The Wisdom To Know the Difference

The famous Serenity Prayer.

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.

So many people find life complicated and challenging every day. So much so that they stop with the first line of this prayer assuming that there is little that they can change.  This is a great hiding place.  Some people ask me why I can't just "shut up and be grateful".   After all, I have a job that I like, a great wife, house, cat and church.   In a movie years ago starring Pierce Brosnan as the Taipan from one of James Clavell's great novels of life in Asia, Brosnan as Taipan describes his life as inherited from the original business tycoon who founded the "Noble House" in Hong Kong in the 1800s.  He said, "Dirk Struan ", the founder, "wanted us (Taipans) to sweat". "He believed that the more able someone was, the more that they should sweat for the things that matter. And since I am abler than most, I sweat more than most."    Americans, all Americans, have been blessed with great wealth of opportunity and freedom.  Some have taken the currency of opportunity and freedom and achieved great things but far too many have squandered both their freedom and opportunities.  That is reflected in the second line of this prayer.  If we stop at line one we are not wise.  We are foolish.  We must move on and ask God for the courage to change the things we can.  And it is still true that we can change far more than we believe we can if God dwells in us by His Spirit and we are seeking to change the things that He wants to change.    Changing things means sweat.  America has become weak and lazy because we no longer want to sweat.  Our entitlement programs are bulging with people who will not sweat despite the fact that they live in a land full of freedom and opportunity.  And of course if we don't ask for the courage to change what we can then we cannot reach the prayer for wisdom to know the difference.  If we don't want the courage, then we certainly don't want the wisdom to know that we can change things if we would but sweat a little.  God will supply the courage if we ask.  But we do not deserve the serenity if we are not willing to go all the way asking for courage and wisdom and are not willing to sweat.