From the Study...

Dear Friends,

        Dear Friends,

            I used to look forward to the evening news. That began to change in early 2020 when COVID came to town. Prior to that time, I listened and watched very closely to hear what antics God’s creatures had been up to that day. Sometimes it was amusing, sometimes disappointing, and sometimes it could be quite disturbing. But, beginning with the pandemic, there has come a chain of pretty disturbing events in rapid succession. And now, after a bitterly contested national election, a raid on the capitol, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, crazy inflation, increasing gun violence, and members of congress who can’t seem to function as a body, all punctuated by COVID surges, I come to the evening news with a certain amount of fearful curiosity. I want to know, but I’m not excited about what I will probably see and hear. I look and listen, anyway. But, there is more for us to do than look and listen.

            Someone recently said that he was tired of moments of silence. I am, too. Moments of silence don’t do much unless they are silent moments of active prayer. Then they can do a lot. I want to offer a prayer you have certainly heard of and probably prayed a slightly different version of. It’s called “The Serenity Prayer.” It was written by the American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, in the early 1930s. What most of know as the Serenity Prayer is a shortened version of the original with a few different words which, in my view, make a big difference.

Most are familiar with these words. “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.” It’s a wonderful prayer. But, here’s the prayer as it was published in the early 1950s and which is probably closer to the way Neibuhr wrote it. It is a bit longer and asks God not to give us serenity, but grace as a means to serenity. Then the prayer asks God for the courage to change things because we should, not just because we can. Then it ends with that last good word that God always has. So, I offer you this for our moments of silence.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

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.

Grace and peace,

Mike