“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, 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.”

These words make up the famous Serenity Prayer, used for more than fifty years by many people of faith and, indeed, by seekers of all sorts. Though often attributed to others, this prayer was actually written by the celebrated Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, a professor at Union Theological School in New York City and a man much admired for his intellectual and spiritual leadership.

“It was at a service at Heath’s Union Church that my father first spoke his new prayer,” writes his daughter, Elizabeth Niebuhr Sifton.  That was in 1943 when Reinhold Niebuhr was preaching in the small northwestern Massachusetts town of Heath, a place where he owned a house and spent much time.

At first sight the prayer seems quite individualistic. It can be read as if it is a plea for personal peace of soul. Notice, however, that it begins the request by using the plural: “give us.” This implies a community framework and it becomes a plea for a group of people, not just one

Professor Niebuhr’s intention, it seems, was to respond to the desperate situation in Europe then torn apart by World War II. As his daughter explains, “It was a prayer written by a teacher and writer who had spent a decade speaking out against Hitler.”

In a recent talk, Elizabeth Sifton called her father’s words “a prayer for collective action”  and explained that it was indeed a response to the world crisis that preoccupied his thinking.  This places the Serenity Prayer in the setting of social, not merely individual, concern.

Mrs. Sifton, a prominent New York publisher, also recalled a surprising historical fact. The prayer, she said, had been distributed to the United States Army troops who occupied Germany after the war. Some army veterans may remember having received this text and using it when stationed in that country.

Another group of people familiar with the prayer may be members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Reports of AA meetings indicate that Niebuhr’s words are often used to strengthen the resolve to keep sobriety. In that instance, the prayer may take on more of a individual than a social meaning.

In fact, the prayer in situations like AA meetings, usually drops the word “grace” at the beginning. Instead, this altered version begins “give us the serenity.” For Niebuhr the notion of grace was undoubtedly vital and a basic focus in his prayer. After all, he was a theologian who attached indispensable importance to the divine initiative at work in human life.

However, in the altered version, the prayer still holds beauty and power. It becomes the individual person’s cry for balance in the struggle to retain or regain peace of soul. It also emerges as the product of a general spirituality rather than as a specifically Christian statement.

In the context of Christian faith it expresses, not only the need for divine grace, but also the power of Jesus’ example, the value in surrender of self to God, and confidence that there is a life that goes beyond the earthly one. These are the convictions of a Christian believer that find compelling expression here.

Almost everyone can identify with the request for the wisdom to tell the difference between things that one can change and those that one cannot change. However, in practice this distinction can be difficult indeed. Going back to World War II and the prayer’s origins, one can imagine the conflicts felt by Germans who recognized the awful injustices imposed by the Nazis but honestly did not know what to do about the deadly situation.

Some paid the price for speaking out and taking action against the regime but, of course, the majority bent under the totalitarian pressure. The Serenity Prayer can therefore also serve as a reminder of the need sometimes to resist compromise in the face of evil.

Richard Griffin