The Serenity Prayer

Last week, I found out that both my next door neighbor and one of my best friends have cancer. My husband is desperately searching for a job. Yesterday, a friend wrote me about a very serious situation that has cost her husband his job and destroyed his reputation. This morning, I heard about a difficult time for another friend whose grandparent is losing ground and will probably need to go into assisted care. Last week, my mother and I discussed how we will probably need to move my disabled uncle somewhere as well.
What do all these situations have in common? I can't do a single thing about any of them.
Well, of course, I can pray, but, lets be honest: I don't want to pray and wait, I want to jump in and change things. Though my sheer force of will, I want to force something good to happen. Heal the cancer. Get my friend back his job. Turn the clock back for everyone's aging relatives.
Recently, I noticed that I don't just give God my prayer requests, I assign them to him. You know what I mean. There are some problems I immediately place in Column A because I know I can probably handle them all by myself. I save the hard stuff for Column B. That's the column He gets. He gets to wait in the wings, and when I have exhausted all other possibilities, I call Him in. He's the muscle, the big guns--he gets to clean up the unfinished details I've left scattered all around. Isn't he the lucky God?

God, give 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.

I think have always loved the Serenity Prayer, because it divides things so neatly into three piles. It occured to me recently though, that I have been assuming that I somehow have the power to choose which things fall into which catagory. The truth is that the things I can change are actually very, very few. I will always need to spend more time on my knees requesting wisdom and less time mustering up courage. I will spend the rest of my life learning to go to God first, and then letting the other details fall into line as a consequence of my decision.