SUNDAY DEVOTION: Serenity
Don't worry about things you can't change
The so-called Serenity Prayer is something of a cliche, appearing in greeting cards and kitschy wall hangings for nearly a century. However, it expresses a simple wisdom that is easy to forget these days.
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.
There are many things that we as voters and engaged citizens can change in the representative republic that is the State of Idaho. We can urge lawmakers to vote for or against bills, we can work to elect legislators and state officers who better represent our values, and we can communicate ideas with our neighbors and urge them to be engaged as well.
On the other hand, there are many things we cannot change. No matter what really happened on Election Day 2020, the end result was that Joe Biden was inaugurated and now he, or more likely his handlers, run the executive branch of the federal government. For a while after that ill fated election there was a lot of denial on our side. People came up with crazy theories about how Trump was still president, or that Biden would soon be arrested. Many held on to some vain hope that the Supreme Court would somehow put things right.
How much energy was expended on endless red herrings and wild goose chases that could have been put toward the things that we can change?
Imagine how much less stressful life could be if we truly understood the difference between the things we have the power to change or even influence, and the things we do not. I try not to lose sleep over the latter. There are many problems in our world, our country, and our state that are completely outside of our control, so why worry? It’s better to focus our thoughts, energy, and time on the things that we can influence.
I hope it’s not sacrilegious to refer to the melange of Eastern mysticism that George Lucas borrowed for Star Wars, but there’s a line in The Phantom Menace that always stood out to me. “Your focus determines your reality,” the Jedi Master Qui-Gon said to young Anakin Skywalker. At first glance it seems like mystical gibberish, but there is some truth there. It doesn’t mean that you can change reality with your thoughts, like the law of attraction nonsense, rather it means that whatever you are devoting your thoughts and energy to will be your world.
Consider that if you devote yourself to a hobby, whether it’s model trains, sci-fi movies, or watching professional football, it really can become your world. You make a point of spending time with likeminded people, discussing the hobby, you read about it, watch videos about it, and after a while it’s easy to forget that not everyone is inside that world with you. I know it’s easy for political junkies like me to forget that not everyone finds discussing politics and policy for hours on end as enjoyable as I do.
Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic philosopher in his spare time, saw the same wisdom:
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Are you focusing on the things you can change, or the things you cannot? If you’re reading this, then I know you want to make a positive difference in Idaho, and in our country. Make sure you’re focusing on the places you can make that difference.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
The 2024 legislative session begins less than 24 hours from now. Let’s pray, prepare to make a difference, and trust in our Lord to keep us on the right track.
Good post, Brian, and I generally agree. Unfortunately, we cannot know for sure what we can change and what we cannot. For example, our Founders might have thought their task of creating a free and enduring nation was impossible. Who could rise up against a powerful King's army and win, after all? But our founding patriots tried, they believed in themselves, and they did it!
Until one tries and tries again -- and then either fails or gives up -- one cannot know what can be changed.
Also, it's easier to change something when you have a strong team to help. Few people can make big changes to the outside world without help.
Here are some other things I know:
* I cannot change the bad character of some. Those people I avoid if possible.
* I cannot change centuries old animosities among countries. Those animosities I try not to fund or make worse.
* I cannot change human nature. But I can try to ameliorate it or avoid the worst humans.
* I cannot change a man into a woman (or vice versa), make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or turn lead into gold.
Of other changes, I cannot be certain until I try.
A wise philosophy to allow the individual to focus on their daily existence and move to excellence in the execution of it. There are sayings and thoughts that enter into our minds at critical lifetimes and junctures we all face.
Religious teaching is one of great influences in many lives. Some are motivated by secularism (flavor of the week) types. Others in a crisis may move to Stoicism to get them through it. It is important to assess the willingness of others to accept new ideas, reforms, and concerns
that move forward under banner of "We the people." Our lifetimes are finite, and we should move by the priorities and responsibilities of our human existence and try to find an individual balance and harmony with a sense of mental order and comfort. An understanding of the past living in the present and moving forward step by step into the future is life! I'll leave the rest of it to those who search for time and place to determine when and where that is.