Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live. During the past 3 or 4 days I have been in a bit of a funk. I have had an itch – so to say – that I did not know how to “scratch”. This past Wednesday evening I attended a support group meeting. Before the meeting I casually spoke with a friend about the matter of having the itch that I did not know how to scratch. She said she could identify with me and then said some thing that was profound, some thing to this affect. Do you want to be frustrated or be grateful.
For the next several days I thought about what she said, “Do you want to be frustrated or grateful”.
Yesterday, Saturday I attended another support meeting. On the way to the meeting I reflected on a frustration that another person shared with me that they were experiencing. I started to pray for them and the serenity prayer came to mind. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, The courage to change the things I can, And the wisdom to know the difference”. As I thought about the prayer, I found myself frustrated as I struggled with the line, “The wisdom to know the difference”. I struggled with being able to let go of my frustration.
I attended the support group meeting where the topic of spiritual awakenings was tabled for discussion. I listened as people in the support group shared their experience surrounding spiritual awakenings. When the time came for me to share, I shared what I did, but still felt frustrated by what I could not change. After the meeting I asked if a friend had time to listen to me. He said yes, so we spent some time talking. During the time he shared that he also felt frustrated by several items. Toward the end of our conversation, he said some thing simple but profound,
“I guess we are both powerless over these issues.” I replied, I guess we are.
As I thought about what he said, I had spiritual awakening. What he said helped me to realize that I did not have to figure it out. I could let it go. I could turn it over to a loving God. I could surrender my frustrations. I could stop projecting. I could stop living beyond the now in my mind. I could stop worrying. I could trust a loving God with my future. I could let go of my will. I could wait and see how things will turn out. I could cease from my striving to do more to be enough, in order to… I could let go of the timing. I could be thankful for my many blessings.
And a wonderful thing happened. As I let go of what I could not change, I discovered that I had traded my frustration for serenity.
Today’s thought
In the event that you find yourself frustrated, there is good news. We don’t have to remain frustrated. We can let go. We can turn it over. We can surrender our frustrations. We can trust a loving God. We can cease from our striving. We don’t have to do more, to be enough. in order to… We can be thankful. We can stop worrying. We can trust that more will be revealed in time. We can celebrate where we are in our process, on our journey — in the now. We can be content. We can trust the timing. We can be thankful for our many blessings. We can trade our frustration for serenity.
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