Serenity or Agony
The first line in the famous Prayer of Serenity says, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…” If we are not careful some of us will spend our lives trying to change the unchangeable, and neglect those things we can change.
We do not have the power to change circumstances and people. But we can alter things in our own lives. I observed our children when small (hopefully not now), trying frustratingly to fit a square block into a round hole. It goes without saying, they never succeeded. Nor can any of us in trying to change the changeless. It would be like attempting to change a leopard’s spots or an Ethiopian’s skin. Such things are humanly impossible.
If the unchangeable is to ever be changed, it will have to be God who changes it, if it’s to be changed at all. It will most certainly not be accomplished by us! There is agony of soul for all who endeavor to do what only God can do. But there is sweet serenity when I let God be God, and me be me.
We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.
~W.H. Auden
by an Aged Saint