Reinhold Niebuhr

Call it synchronicity or whatever, but I have come across the name Reinhold Niebuhr more than once this week, first from the PBS American Experience program on Jimmy Carter (with whom I share the same birthday, BTW) and now today from David Brooks who asked Obama about him in an interview. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as a progressive Christian thinker. I'm still learning about him myself. From Wikipedia:

Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr Quotations

You have probably come across different versions of his prayer in many circles; I just didn't know until now that it was from him:

The Serenity Prayer (ca. 1942)
This has often been attributted to others, including St. Francis of Assisi but without sources. Though similar prayers may have existed, the work seems to be Niebuhr's. He never copyrighted the prayer and it has been used in many variants.

One of the most famous variants:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Niebuhr's preferred form as declared by his widow:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed, courage
to change the things which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Full version of the original (c.1942):

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.