Somedays you wake up with the weight of the world on your shoulders, because, you know “the most critical election of your lifetime” and all.
You think it’s all in perspective until you see a monster Cat 4 hurricane coming entirely too close to the country where your daughter has been all year, because, you know COVID-19.
Then you get that emotion in check and “turned it over to God”, until you get an email from the disaster relief team at work listing the city where your son now lives as one of the places where there is a high likelihood of civil unrest tonight, because, you know election + COVID.
Then you worship and release all of the global “out-of-controlness” and your children to God’s care, until you get a call from your son’s school and learn hallway horseplay got out of hand, because, you know, middle school boys.
Enough! With anxiety out of hand, it’s time to change perspectives! So, I grabbed the dog, climbed a hill, took some deep breaths, and began to pray:
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.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that You will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
