What Is True Faith? | Rev. John Riley

Good morning and welcome.  Sometimes it feels like you’re in deep water, doesn’t it?  Because sometimes things just don’t work out the way we plan them to work out.  Whether it’s the livestream, whether it’s a relationship, whether it’s finances, health insurance, the cost of gasoline.  Sometimes things are a little bit uneasy.

Unwavering Faith

So, someone asked me not too long ago, how do I – oh, by the way today’s talk is entitled Unwavering Faith.  So, somewhere along the line not too long ago someone asked me, how do I come up with my talks?  Faith has a lot to do with it.  Last week I was struggling, as I mentioned, and the talk just came Sunday morning and I had it, and then I also had the talk titles for the rest of the month.  And it just kind of popped in there and Unwavering Faith was the title.  

Now, the thing that happens, you may have experienced this in your past, but when you’re focusing on something, when something comes up for you, everything that seems opposite starts to happen.  Have you ever experienced that?  Yeah, so, it’s like we’ve got this going and everything’s going great and then all of a sudden everything that’s the opposite starts to occur.  The reason that is, I think, is because it’s not that it’s trying to prove you wrong or the universe is thwarting you; it’s that when you’re focused on something like faith everything comes up to be healed by faith. Everything that seems like it’s completely off the charts starts to bubble up for us because it says, ”Okay, you’re ready.  Here I am.  Heal me.  

Well, they had their ballet end of the year ballet performance today of all the classes in the ballet company at Foothill College for Dance Connection.  And they were — had a beautiful performance.  So, she was out there Friday night, Thursday, Friday and Saturday getting ready for this, the dress rehearsal, the performances.  She had five dances, I think, this time around, and it’s just beautiful.  It’s just a wonderful experience.  

So, naturally, last night, the night before my talk, I’m watching my favorite Japanese anime.  If you look it up it’s, what it’s about is youth and volleyball.  It’s a wholesome anime and of course Ray will only watch it in Japanese with subtitles.  So, I have to get my glasses on and I really have to focus on it.  The three of us, Tiffany, my wife and I, the three of us are watching it and I have to really focus on it and of course it’s volleyball and youth with a dose of metaphysics thrown in there.  They don’t market that.  I don’t know why they don’t market metaphysics as part of a Japanese anime, but there you go.  That’s what we were doing last night, just kind of sinking in, relaxing, unwinding and in the middle of that knowing that faith is a part of the process.  

What Is Faith?

So, what is faith?  What do we call faith?  I know some people talk about it, well you know, faith is really a belief.  I think that is a component of it, that’s an intellectual component of faith but it’s not the whole of it because I have plenty of beliefs that really are not true, and that take me in directions that, all of those stories that we tell, all of those rumors and gossip and things that we lather on, all of the anger as Lise was talking about, the unforgiveness in the Daily Word, all of that unforgiveness, all of those stories that we are believing in in the moment which aren’t necessarily true isn’t a part of faith.  

Faith also isn’t, in Unity at least, a noun.  We don’t describe our belief system as a faith like many do.  Instead, we use that term faith as an ability within us.  It’s a state of consciousness.  It’s a state of being where we are one with the allness of life, love and wisdom, we’re one with God, where we know that.  

So, faith for me is both an intellectual component of the knowingness of the brain things that go on inside my head, but it’s also a heart thing.  It’s also a sense of feeling of comfort and ease, it’s the sense of feeling that oneness, that ineffable feeling of when you are one with Spirit.  It’s using that idea, when you are in that state of consciousness, is when the law of mind action really kicks in.  Intentionally the things that we give attention to when we are having an intention, really become powerful for us.  And it’s — faith is how we bring that into manifestation.  

I like actually Paul, the Apostle Paul, put it this way.  He was a very intellectual person and had a lot of brain things going on in his head I presume, but he said faith is the assurance of things unseen, the substance, the assurance of taking hold of substance.  Substance is that divine essence that’s out there that we create out of.  

Faith As Spirit

And the key here is getting, being faithful, that having that power of faith, that consciousness of faith in Spirit.  I want to change the word there.  Not, “I don’t have faith in Spirit” because that makes me feel or think that Spirit is out there somewhere doing something, but Spirit within me so I have faith as Spirit, as that energy that’s in me.  I have faith as Spirit.  Then that’s really the key of what faith is.  

I was reading Emilie Cady, Lessons in Truth.  This is my great Aunt Rae’s book from 1934, where she defines faith as, she talks about faith “is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen.  In other words, faith takes right hold of the substance, of the desired, of the things desired and brings into the world evidence of things which before were unseen”, takes right hold of it.  

As the master teacher Jesus once said, seek first the kingdom of God.  Seek first, take hold of God.  Take hold of Spirit, really have that feeling of “yes, this is it” as opposed to it being out there, an intellectual process, it’s really embodying it, embodying that idea, really taking hold of it, if you can sense that difference there.  

I was reading Emmerson this week as well and one of his, in one of the first essays, he talks about this idea of, faith comes in moments where our vice is habitual.  Faith is beyond those habitual patterns that we have.  Faith is beyond those habitual beliefs that we might have, those habitual beliefs of “I’m not good enough.  I’m not strong enough.  I’m not …  I’m not good”. Those beliefs in shame, blame and guilt that we do to ourselves when we don’t do our five-minute meditation.  We can only manage three.  All of those things cloud our ability to take hold of Spirit.  They keep us, we keep ourselves separate from it by all of these thoughts and beliefs.  

Emmerson goes on to say, “Ineffable is the union of man and God and every act of the soul.  The influx of this better and universal self is new.  It inspires, awes and astonishes” – sorry – “It inspires awe and astonishment.”  

You Are Here to Live a Joyful and Abundant Life

So, how do I know when I am using faith?  How do I know when I am taking hold of Spirit?  Because the idea here is that the things that we’re desiring in life are there for us.  You are here to live a joyful and abundant life.  That’s why you’re here.  That’s part of it.  And yet, sometimes we look at it and say, “Well how do we know this is not ego?  How do I know that I’m not being selfish here?  How do I know the difference?”  I think the difference is that ineffable feeling, that feeling that you have inside of yourself.   

Fear isn’t the problem.  Fear is not because all fear does is it tells us, “Hey, here are a couple areas in which you can grow”.  So, fear is a great pointer of the way but what gets in our way is the blame, shame and guilt that we layer on top of the fear, the story that we layer on top of the fear.  So, when we feel the fear, that’s the message to say, “OK, let’s go in this direction and see what I can learn and see how I can grow, see what I can become”.  

As we move in this fashion, as we begin to really anchor ourselves in this faith it becomes more of a state of being as we’re moving around the world.  The things may come up that frustrate us, and they will because this is a wonderful human experience that we are having.  So, that human experience bubbles up, sometimes the frustrations, the anger, the fears, that comes up.  Sometimes people do things that you don’t want them to do or you do things that you don’t want to do.  That’s just the human experience, but faith can help us move through those experiences when we go back to taking hold of Spirit.  Go back to, as Lisa talked about, just a few moments of re-centering and taking hold of that divine energy.  

It Begins with Willingness

So, it begins, I think, with willingness.  In that situation, what I found is that in that situation, “Am I willing to let go?  Am I willing to forgive?  Am I willing to listen?”  I think faith comes through our intuition.  They talk about this still, small voice.  Faith comes through in our intuition.  We get great ideas and sometimes we’re heading down those ideas and it’s like, “Oh, it’s not working.  I’m bumping into things.”  So, do I give up?  Do I shift to apathy and say, “Ah to heck with it, I’m just going to go watch Haikyuu” — I got through almost the whole season.  There is one episode left.  I’ll tell you about that in a minute.  Spoiler is coming up if anybody wants to go watch it.  What was I saying?  

Stuff happens.  That’s right.  Stuff happens.  Stuff happens and yet when we remember to take hold of Spirit, to take hold of that divine energy, take hold of that harmonic energy within you, to take hold of that, despite what is happening on the outside, you will get the message it’s time to turn left or turn right.  When things get hard the question is, “I can keep moving forward, learning and listening.  Where am I going to go?  Which way do you want me to go, universe?  If I try this way does it feel better?  If I try that way is it helping me move towards my goals, move towards living a more joyful and abundant life?”  

I think that’s really how we know.  We have to turn within and have a willing to listen to really what’s going on in our thoughts and are we blame, shaming and guilting people or myself.  Are we causing frustration?  Am I doing it just because my ego says I’m right, and this is the way we are going to do it?  You may be right and that may be the way you do it and there may be different ways in which you can do it.  Perhaps there is a new set, a new attitude that you want to bring to the situation.  

I remember speaking to someone who’s in high tech and leading a group of people and wanting, “this is what we’ve got to do and I’ve got to hold them accountable” and it’s like, “okay, well, what holds you accountable?”  Well, a different attitude.  Yes, I know I have a deadline and yes, I know I have my list, but you know the attitude in which we move through this, in which we communicate with each other, in which we live this can be different and it may or may not work out.  There may still be a shifting to left or to right.  

Faith in Ourselves

So, we have faith as Spirit and we must have faith in ourselves, in that inner consciousness, in that divine spark, that part of you that we know is real, that ineffable experience with God.  We have a willingness to empty.  We empty ourselves of all of the things that are blocking us up, that are preventing us and we’re allowing that good to flow.  Allow it to be.  It’s an allowing.  It’s not a forcing.  It’s not a waiting impatiently.  It’s just an allowing.  And keep moving in the direction that you feel that upliftment, even if it’s hard and difficult.  I don’t want to confuse us because sometimes it’s hard and difficult, yeah?  Sometimes there’s things in our life that are very difficult and in that the less story we wrap around it, the easier we’re able to move through it, as that presence.  And you have the skills to do that.  

If we’re so focused on the past we’re not going to get anywhere.  If we’re so worried about the future we’re not going to get anywhere.  But in this present moment, right here, right now, you have all the skills you need to move through whatever you’re going through in this present moment.  In that present moment, you can really breathe into it and feel it and become one with that.  Take hold of that Spirit.  Take hold of that divine essence of love.  And even in the face of I don’t know, know that you’re moving in the right direction.  

Has anyone seen the movie Shakespeare in Love?  Alright, yeah.  When did it come out?  Was it 80’s?  A long time ago.  So, is that an old movie?  Dang it.  Well, you know, I always thought 70’s were old movies.  My son of course, my sixteen-year-old, will absolutely tell me it’s an ancient movie and that I’m ancient but that’s beside the point.  So, in this old movie, I think it’s Gwyneth Paltrow and John Fiennes, but my favorite character is Jeffrey Rush who owns the theater that Shakespeare is trying to put this play on and he’s trying to write, he doesn’t have a script yet.  It turns out to be Romeo and Juliet.  He doesn’t have the script yet and he doesn’t have the theater and the whole time the investors are coming after Jeffrey Rush saying, “How are we going to put this on?  We don’t have a script.  We don’t have, the theater is closed.  How are we going to do it?”  They are like strangling him and he’s like, “I don’t know”.  

The thing about the theater is it just all works out.  How?  I don’t know.  It’s a mystery and in that moment the bells ring and someone yells the theater is open.  But that’s what life is like.  That is what faith is like.  I don’t know.  It’s a mystery how it’s going to go.  If I can let go of my intellect trying to define every single step and allow that intuition to flow, then I can keep moving in the direction that I’m supposed to go and then document it and tell everyone, see how smart I was.  It could work both ways I’m telling you.  It’s a matter of really taking hold of that.  

Faith as a Community

So, there’s faith as Spirit, there’s faith in me and then there’s faith as a community because we are all in a community.  We all have community whether it’s your family, your inner circle, your work buddies, the people who you see in the grocery store.  That’s your community, the people that you connect with and have an interaction with.  If you have faith in yourself, if you have faith as Spirit then you can be in that community and express that faith.  

I say this because a lot people have this concern about trust.  How can I trust someone else?  “I’ll love you if you meet all these conditions and you never do any of these things.  I trust you to know the difference.  Of course, I’m not bound by that rule because I’m me.”  How many times have we crossed the line or stubbed our toe?  When times are great, don’t worry about it.  It’s no big deal.  But the trust drops down a little bit because we’re holding them accountable to a set of rules.  So instead of holding them accountable to a set of rules, only do one thing.  Seek first that kingdom of God.  Take hold of Spirit.  Know that faith is in you.  Know that that divine essence is within you so have faith in that divine essence within you.  Whatever happens around you, you know you have the tools for forgiveness.  You know you have the tools to move through it. As that grounded in that faith of knowing, you can take hold of substance and bring to it that voice of confidence, that voice of understanding, of connection, of willingness.  

There’s one trust that I have and that’s trust in that divine essence.  I trust human beings to be human beings because we’re all human beings every once in a while.  So, I’m not surprised when somebody hits one of my do-not-do’s.  The more I’m not surprised by it, the easier it is.  “Oh look, there it is.  It’s another opportunity for me to heal because I have faith in me.”  I have faith in my ability to take hold of Spirit, to be in it and to shift my consciousness so I can show up differently, so that I can bring that peace to the world, so that I can bring that sense of harmony to the world in whatever situation it is.  

So, at the end of — spoiler alert — at the end of Haikyuu, there is one kid on the volleyball team who isn’t a starter, is a first year, isn’t a starter.  And at the very critical point – so, close your ears if you don’t want to know the end of the story — at the very critical point of this volleyball tournament against their archrivals they were, it’s tied one match apiece and this was the final tie-breaker match and they’d already gone up to thirty points.  It was tied at thirty which is like five points beyond what volleyball is supposed to go to.  Our heroes, Karasuno High School — you know them — they were down, and they had to score a point.  No, it was tied but the team was struggling.  They had lost faith.  You could see in their eyes.  They were weary after three games. And so, what the coach does is he takes out the server and puts in a pinched server.  I don’t know if that’s the right term.  He just comes in, and this kid has never played in a match.  He has practiced with them.  And he gets up there and he hits the ball and, guess what.  Anybody want to guess?  No.  It hit the net and it fell down.  They lost the point.  He felt, can you imagine, miserable.  The first at bat.  Oh, sorry, mixing metaphors.  The first time up to serve and he blows it, and the team is like, you know what, it’s alright.  That gelled the team together, that missed point.  The kid walked off dejected and the team came back, scored the next point and then lost.  They lost the match.  

Now, I didn’t get to see the last episode in the season.  That was the second last episode of the season because my daughter was, my child was tired.  They went to sleep, and I’m not allowed to watch anime without them.  So, I went to my room.  I got on my computer and I watched the last episode.  But – yeah, I’m not going to let them tell me what to do.  Anyway, so — but here’s what I came out of because I knew there had to be something in there.  I had faith that there had to be something in there for this talk, this idea of faith.  There was this scene with this one kid, this one kid who had never played in a match, had his one chance, and blew it.  The team lead’s like, “Hey, next time just make it over the net”.  That was it. 

So, he is out there with his dad in the, outside in their courtyard at home, dejected, sitting down saying, “I want to do better.  I want to play more.  It’s so hard.  I’m working so hard.”  His dad, who played volleyball for the same team, who had the coach, the grand I don’t know, he basically said to him because he was in the same situation back then, he said to him about his experience, practices were tough and many times he thought about quitting.  

How many times have you thought about quitting something?  A goal, a task, a project.  How many times have you thought about quitting?  He thought about quitting and then he said to himself, “The first time I managed to serve an ace at a match” — that’s a serve that scores – “I thought man, how many hours did I practice for this one shot?” — this one shot.  “If I can savor this one shot, this moment, I can survive those tough practices.”   

Find that one thing that can really lift you up.  Because in every moment of your day, every moment, there’s one thing, if you look for it, that you can find that you can savor in that one moment, that one thing that you can say, “OK, I’m taking hold of Spirit.  I’m taking hold of this experience and this ineffable feeling of oneness is going to carry me through all of the tough times.”  To me, that is true faith.