confuse faith with believing. They are not quite the same. Trust me, I have many beliefs that are false, that are wrong. Some of them are automatic or underlying subconscious beliefs. Some of them are unconscious biases. Some of them are things that I base my habitual patterns on. We just get up and we go do these things. The beliefs aren’t necessarily true. Beliefs are the realm of the intellect. The beliefs are the realm of the brain. The brain, that’s its job is to think as well as keep you alive and keep things running. 

But faith goes beyond the mere intellect. Faith includes the whole of your consciousness, your conscious, your subconscious, your super conscious mind. It includes that idea of the Christ consciousness, that point within you that is pure and untouched, that is that spark of divinity, that oneness where God is. That’s where faith comes from. 

When we exercise faith, that’s when we’re thinking about this idea of oneness. And when we start to live our lives from that idea of oneness, oneness in the consciousness of God, oneness in the consciousness with each other, we realize that every decision I make affects the whole, all of you. Did you know that? When you woke up this morning, I was affecting you. The way we show up and the energy that we bring to a room, whether we are shining that light or not, whether that light is buried deep somewhere beneath you, beneath me, it’s still there but how am I showing up? 

Building the Future

And so, when we move into this idea of getting ready to go somewhere or be building our future, building your future, building a future or the future because we are all building it together. This spiritual center is just an example of how we build something together. Just like your work is, just like your friends or your retirement community or your family or just like any group of people that you are associating with, you’re building it together, so how you show up affects the whole. 

So, when we look at — and we are going to use this as an example because why not? It’s a little self-serving, but you will forgive me, right? — we will use Unity Palo Alto as our example. We know what the what’s are. There’s a Sunday service. How do we do the Sunday service? Well, I don’t know. This morning at 9:45, I didn’t think it was going to come off. Everything was broken back behind there and somehow the magicians get it all working and the energy that they bring, their why, lifts us up beyond it, moved me to tears, when we get back to our why. You know, you were singing that song, I Will Rescue You, and what kept coming to me is, “Why am I here? What’s my why? What’s your why?” 

We started a process at our annual meeting which is an opportunity for everyone to come together and I think we had many of our members there and we had a couple of people who weren’t members. And I posed this question because those are the ones who are really the stewards of our spiritual community, the ones who are showing up, the ones who are helping us make decisions and moving forward. So, I asked that question, “why Unity Palo Alto?” So, I want to ask you that question, “why Unity Palo Alto?” Just take a moment to think about it. I am going to read some of these reasons that people came up with. You might hear a few “what’s” in there. You might hear a few “how’s” in there and when you think of yours, look at it and say, “Why is that important?” 

So, for example, one person said “why Unity Palo Alto”, joy and uplifting for all. To be expressions of divine love. For spiritual growth. To help people live better lives. To grow conscious in communities, to grow consciousness in communities. To connect our spiritual center. Spiritual growth. Connection. Service. To love and respect all and exude that in its presence. To be of service and hold space for others. To open to greater understanding of their divinity. To grow spiritually. To be closer to God. To inspire others to grow spiritually. To grow a spiritual community for all. To change our thinking for the better. To change our world for the better. To live the serenity prayer. To learn to use and understanding love. I apologize, there was one that came in through the email and I forgot to add it to the list. You know who you are, but I haven’t forgotten you. 

So, think about “why Unity Palo Alto?” because this is a great exercise for you when you are considering doing anything in life, going anywhere. Getting up in the morning, “why am I getting up in the morning?” We all get up in the morning. We all get up in the morning whether we are out of bed or not. Mentally we are getting up. But what’s your why? What gives you purpose? What gives you meaning in life? What gives you the motivation, because it’s in the why that you are going to find that motivation. 

That’s why Jesus talked about Peter being the foundation because his faith was unwavering at times. And then there are times when it fell off the planet. He pretended he didn’t know Jesus. He called him rude names to be part of the crowd, because he forgot. It’s not that the power of faith stopped working. It’s just his connection with that Christ consciousness within, connection with that oneness within, stopped. He stopped that connection within him. I was about to say it stopped working but it never stops working. It’s just always there, but we forget that. We cover it up with our complaints about what’s happening or what’s not happening. 

Thinking About the Why

So, when we begin this process it’s really important, when you begin anything, before you start thinking about the what and the how’s, start thinking about the why, is to turn within. Before you step out into the world, we have to step in. We have to step into our inner spiritual knowing. We have to step into that place within us where we can recognize that oneness and realign ourselves with that oneness before we step out. 

So, if you have been thinking about what your why is — why do you come here? Why do you participate online? Why do you check us out in the middle of the week, however you connect with us, whether it’s on our social media. Why do you do it? What is the gift to you? What’s the purpose of it? Just think about that and what I would like to invite you to do is to send it to me through email, Jriley@unitypaloalto.org — my email is on our website if you can’t remember it — to look at your why. Because next week we are going to be stepping out. Next week we are going to be looking at the what. What do you want to accomplish here? What do you want to create here? Forget about the how. We get so wrapped up in “How are we going to do that? We are going to have to fundraise. We are going to have to change a building or something”. Forget all of that. 

Come from that state of why because if your why is anything like the idea of creating a space where we connect with like-minded people, creating a consciousness that we can rise so that we can change the consciousness of the planet, creating a place where we can be who we’ve come here to be, regardless of our, regardless of how we look and how we talk about each other, to include people of all colors, all races, all sexual identification, all gender identification, all sexual orientation, to include people of all even — dear God — religious backgrounds and thinking. 

It’s not that we are going to teach all religious backgrounds and thinkings. We are going to teach Unity, but we’re accepting a view of everyone to say, “Come and take what works for you and leave the rest behind” because we all have what we call that realm of possibility. We are living in our own realm of possibility and then there is a realm outside of that. Then there is a realm outside of that, but you can’t get there until you have grown a little bit from the inside out. 

So, what is your why? Why are you here? Why do you get up in the morning? What gives you purpose? What gives meaning in your life? When you show up in the world, what raises your spirits? 

I was talking about the other day a couple weeks ago, my trip to Hawaii. One of the things we wanted to do was go see the manta rays, the giant manta rays off the coast. My daughter, Erin, and my son, Ethan, and I got on a boat at 10:00 at night or however late it was. It was one of the last boats out. We went out there. It was a little cold at night. We are heading out there with the anticipation, with the — what’s the word I am looking for? — excitement. Yes, expectations. I was expecting to go out there and see these giant manta rays and just swim with them. Then we get out there and there’s no manta rays, none. 

On the way back I am like, “Well, that’s okay. I am a spiritual guy. How could I look for the good in this?” I’ve got a little star chart on my phone and I start looking at the constellations and the beautiful moon that was out there and I said, “Hey guys, look. There’s Orion’s belt”. You could barely see it. “Where is the North Star?” Well, I am used to it being up there but for some reason it was way down there. I don’t know, I don’t know where Hawaii is on the planet but apparently the stars move. I got the kids all excited about that and they were all like, “Yeah! Look at that”. 

So, we made this experience into something new. That lasted for about a minute and 38 seconds for them. Why are you laughing? I tell you, a minute and 38 seconds in the mind of a teenager is a lifetime. So, they went on doing their thing and I went on back to my thing trying to convince myself that I could name all the stars by the end of the trip. It just is what it is. 

Then I came back, and a dear friend bought me a little crystal manta ray. Isn’t it beautiful? So, this is on my window shelf in my office and what I can do because of this wonderful power of faith and imagination is, I can put myself in that experience and not look at it and say “Ugh. I really wish I could have seen manta rays”. How often do we do that after a vacation? 

But go back to my why. I just wanted to be with, be one with the ocean and experience it. I’ve been snorkeling before. I know what it’s like to be in with all the fish. It’s pretty cool. I can go back there in my mind and think about that. So, this reminds me of my why — to be one with all of the universe. 

At another talk, when I was talking about my childhood and, of course, because I read so much, I’m a great liter — OK. So, one of my favorite books on the planet is Go Dog Go. I would like to read a bit from Go Dog Go. “Dog, big dogs and little dogs. Black dogs and white dogs. One little dog going in, three little dogs going out.” See, you are so enrapt. I love it. Isn’t it great? Are you looking for the spiritual truth or something? “A red dog and a blue tree, a blue dog and a red tree, and a green dog and a yellow tree”. Why would this be one of my favorite books? Can anyone tell me? I’m a color guy. “Some big dogs and some little dogs going around in cars.” That guy is out of his car. He has to fix his car. That was like my boat. You guys haven’t got the right answer yet. I am going to keep reading until somebody keeps talking. 

Why would I think that this is the best book on the planet? Yes! From the wisdom, from the wisdom because my inner child never left me. Any time you mention Go Dog Go, I am brought back to my why. And back then, it was all about exploration. It brings me back to that feeling of youth and wonder in the world, and seeing things new, seeing different colors even though my brother is color blind or color deficient. He probably can’t see the difference between green and yellow but — sorry Dave. 

The Power of Faith

So, it brought me back to this idea of who we’ve come here to be. That is what our why does and that’s the power of faith. When we come from that power, that realization of why, the realization of faith, that energy of faith, then we create from that. Faith is our ability to create and we are creating all of the time. Some people talk about it as if we have a lack of faith sometimes because we get in despair, we get frustrated, we get sad. “Where’s my faith? Why is God doing this?” 

Well, God, in Unity’s perspective doesn’t “do”. Life just is, and yet our faith wanes because we forget that we are one with the allness of life. I am one with those manta rays even though I didn’t see them. I am one with that blue dog going in and those three green dogs coming out. I’m one with that. I’m one with all of you and you are all one with each other. So, as we create this spiritual community, as you create communities in your life, bring up the question of why. 

Now, sometimes there are communities like maybe we are on the board of something and we want to make a change in the world. Sometimes we get so caught up in the politics of the board, of our community, or in the world, something that we want to change in the world, we get so caught up in the what and the how, that we forget our why. If you go back to the why, the what and the how work itself out. It may not be how you expected it to be. 

We talked about this last week as Edison — of course you know the quote – he took a thousand different ways, it took him a thousand times to create the lightbulb, just one thousand steps to create a lightbulb. So, if we looked at it from that perspective and be willing to shift to a new step instead of being rooted and grounded and, “This is the only way to do it. This is the only way. This is the only thing that we can do”. Rather, say “Okay, this isn’t working out so well. What is the next step? Let’s see if there’s another way to do it, another “what”. Let’s see if there’s another “how”.