I love this very simple 3 minute video. It’s a powerful reminder that what comes out from me is a direct reflection of what is in me.
On the final page of the Big Book (before the stories ) on page 164; we find these suggestions and observations:
“Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven’t got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.”
So, at least a part of this Great Fact is I can’t transmit what I don’t have and I desperately need this relationship with God to do for me what I can’t do for myself.
And somehow in this process, He can reveal the essence of who I really am … what’s the juice that comes from me when I’m squeezed … and ironically my juice can be from Him not me.
AA steps and literature make it clear that we have an “unsuspected inner resource” (BB p.567) , a “position of neutrality” (BB p.85) ,a newfound Friend (BB p.13) that can help us to perhaps uncover, discover and discard what’s been blocking us from experiencing how God can do for us what we can’t do for ourselves.
Page 36 of the Twelve & Twelve states:
“The more we become willing to depend upon a Higher Power, the more independent we actually are. Therefore, dependence as A.A. practices it is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit.”
And further in the Twelve & Twelve, we are told on page 76 how we practice these principles in all our affairs:
“The whole emphasis of Step Seven is on humility. It is really saying to us that we now ought to be willing to try humility in seeking the removal of our other shortcomings just as we did when we admitted that we were powerless over alcohol, and came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. If that degree of humility could enable us to find the grace by which such a deadly obsession could be banished, then there must be hope of the same result respecting any other problem we could possibly have.” – Bruce M
Transcript
Wayne Dyer: Well, I always like to use a metaphor of an orange. I love the orange. An orange is a simple metaphor. You take this orange, and you squeeze it, as hard as you can squeeze it. And you ask yourself, what will come up? And what comes out when you squeeze an orange? Orange juice. No matter how many times you squeeze it, will apple juice come out. There’s no mistakes. You’ll never get grapefruit juice out of this thing, ever. The only thing you’ll ever get out of it is orange juice. And the next question is, why? Why when you squeeze an orange as hard as you can squeeze it does orange juice come out? When I asked that question up in Toronto, one time, there was a little girl sitting right in the front row. She said, That’s dumb. It’s an orange she said, that’s what’s inside. It has to come out. I said, well that’s the answer. You are really smart. And she smiled, and she thought that was great. But that’s the truth. The reason that orange juice comes out when you squeeze an orange is because that’s what’s inside. Now you extend the metaphor, and someone squeezes you. That is, someone says something about you that you don’t like. Someone behaves towards you in a way that you find offensive. Somebody does something or says something to you, that you feel hurt by. And out of you comes ange, hatred, bitterness, tension, fear, anxiety, stress. And immediately you say, The reason that comes out of me is because of how he said it, or the way that she said that, or because they did that. But the truth is, the reality is that what comes out is what’s inside you. And if you don’t like what’s inside, you can change it.
Oprah Winfrey : But aren’t there ever times, ’cause I’m sure a lot of this audience feels this, and those of you who are at home feels this … that there are times when people do things to you. People do things to you when you are just the victim. Right?
Wayne Dyer No. No. That’s not right. No. People do things to you. Of course. It happens all the time, but what happens to you in your life, is you live your life inside. And it isn’t what people do to you. It’s how you react. to what people do to you that makes a difference between you being a fully functioning person or a victim. That’s the way it is in life. When bad things happen out there, you can get a lesson from it. There are no accidents to me in a perfect universe. There are only lessons. Everything that happens is a lesson, and you either learn from it, or you will become a victim.
Wayne Dyer: You can’t give away. what you don’t have. Now, it sounds ridiculous, okay? But it’s more than what meets the ear as you hear this. You can’t give away what you don’t have. People who are not good at giving away love can’t give away love because they don’t have it to give away. If I want to give you a dozen oranges, I can’t give you those dozen oranges. unless I go out and pick up 12 oranges someplace. Otherwise, all it is is just empty rhetoric. And the same thing is true of virtually everything in your life. You can’t give away love for others if you don’t have love in here to give away. If what you have in here is contempt, If what you have in here is anger. If what you have in here is fear, then these are the things you’re going to be giving away in your life.