Serenity... the rest of the story...

Many of us have heard of “The Serenity Prayer.” We may even know the first two verses which say:

“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…”

Whatever our spiritual path and values may be, these words provide a universal attitude and wisdom that transcends time and assists us in our daily lives.

In order to understand the depth of these words, we must first hear them… really hear them...

Accepting the things we cannot change brings a sense of peace… no sense feeling dejected or angry over things we cannot influence..

Acting on things over which we have some influence takes courage… respond to each situation with clarity, exploration, and understanding…

Knowing the difference requires a clarity and awareness that are detached from hope, fear, and expectations… and this is the nature of wisdom… knowing when and where and how to respond…

But how many of us have ever read the remainder of what the author, a Lutheran minister and theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr, wrote in 1926? While our theology might differ a bit, there is something to glean from the rest of the prayer…

“Living one day at a time;

 Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardship as the

pathway to peace.”

The preciousness of every moment reminds us we cannot live in the past or in the future… only in this present moment… and the path will contain some hardships as we walk in the world with our inner spirit and values as our guide.

“Taking, as He did, this

sinful world as it is,

not as I would have it.”

Pointing to the spiritual teacher in the Christian religion as an example and realizing the dysfunctional nature of many of the world’s interactions and ways of trying to control others… and not being attached to what we wished were so… not being attached to our own wants, hopes, fears, and desires…

“Trusting that He will make

all things right if I

surrender to His Will;”

These words are a bit different than what I think or believe, yet they point in the essence to a certain amount of faith and surrender to “what is.” As we walk our journey, there is a rather dual attitude for me that says, “It all depends on me and my choices… AND it is really beyond my control.” Surrender, is not a giving up in resignation, but rather a letting go and an appreciation for the complexity of life... an acknowledgement that Life has many causes and many results for various causes... which also points to the importance of the choices we make each moment... 

 

While the masculine ["He"] refers more to a paternal sky figure within the concepts of a specific religious teaching, I view the “Source of Life Energy” as inclusive of all energies that can best be described as “Oneness”… and the cohesive glue can be seen as a form of universal love… even as we acknowledge the dysfunction and aberrations of its expression through individuals and groups... the light comes in through stained glass windows... 

“That I may be reasonably happy

 in this life, and supremely

happy with Him forever in

the next… Amen”

Niebuhr suggests this attitude helps us to find a peace and happiness in our lives in the here and now… whatever our thoughts are beliefs are regarding the continuation of being and consciousness at an individual level, it has long been the teachings of religions that happiness and sometimes damnation goes on forever in another dimension… and this can be seen as the projected hope of a better life for those in misery now… While I understand these teachings, I tend to be open to the continuation of consciousness and being in some form without having a real sense of what that might be. I tend to see “heaven” and “hell” as something in the present of our individual and collective psyches. We do the work we feel called to do as servants and ambassadors of the “Oneness” of Life Energy.

Having said that, it seems the first two verses have “stuck” in our collective consciousness more easily since they perhaps point to a universal truth…

See clearly and accept what we have no influence over… Work to change what we can… and see clearly enough to know which is which… otherwise we will bang our heads against walls in acts akin to insanity.

As a fun point of interest, a Mother Goose rhyme from around 1695 says:

“For every ailment under the sun

There is a remedy, or there is none;

If there be one, try to find it;

If there be none, never mind it.”

John Hutchinson - September 28, 2014