I got riled up this morning listening to a podcast from This American Life about an oil company practice called fragging that creates a lot of really terrible waste. As I was thinking about that I began to think about Pepsi's use of fetal cells to develop a new diet drink. Then I thought about Planned Parenthood providing abortions to pimps and sex abusers. I tell you, I was RILED UP!
I was so riled up that I began to think about the amount of emotional energy I was using and how much energy I was willing to use the rest of the day on this issue. I began to ask myself and pray about whether this was something I could not change, thus needing serenity, or something I could change, thus needing courage. As I prayed and pondered, the phrase 'you cannot serve both God and money' formed in my mind.
I began to think about ways that phrase applies to me. I began to ask myself in what ways I serve money and call it serving God. At first I kind of patted myself on the back that I have cut back on my paid work hours to do what I feel God has called me to do. Then I realized that while I have cut back on my paycheck, I haven't really cut back on my spending and this has led to some financial strain on our family that will keep us from being able to give as freely as we would like. For me, serving God rather than money needs to mean budgeting and self discipline as well as working less. This will be a lot more difficult than judging those big bad oil companies, soft drink companies, or abortion providers.
This is what I love about the Serenity Prayer. The Lord uses it to bring me back to what I can change and that is almost always myself.
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