Real Serenity

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 He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Unfortunately, most people never read the whole prayer.  They end without acknowledging that hardship is part of life, and that Jesus will make all things right in the end if we surrender to Him.

My favorite part is the prayer that I will be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.  Our faith in Christ guarantees us eternal happiness with him.  I taught this week on how much better Heaven is than the box of cotton balls portail we get from Hollywood.

I want to talk about this life.  What is reasonably happy?  I think that is the definition of content.  There is two sides to this, one being the obvious.  We need to find joy in spite of our troubles.  We need to find happiness through all circumstances, no matter how difficult that is.  This is the most obvious point of being reasonably happy, because this is where we struggle the most.  I see myself as reasonably happy.  I like my life.  I have everything I could ask for in life, and then some.  Sure I have problems to fight through, but I do my best to not let them steal my happiness.  My happiness is in Christ, my "crutch" if you want to call it that.  I don't care, I'm willing to admit I'm broken and need Him.  If you are more hard-headed and would like to try to fix your own brokenness, go right ahead.  I'll let the one who created me take care of it.  That is a different subject, but I want to leave it in here because it needs to be said.  The point is, even though struggles come, I can always focus on the end result.  One day I'll be with Jesus and He will make everything right.

Which brings me to the other side.  We can't be fully happy in this life.  Even our founders wanted to insure the pursuit of happiness.  Serenity and contentment are based on the knowledge that we will never be fully happy in this life.  This life is messed up.  Our bodies are broken, our morals are broken, our families are broken, even our mentors/idols are broken.  To top it all off, we remain separated from our creator until our lives here come to an end.  We need to embrace that the only time we can be supremely happy is when we see Him face to face, and he makes all things right.