The Liberation of Acceptance
I’m continuing recovery from a back injury that sent me to the floor on March 1, 2012. The pain from this caused me to miss four weeks from the preaching at my church as well as a host of other things an active guy like me enjoys doing. It was four weeks of much physical and emotional pain and a great deal of solitude, prayer, acceptance, and emptiness. So, here’s a few things (probably will be more!) I’ll be walking away with after this wonderful, albeit painful, Sabbatical. The first was SOLITUDE, the second was PRAYER (see prior posts), and …
Third, THE LIBERATION OF ACCEPTANCE
We are constantly encountering new situations and/or people. The word for that is CHANGE. Many people hate change and refuse to accept it. Elizabeth Kubler Ross says that change can be a result of a door closing in our lives, loss, a death, etc. At first, change usually renders an uncomfortable feeling in us. If we don’t learn to accept change and move on – complications arise.
Do you accept your reality the way it really is? Have you accepted possible recent changes in your life? TS Eliot said, “We can’t handle too much reality and that includes the reality of ourselves, situation, and social relationships. We often live in a dream world rather than in the reality”
When it comes to change and one’s current reality, some people tend to deny it, suppress it, mask it, or distract ourselves from it. There are different ways people to do this. Some drink too much, some use drugs, some participate in illicit and/or unhealthy relationships, some work too much, etc. However, this fighting of a new situation just leads to bitterness, frustration, and weariness. It teaches us that we no longer have or never really have had … control.
Elizabeth Kubler Ross goes on to say, though, that when change is properly mourned (and it is OK to mourn any loss), something new emerges; a reinvestment; a reintegration; a change; an acceptance of the way things have been and now are. When properly dealt with, one can journey beyond the idea of being a victim into a new acceptance that empowers a person to move on.
If you fight change you’ll be fighting your whole life.
The good news for Jesus-followers is that we don’t have to accept the syrupy platitude of “Now, just accept it” that some well-intentioned people give. The good news is that you are a child of most high God. He knows you, your situation, what he’s accomplishing in your life & has allowed this change in order to provide the absolute best for you
We’ve all heard the first line of the Serenity Prayer: “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.”
More to come…
jackpickel 
Jack, I thought I had studied, heard and experienced everything there was on change. Greg and I just read this and you made a new point “it’s ok to mourn any loss”. Great getting this piece of wisdom without having to read the entire book. I will put this in my memory cap for later use. Thanks buddy.