The Face of Acceptance
How many times in a day do we fight against what is in front of us? We drive to work. The car in front of us is determined to drive under the speed limit. In addition to this being a foreign idea, why would someone ever drive slower than they are required? It is frustrating. You planned your travel time just so and this person will now make you late. It doesn’t matter that you may be 1 minute later than you planned. You do not want to travel at this speed and this person is keeping you from your day. You are in the checkout line that doesn’t move even though it is the shortest one. You woke up to thoughts at 2 am and cannot go back to sleep. The kids are sick. The dog just threw up. The server won’t refill your drink. The weather is too - fill in the blank.
Fighting these moments is futile. The only effect of your frustration is on yourself. You can’t actually make the driver speed up, urge the line to go faster, or change the weather. Yet, we are agitated and frustrated anyway. We often carry this agitation with us throughout the day and only remember the moments when life didn’t go smoothly.
What does acceptance look like? How would it change your day to accept what is happening, make a decision about what you want to do and move forward? How does your day change? How do you change? How does your accepting of things you can’t change affect those around you?
This question was posed on a podcast I was listening to with Kate Bowler. Her friend asked her what role acceptance played. They both considered how no one talks about acceptance. I’m not a researcher. I’m not going to conduct studies and collect data on this. I’m going to wonder and ponder and talk about it with you. I’m going to think about it. These scenarios are fairly manageable when we think about acceptance. When that car doesn’t move, we turn up the radio and jam a little longer than if he traveled at least the speed limit. Read Mel Robbins, Let Them, and you have all the tools to manage the list of annoyances above.
I want to think about accepting the really hard things. What does accepting the loss of a loved one really look like? How do we accept our failing health? What strategies do we have to accept the changing seasons of our lives? We journey through our days, managing the little things. The big things surprise us. The doctor called. Your daughter is getting married. Your mom just got into a car accident. Your husband lost his job. You can no longer use your hand. These surprises are life changing. These surprises often change the trajectory of your life, if not forever, for a season. How do we accept them without giving up? What does it look like to accept the things in life that send us down a path we were trying to avoid, a path we are scared of, or a path we are just very unfamiliar with?
I want to invite you to come with me on this journey. Ponder how you manage these things. Do you know how to accept them, or do you fight them and grieve them everyday? You may disagree with what I say, that is okay. I think everyone accepts differently. This is a journey through my thoughts on acceptance. I hope that by the end, I find a way to accept the truly terrible things that have tried to steal parts of my life and my hope.
