Life Flows: Are You Blocking or Allowing?- Rev. Darrell Jones
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
To truly embrace the philosophy and teaching of the Science of Mind, we must understand how the law operates. This requires more than just reading about it; we need to connect the dots. We must trace the effects in our lives back to their source—our own mind and consciousness. By recognizing how this power moves from our inner thoughts to our outer experiences, we can test and better understand its impact. This process of connecting our inner world to our outer results is essential for deepening our comprehension of the law. Join us Sunday as we deepen our connection and understanding of how we can partner with this law of creativity and possibility.
SUMMARY
- The importance of establishing a connection to the “greater mind” or universal intelligence, and not just intellectually understanding the principles.
- The need to focus on possibility and let go of doubts, fears, and negative thought patterns that block the flow of life.
- Practical suggestions for incorporating meditation and prayer as a “complete spiritual protein” to calm the nervous system and directly connect with the law of mind.
- The message to stay committed to one’s vision and goals for the new year, making small 1% improvements each day rather than trying to change everything at once.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Darrell Jones (00:01):
Thank you Cityside Band. Thank you, Paige. So there’s some interesting tidbits of information that came out before service today. That song and pager the same age. That song was released in January of 2000, and just last Monday, Paige crossed the 25 yard line, so she sings to us all the time. We’re now going to sing to her really quickly. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Dear Paige, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Paige party. People online that are warm under a blanket. Hi. Maybe some of you aren’t in the Chicagoland area. I think it’s like eight and the windchill is a little less, so it’s frigid. Those of you who put on some wool socks and some long Johns, welcome to the party. My name is Reverend Darrell Jones. My pronouns are he, him, and I’m so excited to be here today as we continue the talk, the theme of January, I’ll take a little bit of responsibility and ownership.
(01:23):
I was privileged last year, so the Centers for Spiritual Living puts out themes every month, and I was on the theme to write all of the themes for 2025, and I got to write or co-author January, so I was reading over some of the notes. I was like, oh yeah, I remember writing that. This month we’ve been focusing, and it happens almost every year in most centers for spiritual living. We go back to the basics. The rest of the year we try to augment things and get all crazy and try to figure out different systems and plans. But in January, oftentimes we say, all right, what’s the basic fundamental teaching of science of mind? What is the basic fundamental teaching of these principles of living a better life? What we really need to be grounded in, right? Because all the other stuff is gravy, which I love gravy, I love whipped cream.
(02:13):
Put all that stuff on top, but what’s underneath? What’s the essence? What is the true? We’re going to talk about a complete protein in a minute. What is the complete protein that we need to nourish not only our bodies, but our minds, our lives and our souls? And this week we continue in the third chapter. So there’s four chapters in the beginning, the kind of core teachings of the science of mind, and this month we focus on, or this week we focus on what it does. So we are talking about the law, the law of mind, the science of mind, what it does online, people. I want you to use your power of attention and not multitask. So close out all the other stuff. TikTok went away last night. I looked at, I tried, I’m a TikTok. I was like, dang, just like that. It was gone. It was kind of crazy. Anyway, this is the place to be. So let’s all be here.
(03:07):
Before I get into the reading, I want to go to those lyrics. So maybe the song went by a little too quick. I don’t know if you know Ricky Byers, if you’re searching for some soul nourishment in the form of music. That woman, she writes some stuff, and I’m going to break it down for you right now because it’s perfect for our talk title today. The title of the song is I feel like Letting Go. Anyone feel like letting go? And you’re like, but what does that mean? Let it go to what? Check it out. She starts the song with a question. Can I just let go? Sounds simple. If I can let go, the darkness will fade. If I can just let go, anyone kind of wrap their head around that. If I can just let go of that, some stuff’s going to go away. It’ll be easier, but I can’t let go. She goes on to say, there’s a light all around me.
(04:08):
Everyone get that? Okay, there’s a light all around me, but the pain in my thought has kept me holding on. Dang. But I feel like letting go and I’m ready to run and I’m ready to leap into what is real, not the story I’ve been telling myself. The real, real. I got a sweet invitation towards that, A mandate of ecstasy. Let go of your will, drop your tools and follow me. And then it’s almost like spirit takes over her voice and says, I am the life within you. It’s time to be free. And she comes back and says, I feel like letting go. Let go, let God. Then she reposit the idea. If I can let go, heaven’s at hand right now. How many of us are chasing heaven somewhere else? If I can let go, heaven’s right here, right here. We’re in heaven. A new life is awaiting.
(05:10):
While I’m rearranging these old facts of mine, we’re going to get into that. Anyone trying to rearrange what their life means? It’s 19 days into the new year. Have you slipped back into the old facts of what life was almost, almost. I had a week last week. It’s easy. It doesn’t take much. If I can let go, heaven’s at hand right now. New life is awaiting while I rearrange these old facts of mine. But I’m tired of holding on and my heart, my heart is making an authentic appeal. It’s a sweet invitation, a mandate of ecstasy. Don’t hold on any longer. Drop your tools and follow me. She states, I won’t abandon my vision. It’s time to release. I feel like letting go, let go, let God. I mean, I could just riff off of those lyrics for the next year, but I got some points I want to make.
(06:15):
First and foremost, she says, I won’t abandon my vision. Don’t abandon your vision. I wanted to kick it to the curb Last week. I was like, nobody wants to meditate. Why am I trying to do all this stuff? Everyone just wants to be stressed out. And I was having a pity party in the corner of my own mind in the house. Thank God. My wife was like, okay, that’s not true. And I was like, yes, it is. And I was, Ooh. I had my bottom lip sticking out. I was, ooh, my five-year-old, Darryl was present. Anyone had that experience in the past 19 days this year so far? Okay, don’t give up though. Don’t let that be greater than your vision. Don’t let that be greater than your hopes, your dreams, and your desires. Why? Because our talk title says that life is flowing, that the mind is always in action, and it does not care what you think.
(07:17):
It doesn’t have an opinion. It doesn’t discern anything. It just fuels everything. So are you allowing or are you blocking your heart’s desires to truly embrace the philosophy and teachings of science of mind, which is what we’re really leaning into in this first month here. We must understand how the law operates. Now, I’m not talking about legality like down at the courthouse, the law of mind cause and effect. This requires more than just reading about it. We must connect the dots in our own life. We must trace the effects in our lives back to their source, not what they did, not what she said, our own mind and consciousness. By recognizing how this power moves from our inner to the outer experience, we can test and better understand its impact on our living. This process of connecting our inner and our outer results in a deep comprehension of the law and using it consciously today, we’re going to deepen our understanding and our conscious connection.
(08:35):
So now the first slide, the first reading, we’re going to come back to it, which Donna teed up for us perhaps the simplest way. So we’re talking about the law of mind. That’s what we’re focusing on this month, and we’re really talking about what it does. E homes, Ernie, my boy, NIE, but his boy, what Ernie said was perhaps the simplest way. He was like, think of 1940s, like 1930s and just kind of like this way of speaking was very, very, that was him. If you ever, you can find some recordings of him, it’s pretty funny. Perhaps the simplest way to state the proposition is to say that we are surrounded by a mind or intelligence that knows everything, that the potential knowledge of all things exists in this mind. That the abstract essence of beauty, truth, and wisdom, how lovely is that? The abstract essence of beauty, truth, and wisdom coexist in the mind of the universe that we also exist in it and may draw from it, but we draw from it only what we can draw through our own minds. A unity must be established and a conscious connection must be made before we can derive the benefits which the greater mind is willing to reveal or import to us. A unity must be established.
(10:09):
We got to connect to this mind. That’s what it does. It’s not choosing to connect to us or not to connect to it. We’re always connected to it, but we must establish that connection from a very specific place. So this makes me think in my early years in high school, in college, I was a lifeguard and I also taught swim lessons and I worked at the summer camp and the kids always had to do a swim test even if they have their card and they’d get all mad because most kids swam in pools, not in lakes, and they would freak out. Maybe you’ve seen this. I’ve seen adults do this too, where you get into water and you get disoriented and all of a sudden you think you’re in deep water and it’s like two feet deep and you’re laying and you’re just flailing around. You’re, there’s videos on the internet, kids freaking out, and then all they need to do is stand up and all of a sudden they’re like, oh, the tears stop and instantaneously everything’s okay.
(11:13):
Anyone flailing around right now and two feet of water in their life, all you need to do is stand up the very ground that is always there waiting to support that swimmer. It hasn’t gone anywhere. Establish the connection. We haven’t maintained connecting to the very ground that God is underneath us very well if we’re flailing and I flail so I’m not making it wrong. That’s part of our human experience. We set ourselves up thinking that we’re going to get to this destination where we don’t flail anymore, where we’re going to get to this destination where I can tread water in any depth. No, you’re going to freak out. That’s what we do. Our nervous system doesn’t think we have a passing thought. What if they don’t like what I have to say? And all of a sudden the heart goes, what if they don’t like what I have to say?
(12:06):
And you run down the hallway screaming all sorts of bloody murder inside your head, and you’re sitting on your couch and there’s a bowl of popcorn in your lap. Nothing threatening is happening. We’ve lost contact. We have to reestablish that connection. This reading today, I love it because it speaks to my jam. I love to nerd out and read about things, but it’s not just about intellectual understanding. You got to step down and put your feet on the ground. You have to do something, and that is our responsibility. It’s not life’s responsibility. It’s not God’s responsibility. It’s not spirit’s responsibility. It’s not the universe’s responsibility. It is only ours because the very thing that we can use is always here and it doesn’t disconnect or connect to us. It just is. But we are the ones that plug and unplug all day long. So it is our responsibility. Again, I’ll come back to our talk title. Life is flowing. It works. Are you allowing or are you blocking?
(13:16):
How do you know if you’re blocking doubt, fear, anger, resentment, anxiety, worry, controlling, manipulation, lying, cheating, sabotage. Anyone experiencing that in their life, whether it’s close to you or not. We are all living in a world where this is happening and we are all responsible to do something to shift it. As I say that, as we move into next week, and there’s a change in leadership in this country, it is not about one person. It is about all of us. Let’s go back to our lyrics. Make it about you, and imagine that you’re saying this to yourself right now. If I can let go, the darkness will fade. If I can just let go, there’s a light all around me, but the pain in my thought has kept me holding on.
(14:24):
We are holding on so tightly. We don’t really leave room for spirit to work with what we want it to work with. We only give room and space for it to work with what we don’t want because we are always saying, well, I don’t want that. Then someone says, well, what about this? Yeah, I would love that, but I don’t want that. Have you ever found yourself doing that, telling people what you want by what you don’t want? It’s always interesting to me when I sit with someone one-on-one and I coach them, I say, so what’s on your heart? What are you hoping for? And they’re like, well, I don’t know, but what I don’t want is this. And I’m like, oh, wow. Great. It’s good to know that, but let’s step over here. But Daryl, I just don’t want that to happen. Okay, I got it. You don’t need to tell me again. What do you want? Are you allowing or blocking? Where are you putting your attention? Let’s go to the second slide. So we go on to Ernie, our homeboy. It must pass through our consciousness to operate for us. We must believe, we must know. We must embody before we see it. Ouch.
(15:47):
We need to be bold. We need to be courageous and willing to place in the center of our minds and our consciousness, the hearts and desires and the wants that we wish for, but I challenge you to stop wishing, declare that it is possible even if you don’t know how to get there. We’re talking about the law of mind that acts upon what you hold in your mind. And if you say, I don’t know if it’s possible, the law says, I don’t know if it’s possible, but if you declare to yourself over and over again, I may not know how to make it possible, but I know it’s possible, it’s still acting upon that. It’s still working with you. The law must pass through your consciousness to co-create with you. It’s not outside of you. It’s something that you beseech and go, oh, please, will you give me just a little bit of cheese? Please no, be the cheddar. That’s going to be my new book.
(16:56):
Let’s go to the next slide to take this a little bit deeper. I want to get really practical today. That’s one of the, my intention today is that you will be inspired to stay in your vision for this year, but I really want you to leave today with something you can do tonight to work this law. Yes, yes. The sum total of our thought will, purpose and belief creates a tendency in the law that causes it to react to us according to the sum total of that belief. So this is a great quote because it’s more than just about a single thought. It’s our thoughts, it’s our beliefs, it’s our will, it’s our purpose.
(17:43):
I have for so many years, so many years, and I don’t even know if I learned it by 25 page, I am still learning it Now. I know how to pray. I know how to speak an affirmative word, but if I’m honest with my human self, how many times have I said there is a possibility here? And in the back of my mind I’m like, I don’t know how this is going to happen. So it’s not just that outer word that we speak on the surface level. We must attend to that inner deep voice that might say, I don’t know how this is going to be possible, because that is adding to our sum total, and if that is stronger than the prayer that you speak, I guarantee you’re going to be disgruntled the sum total of our thought. For whatever reason, this word hadn’t jumped out to me over the past 25, 30 years that I’ve been reading this text. A tendency is all that we need to create in the law. We don’t have to perfectly rearrange all the pieces on the chessboard and become a new person and reinvent ourself. All we need to do is start creating a tendency in the law towards that which we desire.
(19:04):
What if we simply tried to make the goal this year to create a new tendency in your consciousness as opposed to, I have to become this superhuman that all of a sudden doesn’t do any of the stuff that I’ve been doing for the majority of my life and thinking the way that I’ve been thinking for the majority of my life and rehearsing, inhabiting the way that I’ve been doing for the majority of my life. What if we can just start turning a little bit of that tendency, just a tendency. I was thinking about this. One of my goals this year is to create 1% change every day.
(19:47):
I usually try to do a hundred percent change every day. That’s the way that old Daryl showed up. I must be perfect and today I’m going to wake up and I’m not going to eat any fat. There will never be any sugar that crosses my lips. I will never say a word that is derogatory. I will never think a bad thought about myself. I will all of a sudden fit into all of my skinny jeans. I don’t give myself any time. But what if I just had a tendency in my consciousness that was 1% greater than it was yesterday?
(20:25):
Just think about this for a minute. You don’t need the whole year to change direction. 180 degrees, right? You’re looking this way. 180 degrees is back that way. You need 180 days. What if you, for the next 180 days, committed to just trying to do something 1% a little bit greater than you did the day before as it relates to your goals, hopes, desires, and wishes, just 1%. Are you willing to let it be that simple? No, I got to do it all now. I got to be perfect. That’s what my human self does every day. So we must put our feet back down on the ground, reestablish connection with the truth. That is, that’s why we treat, that’s why we remind ourselves at the beginning of every prayer, there’s only one life. That life is powerful and perfect. It is whole and complete, and it’s not separate from me. It’s who I am. That’s what I live from. That’s what I was born as, and that’s what I am now, and that is the nature of possibility. So may possibility reveal itself to me today.
(21:37):
One more quote, next slide. I’ve used this so many times, but it’s just awesome. And this is one of the things that makes me love earn Holmes like crazy. We are chemists in the laboratory of the infinite. What shall we create? The first time I heard this quote was by Jamaican and he said, we are chemists in the laboratory of mind. What shall you produce? Boy, one of my professors in grad school, Dr. Lloyd, bless him, but this is the thing that was so awesome. I think about when Ernest Holmes wrote, which was in the twenties, the 1920s is when he started writing, but it’s still so freeing and awesome today. Most of us are looking for a guru, a leader, someone to tell us what to do. Just tell me what to do. Tell me what to do. Make it easy for me, please.
(22:39):
Yeah, don’t you want someone to hand you the map? Tell me how to get to the gold. How do I lose 30 pounds in 30 minutes? Please tell me if you can’t tell. Weight is one of my goals this year talking about it a little bit. But Ernest Holmes said, I can only tell you these principles. I can only give you the stuff to read about, but you must go into the laboratory of your own mind, the laboratory of your life and throw some stuff around and see what happens. Then you will know. Most of us want to look outside and say, I’ll trust when, I’ll trust if, but we got to trust first. So what do you want to be this year? What do you want to do this year? I guarantee you probably know what, whether you’ve spoken it out loud to others or not.
(23:33):
You know what? You know what? You know what, but chances are you don’t know how or the perfect path to manifestation. That’s not your job right now. It’s not your job to know how the law is always in motion. So if this is true, if the law is always partnering with what we hold in mind, our work is to continue to remain resolute. That possibility is here. Whether we know what the possibility is, we must know within ourselves. We must stop flailing around in the shallows of water and put our feet down and stand up and go. There’s possibility here. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day. So I got to bring another homie into the talk.
(24:29):
He said, so much and did not live that long. I use that as an inspiration sometimes for the potency of spirit, and I think this is what Ernest Holmes wasn’t challenging us to do is like if we could just let go to go back to the lyrics and be present and connect and maintain that connection when everything that we do, it could be powerful and you might say some powerful words like this. Martin Luther King once said, take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step. And this isn’t those of you’re like, well, I don’t know what to decide. I’m not trying to tell you to make a decision about is this right or is this wrong? Should I say yes to this opportunity or should I say no to this opportunity? What he is saying here, before you even consider the opportunity, is put your feet on the ground and connect to source.
(25:38):
We must establish the connection to the law of intimate possibility first. That is always the first step. Every single day, multiple times a day, reestablish connection. This is the complete protein that I’m going to tell you about. You may have heard me bring this in before. There’s nine amino acids that we need for our body to grow and to heal and to take care of itself. So we need proteins and sometimes they’re incomplete, so we just get a little bit. But then there’s complete proteins that give us all the goods. We need the incomplete and the complete. But if you want the complete spiritual protein that you can do every day, that you can consume, that you can put into your soul, put into your body, mind and heart, that will keep you connected and help you establish, listen up, two things. Meditation and prayer, not meditation or prayer. Meditation and prayer. Together they are the yin and the yang. They fit tightly together. It is the complete why do we need both? Because in meditation, we calm our nervous system. I’m studying this EEG protocol. My wife’s going to get in her clinic now where you can actually see the brainwaves of what’s going on and can tell by where things are firing, what is happening in your mental and emotional world. And we were just studying some of it last night because we’re going to a training in a couple of weeks.
(27:10):
If your nervous system is firing like there’s a fire all the time, you can pray all you want, but this thing is not intelligent and it will just keep acting as if you’re fighting the world off. You need to put your feet on the ground, stop flailing and splashing, and the way we do that is through meditation. Even if it’s just a couple of breaths, which we’re going to do in a second, Greg is going to help me out with this. But don’t just meditate. Don’t get lost. Get into the space of letting go of wishing and get into the courageous place of declaring, being very, very direct with no one else but your mind, which is partnering with the law. I am a place of possibility. All of my heart’s desires are possible, even if I don’t know the how. What I know is that there is a way. So here’s the practice. Take a deep breath in. If your legs are crossed, uncross them. Imagine as you uncross your arms and your legs, you are making your body, your mind in all dimensions of you available for support, guidance, and love.
(28:27):
We’re going to take three breaths in through the nose if you can, out through the nose if you can. Two more like that in and out, and with this next breath, just say to yourself the word, relax. This is all we’re trying to do is just calm the nervous system a little bit. Your eyes can be opened or closed, and then repeat these words inside your own heart. The possibility of life is still flowing through me. May it show me what’s possible. The possibility of life is still flowing through me. May it show me what’s possible, not how. Just may it show me what’s possible in this next meeting, in this next email, in this next phone call, in the next walk I take with my dog, I know life is still flowing through me. May it show me what’s possible.
(29:49):
I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to get to this destination, to this mile marker in my life that I desire, but what I know in this breath is that the life, the law is still flowing, and I choose to allow it to flow through the possibility that I am. If you do nothing else this week for every day, take one slow breath in and out and say to yourself, I know there’s possibility. Show me and then let go. Let breathe in. As you exhale, bring a hand to your heart and say to yourself, I let go Say it out loud. I let go. I release. I surrender. I flow, and I know all is good, and so it is. Peace and blessings to you. Stay in your vision this year, my folks. It is on its way. Thank you, Reverend.