On Sunday, Rev. Lola closed out our November series, “Intentional Living,” with her message, “The Call to Adventure.”
Notes
Opening:
For 14 years Bodhi Spiritual Center has been held, nourished, loved and supported by people that left their traditions, their comfort zones, their limitations and their paradigms to forge something new. We are a community of people that listen to the call of adventure and grow in it. We are a community of people that understand this adventure is not about easy or comfortable or some kind of mortal perfection. This is a community that exists to stir the soul, to ignite one’s faith, and to infuse the human condition with a joy that can carry you through the night sea. You are a people that is bold, that is brave, that is willing and that is ongoingly waking up to your gifts, talents and responsibility as spiritual beings called to birth new worlds.
Objectives:
- Notice where you are on the adventure called your life (Your Hero’s Journey) – the arc of your story
- Trust that your adventure is rightly designed for you
- Live with intention dedicating your adventure to the evolution of humanity
Victimhood/Fundamentalism/Choice or Responsibility
Keywords/Stories/Points:
Fall of 2000 in a large and dark hotel ballroom I hear Michael Beckwith speak for the first time. I cannot tell you what he said. I can only tell you how I felt. The vibration of his words stirred my soul. It is my first memory of hearing untethered Truth – and I wept. My body vibrated, my face was hot and I knew that I was to be what he was calling out. I was to be a channel for Truth as he was for me that day. I was struck by a “SLIDE: Follow Your Bliss” moment
Separation – the call, reluctant adventurer, fear, road of trials
SOMETHING DISRUPTED YOUR ORDINARY WORLD AND BROUGHT YOU TO THIS CONVERSATION, THIS COMMUNITY, THIS MOMENT
SLIDE: Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging. – Joseph Campbell
When you resist “the call” expect your comfort to be increasingly disrupted
7 years later when I would meet Nathan at Bodhi he revealed a vision that came through him of us married serving as ministers to which I swiftly responded “I will never be a minister.” Resisting the call!
Initiation – tests, obstacles, ordeals, drama
SLIDE: Find a place where there is joy and the joy will burn out the pain. – Joseph Campbell
SLIDE: He met the woman where she was, and he treated her as if she was already where she now willed to be. In dealing with her he “believed” her into the fulfillment of her possibilities. He stirred her confidence into activity. He placed a crown over her head which for the rest of her life she would keep trying to grow tall enough to wear. – Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
The last 11 years have involved tests, obstacles and dramas – each one seemingly more dramatic than the next – career crisis, financial crisis, relationship crisis, identity crisis etc.
SLIDE: Follow Your Bliss
Return – resurrection, triumph, change/success/proof of journey
SLIDE: The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. – Joseph Campbell
SLIDE: You are a center of God-consciousness in this vast Whole. – Science Of Mind p. 122
Bodhi is thriving. We are a community of adventurers, storytellers and script writers. We are a community that understands our greatest crises as the roadmap to our true selves.
Summary:
SLIDE: I want to sing like birds sing. Not worrying who listens or what they think. – Rumi
Closing:
Prayer & Meditation
