The discipline of acceptance

A friend asked me to listen to a pod cast.  It was an interview with a pastor named John Mark Comer.  One of the things that he was talking about was slowing down your life.  Decluttering your life.

He spoke of the discipline of acceptance.  Usually we think of spiritual disciplines as prayer, fasting and Bible study.  But there are many others such as solitude, meditation and evidently acceptance.

By acceptance, he means to train ourselves to learn to accept what we cannot change.  When we fight and fight in life to get things the way that we want them, we never find peace.  There are some things that we just cannot change.

My parents are deceased.  I can't change that.

My daughters moved away.  I am not in charge of that.

I want my gall bladder back.  Too bad.

My hair is falling out.  Nothing I can do.

What Comer calls acceptance, St. Ignatius calls independence and  freedom.  It is also what the French mystics called detachment.  A finding of freedom, by letting go of the outcome.  Just learning to live with out trying to control things.

We can fuss and fight over every little thing in life that doesn't go our way, or we can make friends with the difficulties and come to peace with them.

This week of Christmas may you find a slower pace and a peaceful heart.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

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