Be Inspired – Rev. Darrell Jones
This recording features the Sunday Talk portion of the service. For the full service watch here.
DESCRIPTION
Inspiration is the fuel of possibility. Just as we need the fuel of food for our bodies and gas or electricity fuels the energy of a motor, we must regularly refuel ourselves with inspiration to keep the engine of possibility running in our mind, heart and spirit. Join us this week to refuel yourself. Be inspired and see what possibilities may come!
SUMMARY
Rev. Darrell Jones explores the theme of inspiration as a fuel for possibility in life and living. He emphasizes that inspiration involves becoming filled with the breath of spirit and possibility, and encourages listeners to examine what they are filling the design of their lives with during this new year
Drawing on the principle that nature allows for transformation—just as new seeds can produce different crops in the same soil—Jones argues that individuals can uproot unhelpful patterns and cultivate new ones in their mental and spiritual lives. He acknowledges that around the third week of January, initial New Year momentum typically begins to fade, and encourages people to gently refocus their attention on their aspirations rather than viewing this as failure.
Jones introduces three interconnected concepts for the month: vision, purpose, and possibility. Vision functions like a telescope, drawing distant goals closer to inspire action, and represents an appeal to become something more. He illustrates this through the example of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose vision guided his life and continues to inspire millions.
The speaker emphasizes that visions need not be implemented perfectly; rather, people should experiment, learn from mistakes, and maintain hope even amid disappointment. When vision aligns with personal purpose, it creates powerful possibility. Jones concludes that success is determined by where one places their attention and attitude, and calls on individuals to actively cultivate inspiration in their daily lives to become agents of inspiration for the world.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Darrell Jones:
Anyone feeling a little down and tired? Yeah. It’s about that time. This month we’re focusing on a new design for living. And the download that came to me during the song was, I’m not going to try to tell you a new design. Oh, by the way, my name’s Darrell. My pronouns are he/him, case you’re wondering. Everyone online, greeting, salutations, not an opportunity to multitask. Let your attention rest here for a few moments and see what inspiration comes your way. That is our focus today. But the download that came to me was this idea of a design. It’s like I want to map out something new, right? A new design for living. It’s like, ooh, I need to throw it all out and come up with a new thing. And sometimes we need to do that, but today I want to focus on what is it that you’re filling the design of your life that you already have.
What are you filling it with? You feel me? You get what I’m picking up what I’m putting down? You have a design. We are in almost the third week of January. Chances are you’ve got to design how you think this year’s going to go. That’s awesome. I’m not saying change that, but what are you filling that design with today? That’s what we’re going to explore. The talk title is be inspired. Be inspired. Inspiration is the fuel of possibility. Isn’t that a great little nugget? Inspiration is the fuel of possibility. Just as we need fuel or food for our bodies or gas or electricity for a motor to run, we must regularly fuel and refuel ourselves with inspiration to keep the engine of possibility running in our mind, in our body, in our spirit and in our hearts. My intention with today’s talk is to hopefully have you leave here a little better than you walked in or you opened your computer or phone to.
To be connected, refueled, reinspired by your vision for your life this year. And to not only let that connect you to possibilities for yourself, but to possibly inspire others.
I used to do this almost every time I gave a talk. I would kind of define things and break things out and let my little … Editorial? No, not editorial. The etymology of words. Is there etymological self? So be inspired. Be, become. To exist, to make happen. So it’s this action word to be something is in the becoming. It’s not complete. It is actually moving. So we’re moving inspiration. We’re moving to be inspired. In Latin, the inspired comes from inspirare to breathe or blow into. And then we can break that down. In, most of us get in. In most languages, when you say in, people get it, right? In, spirited, breath, in the breath. So to fill something with the breath of possibility, to fill something with the breath of spirit, to fill something with the breath of the universe. And not only something, but someone.
You, your mind, your heart. One of the ways that inspired or inspiration is broken down is to give rise to. That’s why that song was so great to rise up. We’re going to give rise to something today and every day, which brings me to our reading. We need to keep foremost in our minds that the laws of nature are never bound by precedent. For example, no matter what is growing in our garden, we can uproot it. So new seeds and out of the same soil produce a different crop. Why then shouldn’t this be equally true of our mental life? Of course it is true, but it is only a possibility until we actually do something about it. Is that inspirational to anyone? Are those words inspiring? Yes. Good. One person. Thank you, Jason. If for some reason it’s too many words, let me break it down for you, what he’s talking about here.
If you have never done any gardening, then this spring, the summer, get dirty and play with it because there’s this beautiful thing in nature, this principle in nature. The soil that is there, something can be growing in it, whether it’s a weed or a rose, whether it is an orange or some other weird stinky plant. There’s this one stinky bush that for some reason, a lot of development groups, I think because it’s really hearty, they grow and it just kind of smells like feet and poop.
So if it’s that, the beautiful thing is, is you can uproot any of it out and you can put something else in that soil, tend to it and grow something new.That is really inspiring to me because I don’t know about you. I do a number on myself. I’m like, “Oh man, Darrell, who you are, you’ve lived all these years. I don’t know what you’re going to do now because you’ve just been doing it the same way.” It’s like, dude, stop. Listen for a minute. Uproot that thought. Get it out. Put something else there. What would you like to focus on? And so this is a reminder that we don’t have to take the lot that we feel like we’ve been given and we just give up. No, you’ve got some soil. You’re the soil. You just need to pull the things out that you don’t like and start putting some new stuff in there and fertilize it.
The other thing that inspires me, and it gives me some pause to take a breath because I don’t know about you. I like everything done yesterday. There’s a process of growing. It takes time. You must nurture things.
Be inspired and be inspiring. That’s my hope today is that you are inspired, but then you’re also inspiring. May the words from my mouth today and the meditations of your heart as I talk, fill you with the urge to do something inspired and creative with this very day, with this very week and with your entire life. I love the beginning of anything. And I think this is why I find myself drawn to a lot of the Buddhist philosophies. As any of you have read any of the Buddhist texts or any of the Buddhist teachings, there’s this idea called the beginner’s mind. I love the beginning of things because you’re kind of like, “Wait, what’s happening? I don’t know. ” And you’ve got this bright eyed, you’re like a five-year-old. Let’s just break stuff and see what happens. And in particular, most of us bring that energy into the new year.
Whether we fully believe it or not, there’s this general idea that floats around the planet around this time that we have cleared the slate of last year, right? That there is something new before us. It’s almost like that we’ve uprooted all the stuff from last year that we didn’t like, threw it into the compost pile and now we’ve got this brand new fertile space to grow something new this year. But usually about this time, what’s today, the 18th? So we’re floating into week three. The energy and the surge and all the hurrah starts to flatten. And for some, it goes to complete and total nothingness. And this is okay. This is not something to belittle ourselves on or to prove that we’re failures or that we haven’t done something right. It’s evidence that our old habits, our habitual way of being, have started to kick back into automation.
Anyone experiencing that? You thought your business was going to be a completely new business in 18 days. You thought your body was going to be a completely new body in 18 days. You thought your relationship was going to be a completely new relationship in 18 days. You thought your family was going to be a completely new family in 18 days. Come on now. It takes time. So give yourself a little bit of grace and just realize that your attention has drifted away from the thing that you really are aspiring to this year. And this is the moment to bring your attention back. This is the moment that we all have been waiting for. It is the moment to be inspired, to be in the breath, to become the breath of spirit, to breathe into something, the vision of our souls. I’d love to see the second slide.
If we could have that.
One more. Here we go. Okay. Three words that I’m focusing on in the soul gym community this month. Vision, purpose, and possibility. And notice that there’s arrows. Now, I’m not one for perfect linear movement. I’ve meander my whole life. However, I hope that this gives you some sort of visual representation of where I’m inviting us into with inspiration right now. Has anyone ever looked through a telescope? It’s pretty cool. A telescope is an optical instrument designed to make distant objects, things that are very far away, appear nearer so you can see some detail in them. That’s the function of your vision. Your vision, if you did a visioning practice, if you did a vision board, if you sat down and did any resolutions, whatever your process may be at the beginning of this year, it is to act as a mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic telescope to draw close to you, to see some of the details of your life and what’s going to come to pass this year.
But it doesn’t mean that it’s sitting right next to you. It doesn’t mean that 18 days into the month of January, your vision should be completed.
In fact, if you were to try to take a telescope and flip it the other way and look through the big end, it’s weird. You don’t really see well. There’s not … So a lot of us are trying to flip things right now and we’re like, “Okay, what’s the possibility? What’s possible? Is it possible or isn’t it possible?” That’s not the question right now. We’re not flipping the telescope of your vision around. You’re supposed to be looking out at what could be impossibility, uncertainty, unknown, but just drawing it close to you to inspire you to go, “Oh, this is what could happen this year.” There’s a great quote, our next slide, three here from Rosabeth Moss Cantor. She said, “A vision is not just a picture of what could be. It is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.” The world needs an appeal to better itself, yes?
To become something more. When you listen to that vision, when you listen to that calling upon your life to be something better, it does nothing but send out a ripple to the world around you. And right now, the world is trying to flip the telescope in the opposite direction. Everyone’s trying to figure out how can we get out of this mess that we’re in right now? And that’s the question we need to keep asking. But because we don’t have an answer, doesn’t mean we can’t get out of it. It just means we’re on our way. We need to flip the telescope. We need to flip our vision back around and remember, okay, what is the near distant future possibility that we hope for? Regardless of how some of our leadership shows up right now, regardless of what’s happening in the political, socioeconomic setting right now.
I’m not saying forget about it and stick your head in the sand, but we need hope. We need some inspiration right now, folks. And you’re the one, you, we are the ones to bring it out. So be inspired by your vision, whatever it may be. It is showing you something. It is pulling you close to that, which is often the near distant horizon in the possibility of your life. But please don’t flip things around. Don’t try to see what is or isn’t possible and then go, “Okay, well, I guess that’s my purpose.” And then that’s my vision because it’s possible. Can you feel the energy shift? Your vision is trying to get you to stretch.
Tomorrow, we honor and celebrate one of the greatest visionaries of our contemporary history, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He definitely had a vision and he was inspired by it. He let the vision pull him forward. He didn’t know how things were going to come to pass. He really didn’t. He even profoundly realized that he may not actually see the fruition of his vision in his lifetime, but he was moving himself and the world tour towards that possibility. Here’s some words that he gave in a very famous speech. “Well, I don’t know what will happen now.
We’ve got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn’t matter with me now because I’ve been to the mountaintop. He’s seen out the possibility, the vision, and I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m so happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. “Anyone ever heard that before? You will hear it a lot tomorrow. Hear it in a new way. In metaphysical interpretations of religious or spiritual speak, you can substitute the word Lord with the word law.
So in essence, Martin Luther King Jr. Said,” Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the law, the manifestation of the law, the effect of his cause. He saw it from the mountaintop. He saw the possibility. He didn’t know how he was going to get there, but he knew it was going to happen. And that faith activated his every single choice in what he did. And not only did it guide and direct his life, but it inspired millions of people, so much so that he hasn’t been alive taking a breath on this planet and his words are still being spoken. His recordings are still being played. People are still basing their lives off of the image and the mirror that he offered. This is the type of inspiration that we need today, my friends.
Do you know the courage that it took and the courage that it still takes today to hold a vision that tight and firm? It’s so easy to get distracted by lesser seemingly more important things. It takes courage and willingness to fall and get back up. One of the most inspiring quotes that I have from Martin Luther King that every time I read it, it just brings some breath to me. It’s our next one here. Slide four. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never give up infinite hope.” It is a good one. “This will right my ship every single time. It may not solve the problems immediately in my life and in the world, but it puts me right back in alignment with possibility and it gives me the energy to get up and try again.
Rise up and I’ll do it a thousand times again.” Just the sun has been getting up for thousands and millions and billions of days. Rise up. If you are feeling frustrated about this year already, whether personally or on the larger social cinema, hear this. Visions are not intended to be implemented perfectly. We are not here to live a perfect life, whatever that actually can even mean. We are scientists. Scientists don’t do things perfectly. They break stuff. They blow it up. They get it wrong. Things disintegrate. They actually harm people unintentionally, and then they figure it back out. We are scientists experimenting, seeing what works. Take notes on your life right now, and then get back to the work of experimenting with affirming what does work, and then shifting the things that might be challenged. Vision matched with your purpose brings you into possibility.
Make mistakes though. Get things wrong. And sure, experience the finite disappointment of it not working out the way you want to, but get back on with your vision and never give up your purpose and lose infinite hope and possibility. My purpose that I heard, gosh, almost 25 years ago when I really, really started my personal journey into spiritual living was that I’m here to love and be loved. That’s it. When I have a vision and if I can match it with that purpose, so if it’s a vision for my business, if it’s a vision for my relationships, it’s a vision for my body, my purpose is to love and be loved in whatever that vision is. The possibility when those two come together, it’s so great. It is so inspiring. Let your vision and your purpose fuel the possibility within you this year.
And our last slide today hopefully gives you some much more needed inspiration. We need not worry or wonder if we will succeed, but instead we need to direct our attention to that in which we really desire to succeed. You are successful, period. We find ourselves right back at the starting point, the only starting point, thought. What are we thinking? What is our habitual thought pattern? What is our total thought content? Here’s the beginning and the end, the cause and the effect. You are successful right now and whatever you’re thinking, whatever your experience is, if it’s an experience of what you would consider positive or an experience that you consider neutral or meh, or an experience of negativity, the bottom line is, is you are being successful. You are co-creating that experience right now. Your attitude and your attention. Those are the two most powerful things that you have on the planet.
Where you place your attention and then the attitude with which you place it is what makes up your experience moment by moment by moment. And you are being successful. This is not a shame or blame saying that you have screwed anything up if you’re having an experience that feels less than, but recognize you are successful.
But sometimes we’re successful in things that we don’t actually want. Anyone? Hello. I’m like, wow, well that’s interesting. That’s not exactly how I pictured this day going or how I wanted this life to be or how I wanted that job to go or how I wanted that relationship to be. But remember, pull up the roots, put it to the side, put in a new seed, water it, attend it. This is the process of our living. We are successful every day. There is no doubt in that. The question or realization is what are we being successful in? What are we giving our attention to?
I think for time, the last inspirational quote today comes from Victor Hugo. Anyone know that name? Great writer. Seen Lamiz. Hunch back in Notre Dame. There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is the idea whose time has come. This time, this time has come to be inspired, to be in spirit. Not some of the time, but all of the time. That’s the idea. This is the idea whose time has come. It is time to be inspired right now, folks. Don’t wait for other people to do it. Don’t wait for our government to do it. Don’t wait for your partner to do it. Don’t wait for a friend to do it. Don’t wait for your dog to do it. You. Do it. Bring your dog along. We cannot wait for the world to be inspired. We must be the inspiration.
Do something if you can every day to keep yourself in spirit, to keep yourself in the breath of life, to keep yourself in the spirit of possibility. Whether you read something that inspires you, you listen to something that inspires you, you watch something that inspires you, you dance something that inspires you. Whatever it is, when you are inspired, you know what it feels like. Get yourself there today somehow. Find something to keep yourself inspired. The world needs you walking around inspired. So let’s take that inspiration into some prayer. One last quote from a design for a new life from the chapter titled The Abundant Universe. Ernest Holmes wrote, “Always remember, regardless of the way we may have chosen in the past, we are free to choose anew.” And so right now we choose anew.
Take a rich breath in and out. Feel your feet on the ground. Relax your shoulders, unclench the jaw, unhinge anything that feels tight. What are we filling your design with? What are we pouring into the design of your life? Pour spirit into this moment because there is only one thing happening and that is the life of spirit. In my life and in your life now, in the life of this community known as Cityside, in the community where you live in your family, in your work environment, in our government, there is no place that the living spirit of possibility is not. It just needs to be reminded. So by the power of this collective mind, treatment and prayer and affirmation right now, what I declare for all of us is that we remember the truth greater than any detail that we see out in the distant future, that right here, right now, we are enough, that our vision is meant to pull us forward.
May we step into this week willing to fall and get back up. May we step into this week and come down from the mountaintop of the vision that we’ve seen and actually activates that vision in our living. What I affirm and know is that everything we do impacts the world. So choose wisely and be inspired. A hand to your heart, a smile on your face, a deep breath in, and we exhale the spirit. And so it is.
Peace and blessings to you all. Be inspired, my friends. Happy New Year.