Acceptance

If there was ever an emancipating truth, it is that if we, as believers, accept our present lot and status in life with all its attendant circumstances, victory is ours.

The highest pinnacle any creature can reach is reached when that creature heartily accepts itself and its circumstances for what it and they are. Behold the beauty, the value, the sublimity of a brook or a river, a pool or an ocean, a knoll or a mountain, a blade of grass or an oak, a sparrow or an eagle, an ant or a butterfly, a pebble or a boulder, an atom or a planet, a baby or a giant, a lily or King Solomon. Each of these has its role, utterly irreplaceable by any other, determined necessary by a perfectly wise Creator.

The world's way of thinking is quite different. The world, the flesh and the devil say, "If you want to get ahead and be somebody, you must take, you must make, you must fight, strive, aspire, go for it. Nothing worthwhile was ever gained by waiting for it, accepting your present status quo. You have it coming to you, you're special, unique. Never say die. That's how the great ones did it and that is how you must do it if you will be happy or great."

When the world says, "You're special," it means that you can be anything you want to be or believe and strive for. God too says you are special, but when He says it, He means that you are what you are, that in your own right by virtue of His design and will, there is nothing like you nor can there be. To reach your potential, you must be what you are meant to be and not that which you wish to be.

The fact is, not everybody can be anything, nor was one meant to be anything. While it is true that each of us is unique, that very fact tells us that each of us has a particular, chosen station in life, whatever it may be, however humble or great we may esteem it to be.

Why be down if you can't be what somebody else is, as though it was in your power and therefore your responsibility? Only by God can you be anything. Nor do you use Him to do what you want. He does what He wants and that is final. You are not able to add one inch to your height nor make one hair black, Jesus said. If God therefore has not made you to be something, it is His manifest wisdom. To desire or try to be something other than He purposed is to deny His will and His wisdom.

Would you like to be the President of the United States? It is good for those who are meant to be so if they are content with it, faithfully fulfilling their duty, but evil for those who are not content to be there though they are meant to be. We who aspire to be something we are not have no idea what it is really like and at once miss the only possibility of fulfilment and joy there is in being what we are. So it is not what we are but how we accept ourselves as we are, no matter what it may be, that is the secret to life.

One will never be content nor fulfilled in looking to greener pastures. It is a tragic error for one to think that if he can be as some other person or have what another has, or have even that which nobody else has ever had, he will then be happy. The moment one is able to submit to his lot in life, not grudgingly (for the Lord looks on the heart), but willingly, even joyfully, he has entered into that state we have all coveted but thought we could have only if we changed our lot. The Buddhists call it Nirvana, some call it cosmic consciousness and I call it acceptance of the will of God. Those who seek Nirvana are not content with their state and lot.

It may not be so difficult to accept those things in our lives that please us, be they good health, family, wealth, popularity, success and such, although one soon discovers that there is no fulfilment, in the truest sense, in any of these either. Many have acquired these things only to discover an unexpected emptiness. Confounded, they ask, "What went wrong? Why am I not happy?"

Few have found peace but those who have done so have found it in being themselves, in doing what they were meant to do, and in accepting their circumstances and station in life as it was arranged for them. What is more difficult it seems, is to accept adverse, unwanted and unpleasant circumstances, and stations in life apparently inferior to that of certain others. The Bible warns us against emulations, envy, jealousy, covetousness. Pride too is a vice dragging us into comparing ourselves one to another, thereby causing strife and enmity. With failure to accept ourselves and our circumstance, and with automatic futility in effort to be or to have otherwise, bitterness establishes itself and slowly but surely defiles and ultimately destroys us.

Why should we compare ourselves to one another if we were never meant to be like anyone else? Why are we dissatisfied with being ourselves if we are the only ones who can be that unique person we are called to be and indeed must be in order to be fulfilled? If we can only be fulfilled in being ourselves, why do we seek to be somebody else wherein it is impossible not only to fulfill ourselves but to be anyone else?

To accept one's station and circumstance in life is to affirm one's faith in God. If we believe that God reins supremely over all, then how can we argue with our circumstances? Are we not arguing with Him? "No but, man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why have you made me so?" said Paul. To accept one's station and circumstance in life is to acknowledge the sovereignty of God, resting in the fact that He is in full control and does all things perfectly. To accept one's station and circumstance in life is to give thanks and to confess Jesus as Lord. It is to love neighbour as one's self and one's self as one's neighbour, for, if we accept ourselves as the wisdom of God, so will we accept our neighbour as the wisdom of God and will be thankful to God for him too.

The evil in the world is precisely that of those who are discontented with what they are and are desirous of being what they are not. Such is the root of all evil. Has not Satan aspired to be ruler of this world but is a usurper? Has not man tried to acquire and accomplish to his folly? Were not the Pharisees trying to be righteous in their own right? Did not Herod marry an unlawful wife? Did not Judas desire glory and wealth not meant for him? Did not Ananias and Sapphira covet acceptance with a community though holding back that which they thought they should not? Did not Ahab want his neighbour's vineyard or David his neighbour's wife or Amnon his sister or Absalom his father's throne or Cain the acceptance his brother enjoyed of God, or Saul the glory independent of God? Did not Israel want a king as the other nations round about? Did they not want out of Egypt when they were in, and back in when they were out? Is this not the essence of sin...never accepting one's present person and circumstance?

I'm reminded of a cartoon wherein the first frames show a man sleeping on a couch, dreaming about being out hiking on the mountains in the fresh air and sunshine, with cool breezes and beautiful vistas to behold. The last frames show him pursuing his dream, in the mountains, exhausted and sweaty, wishing and imagining himself sprawled out comfortably on a couch.

Consider that if the Lord calls anyone to criticize others, it is to criticize them not for what they are so much as for what they are trying to be when not meant to be so. The Lord did not fault a man for mistakes nor goof-ups nor weaknesses nor strengths nor poverty nor riches nor fame but for thinking or wishing or trying to be something he is not. From such an evil, covetous, envious state grow mistakes, goof-ups and errors. When we think we are something we are not, or refuse to be what we are, we do stupid and foolish things, thereby manifesting to all that we are idolatrous. Thus we not only lose out of what should be, but destroy even that which we and others around us should have and have had. We break all the commandments, not loving God, having strange gods (things not meant for us), not resting, not honouring parents, committing adultery, stealing, killing, etc. All the laws are broken when we don't accept ourselves and our station in life as determined by our Creator and Lord.

How do we know that all of our circumstances at any time are ordered of the Lord? "...by Him all things consist." Could it be that we are ordained to change them even as Jeroboam rebelled against Rehoboam, God purposely dividing Israel into two nations, or as Jacob cunningly wrested the birthright and stole the blessing from Esau, God purposing to demonstrate His divine election, or as Shamgar valiantly delivered Israel out of subservience by slaying 600 Philistines with an ox goad, or as Samson desiring a Philistine woman for wife, that being of God? "...Him Who works all things after the counsel of His own will..." What will be will be and God will do it. "Let not the left hand know what the right hand does." Let us ever give thanks for what is, be what we are, whether apparently good or evil, pray for the will of God, cease from looking to our own gain and good only, and we cannot lose. If we love our neighbour as ourselves, we cannot fail.

"God grant us the courage to change the things we can, the serenity to accept the things we can't, and the wisdom to know the difference"? The important thing is accepting ourselves and not preferring another to ourselves. The circumstances will be taken care of quite naturally.

"It's great to be somebody, because you're nobody, because you're His." We enter the seventh day, our place. To God be the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Victor Hafichuk