Wisdom to know the difference

One of the prayers I remind myself of quite often is the Serenity Prayer we all know so well:

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.

We all have things that come along in our lives that we cannot change. How often do we end up stuck trying to resolve things we cannot resolve. I wrote about unresolved pain over a month ago, how we need to find our way to rest in God's love and mercy when we can't resolve painful issues or events in our lives.

Yet there are many times when we are called to action. Times where we should not shut our eyes or look away from pain and evil but to confront it. We are called to light and salt in this world, light that exposes darkness, salt that may sting yet prevents the world around us from rotting further.

How often do we lack courage to step in where injustice is being done, hide our light when it should shine high, aren't willing to step into the rot to stop it's spread? What saddens me is that often we don't even take action in our own homes, in our families, or in our church. We watch as our brothers and sisters in veil of darkness commit rotten deeds. And as they spread this rot, they hurt many, and more than anyone else they hurt themselves.

So how are we to act when our brother does wrong? Should we just quietly pray and hope he changes his way? Of course this needs to be done, but is there something more God calls us to do? Can our actions change anything for the better or even prevent things from getting worse? Quite often there is the need to expose darkness with light, and to stop the rotting with salt.

Scripture instructs us to correct others, individually, with a witness and as a group. God in His wonderful grace doesn't want any to perish, yet there comes a time where deeds of darkness need be exposed and the rot removed before they do more harm.

And all this calls for devine wisdom to know the difference....