The Wisdom to Know the Difference

     "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."  The Serenity Prayer.  Anyone who hasn't heard it?  But did you know that is only part of it?  The prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr actually reads:

"God give us 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."

     Yesterday the Serenity Prayer, the one we've all heard a thousand times, kept sneaking into my head.  Well it didn't exactly sneak.  It would kinda just jump up loudly at times.  And, for the first time ever, I realized what it was saying.  After doing a little research and finding the original today, I am now certain that I get it.  I finally get it.

     There are things we absolutely cannot change.  The weather for example.  People complain whether it's cold, hot, sunny, raining.  Doesn't matter.  Somebody is going to have a negative comment about the weather.  I came to the conclusion long ago that there is absolutely nothing we can do to change the weather and complaining about it certainly doesn't help.  So we might as well accept it and deal with whatever the day may bring weatherwise.  Accept it with grace and be calm---serene---about it.

     What can we change then?  Our attitude about the weather!  In fact, if you think about it,  our attitude is pretty much all we can control.  Oh we try to control our lives.  We think we control our lives.  But in the end God is really the one in control.  Proverbs 16:9 tells us "You may make your plans, but God directs your actions".  Verse one of that same chapter says "We may make our plans, but God has the last word."  

     Our real choice, like the Serenity Prayer says, is trusting God will make all things right if we surrender to Him.  Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace.  Ever pray for something?  I mean really pray for something?  Then when things started looking worse you got so mad at God that you thought He must be mad at you or ignoring you or punishing you?  

     Like I said earlier, we can't change the weather but we can change our attitude about it.  Same with waiting for God to answer our prayers.  If we give Him our lives, every situation in our lives, He promises to work all things for our good!  (Romans 8:28)  There is a reason for the storm.  A reason for the sun.  And a reason for the timing of each.  

     Now that's not to say that life is always going to be difficult in order for us to have an answered prayer.  An example of that would be what I was greeted with this morning.  A lesson reminding me of what I learned yesterday.  (You know.....the wisdom to know what we can and can't change....the weather.  And how our attitude about the weather is something we can change and that's wisdom.)  

     Our 1 1/2 year old pomeranian Pippa tends to wake up about the same time every morning.  She stands in the hallway by our door and makes odd noises that often sound like "momma", letting me know she wants to go outside.  Somehow no one else ever hears her.  But she always manages to wake me.  I tried to ignore her this morning but it didn't work.  So I got up.  However, as soon as I opened the bedroom door, she walked back into her 'brother's' room and hopped up on his bed, deciding she didn't need out after all.  I quickly, and not too happily, scooped her up and carried her outside, letting her know all the way that I wasn't enjoying this and if she thought she was going to wake me up, and then go back to sleep herself, she had another think coming.  

     As I opened the door I set Pippa down on the deck so she could run out and do her business.  Not sure why I stepped outside because there was just a little bit of light rain falling as the sunrise greeted me from the east.  But I did.  And then I looked towards the west where I saw a beautiful rainbow!  It took my breath!  I could not believe what I was seeing!

     I quickly ran back in to get my iPad so I could take pictures but none of the pictures even came close to doing it justice.  A second rainbow appeared above it and the colors seemed to be repeating under it as well.  I took picture after picture and sat in awe as it faded away and then re-appeared.  No storm.  No dark sky.  Just a beautiful reminder of God's covenant. 
     The lessons I've learned from this?  1.  The wisdom to know the difference has been right there for me all along and I've been using it without even realizing it.  2.  Sometimes God blesses us with a rainbow after the storm and sometimes He blesses us with a rainbow just because He loves us.