Circles of Life

 

The best way to live life is to act on the advice we give to others ~ Author Unknown

 

Within each of us, there is a deep desire to be heard.  Within each of us, there is a teacher, preacher, and sage who longs to impact and influence others.  Within each of us, there is a prayer that we might leave our corner of the world better ~ clear out the cobwebs or clutter of where we find ourselves. 

 

And, one of the tensions we experience/encounter is that our circle of concern is larger than our circle of control.  A personal example is my children.  They are definitely in my circle of concern.  I want the best for them.  I would prefer that they learn life’s lessons the easiest, most pain-free way possible (unfortunately we usually learn more by doing it wrong than by getting it right).  I want them to be safe, happy, not get hurt by others, and know they are always loved.  These are my heartfelt concerns.  What of that list can I control?  Very little. I can’t constantly hover and hang around their lives to defend them when someone says something that hurts or harms them.  I can’t intercede or interrupt or interject every single second trying to avert disaster or remove potential pitfalls of pain.  What is in my control are the words I share, the energy I give, and showing up with love in their lives.  Do you start to sense how much larger my circle of concern is than what I can control?  You could draw this by making a big circle listing all your concerns, then circle the things that you have full control over within that wider circle. 

 

If this is true in my small corner of the world, when I extend and expand beyond the four walls of my home, you start to sense one source of the fuel that feeds the anger, anguish, anxiety in the world today.  I am concerned about shootings at schools, racism, sexism, discrimination against LGBTQ, clean water and earth, poverty, hunger, the war in Ukraine, polarization, and the circle of concern enlarges every time I scroll my newsfeed.  But, what can I do?  Where does my control begin and end? 

 

This is usually where we want to say that you are more powerful than you know, you have agency, you can make a difference.  And, our circle of control usually isn’t as large as we’d like.  I wonder if we, as a culture, were able to talk more about this, if it would help?  I wonder if we were willing to hold the beautiful tension between concern and control what might happen?

 

Of course, none of this is new.  It is echoed in the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...courage to change the things I can…and Wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. taking, as Christ did, this sinful (read: broken, bruised, gone astray) world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that God will make all things right if I surrender to God’s will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with God forever in the next. Amen.        

 

Today, I invite you to read this prayer several times.  Let it simmer and soak and sing to your soul.  Let the truths found within these words interrupt the stories we tell ourselves.  May the Serenity of the Sacred; the Peace of the Holy Presence; and the Lingering Love of God be found as we embrace and embody this prayer today.  Amen.