The Serenity Prayer Examined

You have most likely encountered The Serenity Prayer at some point along your journey on this planet, but what you may not know is that the most often quoted portion makes up less than a third of the whole poem.  Here it is in its entirety:

The Serenity Prayer

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.
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

Please notice that this is a poem, and not Bible verses.  I must admit, I like the piece, but as is the case with all writings of mortal men which attempt to assign attributes to God or His modes of operating, we would be prudent to check with scripture to see if the ideas expressed in the poem are sound.

God grant me the serenity 

Is it alright to ask God to give us peace?  Paul asks God to grant peace to the people of Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 3:16, and Jesus extends a desire that his disciples have peace in John 16:33. Isaiah 26:3 tells us that as a reward for keeping our minds on God, He gives us peace.  Clearly, God desires that we seek peace, and He offers it to us.  Please notice, though, that this is an inner peace according to the context of Jesus’ words in John 16 – He explains that we will have tribulation in the world, but peace inside.

To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can

 In Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4:23, God tells us through Paul that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and that it is we who put on the new man: we who choose our own behavior.  By this we see that God advocates change brought on in an individual by that individual.  Of course, our regeneration is God’s work, but the changing of habits appears to be up to us.

A more difficult question, though, is whether we, as Christians, are called to make changes to the world outside of ourselves.  That God expects us to spread the Gospel by many means is clear.  We are to tell others about the changes Jesus can make possible in them.  But does He expect us to change world systems such as governments, economies, and industries?

Peter told the Christians in Rome that they were strangers and aliens, that is to say, not of this world, but people of God.  Likewise, Paul told the Romans that all of creation is waiting right along side us for the “redemption of our bodies.”  This is work done by God on the whole of creation.  He is apparently not calling us to change world systems which, after all, will one day be destroyed by Him. (2 Peter 3:10)  He is reserving the right to make that change Himself.

Although we can’t change the world, we can help change somebody’s whole “world” eternally.

And wisdom to know the difference

James tells us in his first chapter that God will give us wisdom simply for the asking, as long as we don’t doubt that He’ll grant it.  According to Solomon, wisdom is more precious than rubies (Proverbs 8:11-12), and dwells with prudence, which is, after all, another way of saying “knowing the difference.”

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;

 I’m always amused by the image that comes to my mind when I picture Jesus saying the words in Matthew 6:34:  “Today has enough troubles of its own.”  I think he punctuated his lengthy talk about not worrying with a bit of wit, and in my mind’s eye a see a wry smile on his lips.

Paul also paints quite a picturesque image of the Christian life when he compares it to running a race, telling us to forget the things that lie behind us, while we press forward to the prize of the high calling of God.

God is clearly in favor of us not dwelling on the past, nor worrying about the future, but living moment by moment.

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace

Here we find ourselves reminded of James chapter 1 again, in which he tells us that we should be glad when our faith is tried, because it makes us patient, and patience eventually makes us whole and complete.

In John 16, Jesus is quoted as saying that the disciples’ sorrow (at His death) will turn to joy (when they see Him again,) and that no one will be able to take that joy.  He specifically said that He was telling them these things so that they could have peace.

It is important to understand that most often we will not be able to see the good works brought about by these trials while we are going through them.  I’ll grant that it takes faith, and sometimes quite a bit of it, to be cheered in the midst of a trial by the thought that we are growing because of it.  However, we all have past trials which are now over, and we know at the very least that our souls were not plucked from God’s hand in the heat of the tribulation.  Sometime God reveals His rationale to us after the trial is through, and sometimes He waits, at times seemingly forever, to let us in on His reasons, but we can rest assured that there is a reason.

Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it

In Job 14:1, Job lamented that life is short and full of miseries, and Jesus warned us that in this world we would have tribulation.  He did not say, “Let me take all of the trouble out of the world for you Christians.”  In fact, He told us that as His followers we could expect more trouble!  In John 15:18-19, Jesus makes it pretty plain that the world hates Him, and because we love Him, the world will hate us and persecute us.  He tells us not that He will change the world for us, but that He has called us out of the world.

Trusting that He will make all things right 
if I surrender to His Will;

 Beauty in exchange for ashes?  Joy in exchange for mourning?  A garment of praise for our heaviness?  A pool in trade for parched ground? Sign me up!  Isaiah 35 and 61 tell us that God will make all things right some day.  He has promised to wipe away all tears one future day and that he will make all things new.  God, who lifted sin’s curse from you will surely remedy all lesser troubles as well.

But must we surrender to His will in order to see these wrongs righted?  What is God’s ultimate will but that none should perish and that all should come to repentance? (2 Peter 3:9)  God wants all people to be saved from sin and living with Him, both here and in eternity.  Apart from the Lord’s salvation, we cannot see these things made right.

That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next

 “Reasonably happy in this life” sounds a bit like an understatement to me. I suppose that what the author means is that in comparison with the abundance of happiness in the next world, AND the scarcity of peace available to non-believers, the peace that we can experience on this side of eternity is somewhere in between.  Personally, I would call that something much more than simply reasonable.  It’s incredible even from our tiny vantage point.

What can give us real and complete peace here and now is the promise of things to come.

Amen

So be it.  In my opinion, The Serenity Prayer lines up rather well with scripture, and I believe I can assume that it was written by a man who sought after God, at least to the extent that he didn’t attempt to construct his own theology based on man’s traditions and not God’s holy word.  So, I suppose I’ll just go on liking the poem.

[sc:helpful]