Each Day Already is a Challenge

A New Day

Yesterday, I left one item on my list of things that needed blogged unchecked and unfinished. Remember?

Sermon notes


We started a new sermon series and small group study yesterday. I made it to church, although I felt pretty sleepy as I listened to the sermon. I didn't make it to my small group again. This time, I wasn't sick or hurting. Just plum tuckered out. I shut down about 6:15 I think and got back up at around 7:30, and then just because I had promised to fix my son's dinner and make sure he was up by 8 pm to get ready for work.

Anyway...

Our pastor's series for the Lenten sason is called Beginning in Christ. Sunday's theme was The Teacher.

I filled in the blanks on my sermon note page, just like everyone else. But I also made lots of notes in the margins. I usually do.

Like...

If you're waiting for a life without stress before you'll feel at peace, you never will. (Be without stress or at peace.)

And...

God does not owe you an explanation (for the stress or unfair situations). God is both fair and loving.

And...

God gives us care, compassion and comfort - but not explanations.

And...

Acceptance is a learned experience.

Good notes, huh? I wrote those in the margins so I could ponder them a bit.

Pastor John pointed out that:

Circumstances are uncontrollable.
People are unchangeable.
Problems are unexplanable. (See margin notes above.)

We're supposed to accept what cannot be changed. That's a big one, isn't it? Acceptance is never easy. We think that we - and especially we and God together (forgetting that He can do everything without us?!) - can do anything. But...what we forget, sometimes, is whether or not the changing or doing is in God's Will. Hmmm.

Our pastor used Philippians 4:11-13 as part of his focus. Paul talks about learning to be satisfied with everything. He speaks of learning to be happy with anything that happens. And my favorite verse is the 13th one: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Yes!!!

But then that acceptance thing comes into play.

The Serenity Prayer was printed on our sermon notes page. I always thought that the Serenity Prayer was affiliated with St. francis of Assisi. That's not right. The prayer most remembered from St. Francis of Assisi is:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The Serenity Prayer as most of us have memorized is only a portion of what the theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, wrote.

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 Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that You, God, will make all things right if I surrender to Your Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.

I wonder why that entire prayer is not offered as something to memorize, rather than the short version. It's so much more meaningful in the complete version.

Our pastor's next point was that we should trust in God's guidance and grace. Here, his Bible references were: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Another version uses, "and he will direct your path." Either way, this is also a verse I memorized and that I recite sometimes when I need the reminder.

Lastly, our pastor reminded us that there are two common mistakes we all make when we're stressed or having problems:

1) We try harder.
2) We give up.

Neither of these are the correct actions needed in times of stress. Rather, as mentioned above, we're to accept and trust, and finally....

Surrender to God's loving control.

Do you remember what Muhammad Ali said of his Parkinson's disease? That he had Parkinson's so that he would know that he was not the greatest...but God was.

I don't know if that's true or not. But I do know that we all experience greater peace when we can accept things as the Serenity Prayer suggests. When we can accept what cannot be changed, trust in God's guidance and surrender to God's control.

But who among us remembers that all the time???