Borrowing Words Part 2

 

Although the author is unknown, and the prayer below has become associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, the Serenity Prayer has something to teach and tell each of us.  Slowly read these words savoring each syllable.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference,

living one day at a time;

enjoying one moment at a time;

taking this world as it is and not as I would have it;

trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will;

so that I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.    

I love the opening three lines offer us a way to encounter and experience this beautiful and broken world.  That in every moment there are things we can change, things we cannot control, and we need the wisdom to know the difference.  In a recent podcast, a person said in every situation there are things that are mine, things that belong to another person (who I cannot change), and things that are God’s.  What is mine, theirs, and God’s.  Those are three good categories, because often what frustrates and flummoxes us is that we cannot change another person.  I am not in charge or control what the other person does or says or believes.  I can respond to what s/he says, but I cannot open that person’s head and re-wire their brain.  Or as Edwin Friedman wrote, “The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change.” 

What can we do?

That is where the second, less well-known, part of the prayer comes in ~ we take one day at a time, enjoy (note that word ~ enjoy ~ in the less-than-perfectness of this moment ~ don’t delay or defer your joy OR let your joy depend on someone or something else) your world today.  We receive the world as it is ~ to be an instrument of God’s peace to combine with the prayer from yesterday.  Finally, I love that phrase, “reasonably happy”.  What a GREAT invitation.  This isn’t about having the best…DAY…EVER!!!  Today is about being reasonably happy.  I don’t know who wrote this prayer, but I am going to say it was a wise person who knew that if you string together a few reasonably happy days, you get some pretty good weeks, and some pretty good weeks can add up to a more-than-acceptable months which can point you to an above average year which can be a wonderful blessing moment-by-reasonably-good-moment. 

May these words today open You to God whose supreme love will never let you go. Amen.