Serenity

In the midst of everything going on lately, I was reminded of the Serenity Prayer. I need to instill this into my daily life:

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 hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next. Amen.

There are a few verses that stick out to me here. One is "accepting hardships as the pathway to peace." I hardly ever consider my hardships as a pathway to peace, but looking back on my life, that is exactly what they have been. Even the parts of my life that I regret have brought me closer to God, and I'm sure the trials I endure today are doing the same thing. Something to give me perspective when I'm in over my head with problems.

Another verse I liked was "Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it." Isn't it so much easier to relinquish that control and not strive to have everything as we want it? The more we can accept the world as it is, the more we can accept ourselves as we are, and vice versa.

Then there's this one: "Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will." Surrender. How often I hear that word and cringe, but at the same time, it is so refreshing to give it all up to God and let Him handle the things we cannot handle on our own. Relationships, friendships, jobs, finances, children, marriage, singleness, whatever. He will make it all right if we open our hands and let Him have His way with all aspects of our lives. I think it's hard to surrender because we're afraid of what He has in store for us. He will always choose the more disciplined route that leads to repentance and redemption. It is so hard to change sometimes, so uncomfortable. But each change leads us closer to freedom.

I also love this one: "That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy in Him." What an interesting choice of words, that we can only be reasonably happy in this life and not extremely happy. And that the only supreme happiness we can ever experience is in Him. I guess the only way to find any true happiness in this life is to start with God.

Then there is, of course, the essence of the serenity prayer, to "accept the things I cannot change," and "to change the things I can." The way to stress is doing the exact opposite of these, to focus on what we cannot change and expect everything outside of ourselves to change for us. All of our strength and power comes from within, and the more we focus on the externals, the less in control we are. Such a crazy paradox that the more we want control over everything, the less control we have.

Relinquish, relinquish, relinquish. It's the only way to peace.