Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The 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;
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is;
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
What a beautiful prayer! Serenity is defined as being “calm, peaceful and untroubled”. Serenity is something that every single person in the world right now could use a little more of. Currently the world seems to be the opposite of untroubled. Headlines and comment sections are filled with people arguing about the wisdom of decisions that are being made. And wisdom seems to equate to point of view.
But we all have much different perspectives on the COVID situation. As someone who is employed by an essential service, my life has not changed other than wearing a mask when I am out. I still get up to the same alarm at the same time and do the same job – often with longer hours than I had before. My daughter living in the same household has had a different experience. Her job went from in person to at home. Her friends were suddenly off limits and she didn’t even leave the house for the first 2 weeks of shelter-in-place. Her perspective and idea of what steps are wise in the current situation are different than mine. Accepting that we all have differing perspectives and opinions is the first step to serenity.
The second part of the prayer is not as widely known, but also very applicable. Perhaps the situation in the world today has led some of us to smell the roses a bit more – living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time – according to the prayer. Others of us have endured some pretty extreme hardship over the last couple of months. But we can all Trust that God will make all things right if we surrender to His will. Surrender is the pathway to peace. Even Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane on the night that he was betrayed for God’s will saying “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Luke 22:42 Jesus knew what it meant to surrender. And in the next verse we are told that “an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” Luke 22:43 God will take care of us and He will make all things right (not necessarily easy or painless, but right). How often do we pray the Lord’s prayer “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” Matt 6:10 without stopping to think about what that really means? When we truly surrender to God’s will, it means we can live a life filled with serenity because we trust that God loves us and He will give us the strength that we need.
Have a blessed week!
Debi Petrillo
Faith Lutheran Church Council Member
05/26/2020