Prayer of the day

Grant unto me, O Lord my God,
that I may not falter in times
of prosperity or adversity,
so that I may not be exalted in the former,
nor dejected in the latter.

Our third installment of the prayer of St. Thomas Aquinas, For Ordering a Life Wisely, continued from here. When the circumstances of our lives are such that things go well, we are tempted to presume that we are either deserving or in control. Likewise, when circumstances are such that things go poorly, we are tempted to despair, to lose hope of ever knowing good again. In this case, we may give up trying at all. Both views are a mistake. I discovered early in my struggle with cancer -- when so many things I once presumed to be part of my life abandoned me (my health, my good relationships, the surety of my career path) -- that there is so much beyond my control. This is not to say that we can do nothing to keep such things in good order...just that our efforts alone cannot keep them so. We recall the "Serenity Prayer" of Reinhold Niebuhr:

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

The well ordered person struggles to grow in this wisdom.