Serenity - Part 3 "Ohmmmmm"

I left you hanging, I know.....

That is the thing about these blogs.  Life interrupted I call it. Funny, but when there is a long pause I kind of wonder about the author.  Like when you haven't heard from a good friend.  Are they sick, on a trip, tired of writing, etc.  Well, I guess for me it was a little of all, but enough of that....

I was dissecting the Serenity Prayer, the full version.   To recap:


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.

So the focus of this post is


Taking, as He did, this sinful world
As it is, not as I would have it;


Now your first response to this would be, "No way - He came to save this world!"
But you see, He came to save those in this world.   When He was born these many years ago, there was a Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland.  When He left, there was still a Roman occupation of the Jewish homeland.  He did not abolish sin, or slay the wicked, or bring the literal heaven to earth.  He did not take an opinion poll and ask folks the way they ought to see things run or how they wanted to live.  No - He came to set us free.  Freedom from sin and death, but only if we choose it.  But you see, he did not come in a way that was easy for men and women to see.  He was not born into a proper family, heck he was born in a stable.  He did not live in the best neighborhood, he lived in Nazareth - nothing good comes from Nazareth!  He was a carpenter by trade and an intinerant preacher after that.   He was ultimately accused of blasphemy and sedition and died a criminal's death on a cross between two thieves.  He was not free financially, socially, and in the end even bodily, but He did all that so we would be free.

So where do I get the idea that I know how things work.  How folks should act and react.  Can I realize that not everyone operates on the same Holy Spirit system?  But that does not mean I love them any less.  And those that have the same internal, make that eternal navigation system are not always going to operate the same way I do?  And the best is yet to come.......