A Journey Toward YES

We are looking forward to seeing you at our next events:

• Neighbors’ Hot Dog and S’mores Picnic on July 21st 12-3pm. 
• Next Death Cafe on Saturday July 27th at 4pm.
• INC Pot Luck Picnic on July 28th at 1pm.
• Village Fair and UnFair 5K on August 17th (please register and order t-shirts by July 17th).

You may watch the Recording HERE

I’ve been reflecting a bit on how we get to where we are.  This Sunday marks my 6th year here in the role of minister.  Life definitely gives us unexpected twists and turns.  We’re definitely Asked and Called to interesting places in life.  

I was thinking that there are a two things that get us to where we are in life.  

One: We don’t do anything alone (even if we think we do; even if we feel like we’re ‘alone’).  

Two: The best things in life come when we say Yes!  Despite our fears, despite our surprise, despite our “it would be so much easier to say no”, despite our “seriously, THIS is what is asked of me?”  

I’ve also discovered that the more unexpected and strange it seems…the more truth there is in it.  The messier and more complicated it seems…the more “right” it is.  Life is messy and complicated and scary and there are no guarantees.  But yes to the big Asks/the Calls, yes to one another, yes to living fully….that’s how we get to where we are meant to be.  

Yes, there are a lot of maybe’s and no’s on the journey.  I think life spirals in around, weaves through, and is sometimes a roller coaster of maybe, no, and yes.  

Maybe’s often mark the testing ground.  The place where we dip our toes into discovering who we are.  They often mark the learning phases in life.  Sometimes, we dip our toes in and we leap right back out.  Sometimes, we dip our toes in and then leap (whether it’s where we’re mean to be or not).  Sometimes, we sit on the edge with our toes dipped in and something (someone?) gives us that big push into where we hesitated to go but know we belong.  

Maybe this is what we’re meant to do.  Maybe this is what other people think we should be doing. Maybe it fits.  Maybe it doesn’t.  Maybe we swim.  Maybe we sink.  Maybe we float.  Maybe we tootle around for a while, then we get out, dry off, and set off on a new maybe or a new yes.  Every maybe helps us learn and grow.  Maybe’s help us discover who we are.  Maybe’s help us learn to listen for those bigger Calls.  

Maybe’s often help us to learn our no’s.  We begin to realize what we’re not meant to be doing.  We learn who we’re not meant go be.  We learn who supports us on our journey and who holds us back.  We realize we need to make changes and no’s set up the boundaries that keep out the things that distract us from becoming and unfolding into who we truly are.  No’s are often the stepping stones away from where we’re comfortable and “safe” toward living our fullest life.  

Each one of us is put here in this time and this place with these people for a reason.  One of our greatest works is discovering that reason.  Who are we truly and what is it that only we can bring forth into this world and this place?  The maybe’s and the no’s help us to discover and uncover.  

Often the No-place gets really comfortable.  Boundaries and walls make us feel safe and secure. They keep out what we don’t want. They keep in what we do want.  They often make life easier and it’s easy to want to stay here (especially when it feels like the one thing we can control when life feels uncontrollable).  

No’s are the space makers, not the end points. No’s are the healthy boundaries and disciplines that make space for what really matters.  

What the no’s really do is make space for the yes’s. 

It’s when we get to yes that we are fully living life.  Yes’s are terrifying.  They are when the walls come down and we walk fully into life and the world with confidence that we sure aren’t perfect (we’re not meant to be perfect—if we were we’d be demi-gods, not humans), but that we’re truly doing the best we can.  We’re truly open to what is asked of us and our unique gifts in this world.  

Have you ever noticed that most of the Stories (and stories: read the novels, watch the movies) are around people accepting a call?  Stories begin with Yes.  Even when it’s terrifying, dangerous, hard, unfair….it’s saying yes to that something new, that something unknown.  That’s kind of like faith.  

It’s a truth that the challenges and the hard stuff is important.  Not that the awful things are “gifts” or that we deserve the bad things that happen for some reason.  It’s that we can’t avoid the bad stuff of life.  They happen to all of us—whether we’re “good people” or “bad people” or just plain “people”.  We, none of us, can avoid all of life.  

That’s when we know the no’s are not so good.  When we are using them to try to keep us in safe, secure, and comfortable bubbles.  These bubbles keep us from living fully—that’s fear.  Fear isolates and separates us.  Yes brings us together into community.  Community is when our gifts come together to be even greater than they can be alone.  

It all goes hand in hand. The good…and the bad.  The bitter…and the sweet.  The yes AND the no.  The sadness AND the joy that make life worth living.  For those who love movies, Inside Out 1 is a beautiful exploration of how these seeming opposites are like paired friendships.  One cannot fully exist without the other.  We cannot fully live life without accepting all of life.  

The yes phases of life open doors and windows we never thought possible. Yes takes downs walls and barriers.   

It’s the yes that brought me here.  I still don’t quite understand it, but perhaps that part of the point.  It’s also a big Mystery.  

That yes touched on all my scaries…beginning with my lifelong fear of public speaking.  Saying yes opened my deeply personal faith up to scrutiny and judgement.  It opened me up to hurts and failures, unbelievable challenges and incredible losses.  Saying yes make it impossible to just dip my toes into the water…I had to jump in.  

That yes meant I was protecting something I love deeply and didn’t want to lose, despite my fears.  Yes to this place.  Yes to this church.  Yes to love.  Yes to forgiveness.  Yes to grace.  Yes to welcome.  I said yes to all of you. You said yes to all of me.  We said yes to this place and community.  We said yes to uniting ourselves into something bigger, and harder, and more beautiful than just ourselves alone.  We said yes to community.    

Our yes’s are the welcome to living it all fully to become the person we are, each of us, called to be.  Our yes’s call us together.  

Welcome the maybe’s; they are part of the journey.  Say no when it’s necessary, for they create space for what really matters.  And say YES when it’s time (and you know when it’s time), because life is an unfolding YES to something bigger and more Mysterious than we could possibly know.