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Clear - part 1 - Serenity

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I was listening to a song the other day. I found this song by total accident. As I was listening, a line in the chorus led me to another place and that is where we are going with this short series of posts. Here are the lyrics:
 
“I can see clearly now
The rain has gone
I accept all the things that I cannot change
Gone are the dark clouds
The dawn has come
It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day” [1]

First of all, as some might be able to tell this is sort of a cover/original song and if you give the song a listen later you would know what I mean. But just the chorus has some powerful truth to it. When I heard the line “I accept all the things that I cannot change”, I was immediately drawn to the Serenity Prayer. If you don’t know the Serenity Prayer here are the words:

“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.” [2]

See why the song led me to that prayer.

I want to spend this post looking at the word Serenity. Google dictionary defines the word “the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.” This is exactly what God wants for us. He wants us to have a peace about our lives. One of the ways we do this is accepting the unchangeable. There are something’s that just cannot be changed. Maybe it was a decision that you made and it blew up in your face. Maybe you don’t like the president. Maybe a spouse or a friend made the choice to leave your life. Maybe you made a choice that got you into some trouble. Maybe you said something slanderous about someone and they found out. But truth is - it happened and it cannot be changed now. Jesus wants us to move on. If we dwell on what cannot be changed our lives with be a torrent of unneeded thoughts and actions to try and change what has happened. Jesus wants us to move on and go forward.

In John 8, we are introduced to a women who was caught in the act of adultery. She was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees in order to trap Him. They told Jesus that according to the law she should be stoned. Jesus told them to cast the stones if they were without sin. When no one threw any stones at her, Jesus told her to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11, NKJV). Jesus basically said to her that she couldn’t change what had happened, but she could change her life - for she alone was in control of her actions.

The peace that must have come over that woman after hearing those words from Jesus. The liberating freedom she must have felt. There is freedom in accepting what cannot be changed. It means that we are letting go. After all Jesus already took care of it on the cross. God didn’t make us to be perfect - He made us to be in close relationship with Him.

Feel the freedom of accepting what cannot be changed. Let some things go.
______________________________________
[1] Songwriters: Chloe Angelides / Grace Vanderwaal / Ido Zmishlany / Johnny Nash / Mike Watters / Neil Ormandy
Clearly lyrics © Ultra Tunes, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
“Clearly” is available on Spotify and YouTube.
[2] Reinhold Niebuhr, 1951
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