Reinhold Niebuhr and the Serenity Prayer

This past weekend my wife Linda and I traveled to Chicago so that I could officiate at a wedding there.  It was a good weekend--we did some tourist stuff, we had several meals with friends, and finished things up with a visit to Elmhurst following lunch in the city with parishioners who divide there time between Elmhurst and Sanibel.

I had visited Elmhurst College many years ago for a conference.  But it was fun walking around the campus.  It is a very well-regarded United Church of Christ related college.  Two of the most well-respected theologians of the twentieth-century, Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr were alumni of the college, and Richard later became the school's sixth president.

Near the gates into the college there is a statue of Reinhold, and inscribed on its base is the Serenity Prayer.  It is a beautifully, concise summary of a way of life for many as it has become central to those adhere to the 12 Step approach of Alcoholics Anonymous and other such fellowships.

The prayer, originally written in the mid twentieth century by Reinhold for a gathering of the federal Council of Churches, has been shortened to just three lines in most settings.  But the longer version, the original version, is well-worth reading (and praying):

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, the 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.

(Photo:  Statue of Reinhold Niebuhr, Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois)