A Beginning. For the most part, I shall deal with two areas in this column published every Monday: Sustainability and Spirituality. Over the next several weeks one will be able to understand, I hope, what I mean by each of those concepts.
The title of my column, At the Threshold, comes from a statewide conference I conceived and coordinated last spring: Threshold: Sustaining a Land Called Tennessee. When we consciously make decisions, which at an earlier time we did by rote, we are at the threshold of a very different way of thinking, feeling, and doing. I hope you will meet me AT THE THRESHOLD each week as we struggle together to make sense out of life, the world around us, and our emerging personalities & communities.
I write from a Christian perspective. That means I take my cue from Jesus of Nazareth, though I believe God speaks through many avenues. Hints at the art of living may come to us from many diverse sources.
At the threshold of the year 2005, I leave you with the full-text version of the prayer often referred to as “The Serenity Prayer,” the first portion of which is repeated by AA members. The author is Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 – 1971) who taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. One of the most significant theologians in the United States from the early 1930s until his death, Niebuhr was a hardnosed Christian realist speaking to most segments of society. He significantly influenced many of the American leaders, even though – or maybe it was especially because – he believed in the separate integrity of society, economics, and religion.
The prayer became popular during WWII, not only for the members of AA but also for soldiers involved in the war. Its simplicity and directness, as well as its profundity, gave a sense of grace and peace in a world torn apart by war. A review of The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War, written by Niebuhr’s daughter, Elisabeth Sifton, describes Niebuhr as a person of peace, who formulated a prayer that was inclusive and ecumenical in nature because he was so “distressed by the increasingly fundamentalist nature of religion” and concerned by the fascism abroad in the world. Void of bitterness, acrimony, or hostility and without being judgmental, the prayer combines responsibility, acceptance, courage, and serenity within a cradle of utter dependence upon God that results in wisdom and happiness.
It is a prayer for our times as well, especially as we enter into the divisiveness of 2005, filled with zealotry, rampant fundamentalism, terrorism from all sides, unnecessary yet brutal wars, bigotry and hatred – all encouraged and promoted by distortions of the major faiths of the world. The prayer is a good way to begin 2005 and each day throughout the year.
The Serenity Prayer – A Prayer for Our Times
God, take and receive my liberty,
my memory, my understanding and will,
All that I am and have You have given me
God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.
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.
Shalom!
Olin
