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.

I’m sure you’ve heard that prayer many times, and if you’re like me you probably associate it with AA (Alcoholics Anonymous).  But have you ever applied it to your own everyday life? In the past year, I’ve thought about this, and prayed this prayer, so many times.  Whether it’s dealing with my family, my job, my appearance (dieting, anyone??).  But I’d never heard or read the rest of it until a few months ago…

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.

Reinhold Niebuhr

How can we not take this simple prayer and apply it to all areas of our life?  What if we could truly and completely live “one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time” and accepting that whatever God has in store for us is totally in His control?  How freeing would that be?  What if we could truly accept the world as Christ did – warts and all – and surrendering it all to His Will?

Is “reasonably happy” enough for us?  We spend so much time and energy trying to make the world as we “would have it“, not as God has designed it from before Creation. Am I saying we shouldn’t try to improve our world?  Of course not! But there are some things that we simply can’t control, and some of those things will make us unhappy.  But if we can accept God’s Will in our lives, in our world, we can be “reasonably happy” on this earth until we join Him in Heaven.

Is that enough for you?

When I look at the devastation in other parts of the world – in Haiti, in war-torn countries, in the rural areas struck by devastation in the form of unemployment, poverty, loss of land and homes, in the hospital corridors where loved ones cry out for those in their lives with terminal illness… The more I see these things, the more I realize that “reasonably happy” is not only enough, it’s more than I ever deserve.  But through Christ’s promises, that’s what I am assured during my time here, if I only surrender to Him completely.

What do you need to surrender today to be reasonably happy? Are you trusting God to take care of it, or are you still clinging to the hope that you can make a change that only He is capable of making?  Are you “trusting that He will make all things right“? And most importantly, have you surrendered completely to His will in that situation?

Please take a moment to think about an area of your life that you still struggle to surrender to the Lord.  Now take a moment to ask His forgiveness for trying to control it yourself. Turn it over to Him completely, and be prepared for a change – if not in your situation, in you! Let us know, through a comment or link up, how we can pray for you to let go of this problem – there is power in numbers!