Trust and Resignation

The key line in the Serenity Prayer is asking God for the wisdom to know the difference between what we can and can’t change.  Once this determination has been made, we can then ask for either serenity or courage.  There are an abundance of situations in life that we cannot change.  We feel small and impotent in the face of things like foreign wars, a national election, and decisions that are made far removed from our influence and opinion.  But even the local challenges often feel beyond us.  Our adult children make choices that we are asked to respect.  Our spouse won’t change and doesn’t see the need to.  Senior management doesn’t see what you see and doesn’t seem interested in seeing it. 

What do we do in these situations?  Do we just resign ourselves to a crummy situation?  Do we throw our hands up in resignation (and some disgust) and give up?  The Serenity Prayer is right in pointing out that there are indeed things we can’t control or change.  But that doesn’t leave us without options.  We always have the option to trust.  We can trust that beyond our control, there is a good, sovereign force that is weaving all these events together.  And when we live in this trust, we discover that there is a level of control granted to us: we can pray.  We may not be able to control world events or even things at work.  But we can talk directly to the one who can.  We don’t have to resign or check out on things beyond our control.  We can courageously trust and courageously pray.