W-O-W-3-archive

Words Of Wisdom

Each week Art Anderson Speaks brings you a new W-O-W to enrich
your lives. Each W-O-W insight is drawn from the speeches, books, or
other materials prepared by Art Anderson. A commentary follows the
W-O-W insight to further clarify its meaning and application to your life.

Art would be delighted to receive comments from you about any of
these W-O-W insights or to hear about any of your own.
Please write to him at art@artandersonspeaks.com

"Reality is the raw material for its own transformation, and
adversity can become anything you choose to make it into."

COMMENTARY

Contact Art Anderson by email: art@artandersonspeaks.com

Nothing more profound or enlightening can be said about dealing with adversity.

That reality is the raw material for its own transformation is a liberating truth that
was first revealed to me more than thirty-five years ago by a very dear, wise,
and articulate poet named Fred McCuistion. I have pondered this concept ever
since and find it to be true in my life and the lives of others. It is the basis of my
speeches and writings and of the subsequent insights you will receive in these
weekly W-O-W segments

Reality is given to us by God to transform for our good and the good of others.
We are His co-creators of the future. The implications this has for the adversities
we face in life are obvious: Adversity can become anything you or I choose to
make it into. I have also found this to be true time and again in my own life and
in the lives of those I have helped as an attorney working with people who are
oppressed and beleaguered and even more so as an ordained minister working
with people who are dispirited and despairing.

But you must also realize that, to transform adversity into a stream of blessings
in your life, there are a series of steps that have to be followed. These steps,
along with certain attitudes you must cultivate in your life, will be provided to
you week-by-week in these W-O-W insight segments.

You alone are in charge of your life and you have the God-given power to find
the blessing in every bane, a cause to rejoice in every curse, an unfulfilled dream
in every nightmare. Life is meant to be a celebration, not a struggle. Become
prophetic. Don't just try to foretell your future, but actually make it happen.
Enjoy the prosperity, happiness, and abundance God meant for you.

Ponder this W-O-W insight as I have pondered it.

THIS WEEK'S W-O-W
WOW 1--July 1, 2005

Words Of Wisdom

"The World Is As You Are."

COMMENTARY

Artists see the world differently. They notice shades, shadows, variations in
hues, and different perspectives that the rest of us miss. The world of the artist is
not the same for those who are deaf to the subtle tones of color and texture; nor
is the world of the poet the same for the poemless pedagogue; nor that of the
lover for those who know not love. For each of us, the world is as we are.

If we put on pink-tinted glasses, everywhere we see pink. We can rub the
objects of our vision, but the pink will not come off. It’s not in them, but in us.
So, too, when we look through loving eyes, we see love everywhere. Love
transforms the lover. It's the first of all freedoms because it transcends the laws
of man and liberates us from the bonds of hatred and bitterness. Yet our love
needn’t change the world. It’s only necessary that we love, and then it’s we who
are changed and the world becomes for us as we are, a place filled with love.

It’s the same when we forgive others the wrongs they’ve done us. It is, all along,
we who harbor the bitterness and resentment the wrong created. By not forgiving
others, we sin against ourselves. By forgiving them we forgive ourselves. We
free the prisoner within us. The world again becomes for us a place of peace and
beauty. Forgiveness is our God-given power to perform miracles, to change
water into wine, ugliness back into beauty, bitterness back into peace, and hatred
back into love. And the funny thing is that the miracle takes place within us.

What we give, the world gives back. Everything in life follows the invisible law
of cause and effect. It’s invincible and inviolable. Each thought we think adds to
or detracts from who we are. Each choice we make, no matter how insignificant
it may seem at the time, shapes our character. And each action we take has an
equal reaction for good or evil that redounds to us.

Hear within yourself the desire of what you want to be. It’s the voice of God
speaking to you. Believe and visualize yourself already living that life and it will
be yours. Cause and effect are one. The oak is already in the acorn, but until the
acorn gives itself completely to the joy of becoming the oak, nothing happens.
So, too, commend yourself totally to what you want to become and the world
around you will comply. All of nature cheers a noble quest. You cannot fail. The
world is as you are. It can be no other way.

THIS WEEK'S W-O-W
WOW 2--July 14, 2005

Words Of Wisdom

Every few weeks, "Art Anderson Speaks" brings you a new W-O-W
to enrich your lives. Each W-O-W is drawn from the speeches,
books, or other materials prepared by Art Anderson.
A commentary follows each W-O-W to further clarify
its meaning and application to your life.

Art would be delighted to receive comments from you about any of
these W-O-W insights or to hear about any of your own.
Please write to him at art@artandersonspeaks.com

"Love transforms the lover."

COMMENTARY

Contact Art Anderson by email: art@artandersonspeaks.com

This is the most crucial and indispensable W-O-W insight of all.
     We cannot survive without loving. We need to love just as we need to eat,
drink, and breathe, only more so. Without love, we cannot live a genuinely
human and happy life.
     Love and life are basic to one another. Love begets life, and life is the
animation of love. Each flows from God and is of His likeness. They are
inseparable, sharing the same source and goal, the same course and contours, the
same force and flow. To betray one is to betray both.
     Love is the very life that flows through us. It purifies us just as water
cleanses the aqueduct through which it flows. It makes us holy. It perfects us
even as God is perfect. It readies us for union with God, because God is love.
We must therefore desire love as we would desire God—with our whole heart,
soul, strength, and mind. It’s that important.
     Love is never wasted or lost. It makes no difference whether our love is well
received or not. Nor does our love need to change the world. It’s only necessary
that we love, and then it’s we who are changed—and the world becomes as we
are—brimming and teeming with love. Suddenly we see all the love that was
always there but was invisible to less loving eyes. Love is a self-referral process.
We imbue the world with the love that it then gives us back.
     When we extend ourselves in acts of love, we grow. We break boundaries.
It's a misnomer to refer to love as self-sacrificing. It can never be a depletion of
the self, but always a completion. It’s self-reciprocating. The more we engage in
loving, the more capable of loving we become; and the more capable we are, the
more love we can engage in. It’s an ever-expanding process.
     Like a pebble in a pond, love ripples forth from the very center of our being
reaching out in ever-expanding circles to family, friends, neighbors, all peoples,
finally encompassing all creation until nothing is left unloved by us. Only then
can our love surpass its finite boundaries and blend back into the boundlessness
of God’s infinite love whence it came.

WOW #3

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