The Secret of Serenity From A Former MLB Manager

The fall season is the time of the year that I recall being a young boy and going hunting with my father. We would hunt during the day and at night we’d listen to the World Series on the radio in our pickup truck. My father would search the dial for a radio signal strong enough for us to listen to and he always had some special treats for us to munch on during the game. I can still remember the taste of the hot chocolate he would make for us – even the miniature marshmallows that he would sprinkle on top. During those times, there was nowhere else I’d rather be. Those memories remain a picture of serenity in my mind. Even today, those memories can create the same feelings.


Serenity is defined as a calm, peaceful or untroubled state of mind. The word is derived from the Latin word meaning clear and free of storms . It depicts the absence of worry or stress and speaks of being unaffected by any disturbance . Most people have an idea of serenity because of the prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian of the 20th Century, who had a gift of relating faith to the realities of life. The prayer has been adapted to many uses and it opens by asking God to grant serenity to the requestor ‘to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference’. How often are we today in this very predicament? How can we know the difference? How do we accept what we cannot change, but change what we have control over?


In May of this year, just two months into the baseball season, the Colorado Rockies fired their manager, Clint Hurdle, because the team was off to a slow start, ten games under .500 and 14 ½ games behind the division leading Dodgers. He was the same manager who had led the team less than two years earlier to their incredible ‘Roctober’ run to the World Series. After being fired, their manager was quoted as saying, ‘It has been a tremendous ride. It has been life lesson after life lesson. And I will tell you this, the last seven weeks I have said the serenity prayer more times than I did in the last seven years .’ Baseball and other sports team managers have the reputation of ‘being hired to be fired’ and often bear the brunt of an under-performing team, but Hurdle remained composed by saying the words of the Serenity Prayer.

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.

Perhaps you can relate to the struggle we experience as we attempt to control the things we cannot control. Are you seeking the wisdom to know the best response to your particular situation? Do you accept the situation you’re currently struggling with or do you take courage and seek to change your circumstances? Will these struggles break you or make you stronger? What life lesson will you learn from these experiences? Will you experience peace, calmness and even serenity in the midst of difficult circumstances?
The words of the Serenity Prayer remind us that we are both powerless and empowered. The secret of achieving serenity comes in our wise responses that can bring us peace in the midst of the storms of life.


Sometimes I try to recreate those feelings by sitting alone in the car and listening to a baseball game on the radio at night. It’s not exactly the same as being there with my father, but I feel his presence as I sit with my hot chocolate in the dark and experience the secret of serenity.


Sources used in this blog...
HTTP://WWW.MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM/DICTIONARY/SERENE

http://www.wordinfo.info/

http://www.sports.espn.go.com/