{"id":110,"date":"2009-01-26T16:03:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html"},"modified":"2009-01-26T16:03:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T16:03:00","slug":"serenity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html","title":{"rendered":"SERENITY"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

SERENITY
(at the Revolutionary War Cemetery)<\/p>\n

The calm after the storm,
The clarity after reflection
The acceptance of unchangeable things
Like winter followed by spring.<\/p>\n

Peace, in the face of war
Satisfaction, without more
The acceptance of frustrating things
Hard hearts, heads, truths. <\/p>\n

Of this demanding demeanor
Francis did reassure
Irresistible, immovable stones
Are best left alone. <\/p>\n

But wisdom to know the difference
Between terminal and temporary
Between aging and lack of condition
Between religion and superstition<\/p>\n

Somewhere a song is playing
I barely can hear the tune
An anthem about a wholeness
Past understanding, more than just new. <\/p>\n

A quiet quick resignation
That God know much better than I
How long to spin out life\u2019s thread
A time for birth, and a time to die. <\/p>\n

I see a star at its rising,
An orange moon just going down,
I count myself blessed just to see it
Though my father\u2019s in the ground.<\/p>\n

Far more than a sort of ceasing
Serenity is about releasing
Persons into his hands
Futures into his plans.<\/p>\n

I hear a quiet whisper
Within my heart of hearts
And leave here with assurance
Of fresh fellowship, fresh starts.<\/p>\n

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Even men of iron will rust
And our metal will be tested
Does it read\u2014\u2018in God we trust\u2019?<\/p>\n

BW3 Jan 24, 2009 (Grafton, Vermont)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SERENITY(at the Revolutionary War Cemetery) The calm after the storm,The clarity after reflectionThe acceptance of unchangeable thingsLike winter followed by spring. Peace, in the face of warSatisfaction, without moreThe acceptance of frustrating thingsHard hearts, heads, truths. Of this demanding demeanorFrancis did reassure Irresistible, immovable stonesAre best left alone. But wisdom to know the differenceBetween terminal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nSERENITY - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SERENITY - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SERENITY(at the Revolutionary War Cemetery) The calm after the storm,The clarity after reflectionThe acceptance of unchangeable thingsLike winter followed by spring. Peace, in the face of warSatisfaction, without moreThe acceptance of frustrating thingsHard hearts, heads, truths. Of this demanding demeanorFrancis did reassure Irresistible, immovable stonesAre best left alone. But wisdom to know the differenceBetween terminal…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-26T16:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SX4l1TN1lJI\/AAAAAAAAB0Q\/Ah7An3UKxK0\/s400\/DSC02209.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SERENITY - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"SERENITY - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"SERENITY(at the Revolutionary War Cemetery) The calm after the storm,The clarity after reflectionThe acceptance of unchangeable thingsLike winter followed by spring. Peace, in the face of warSatisfaction, without moreThe acceptance of frustrating thingsHard hearts, heads, truths. Of this demanding demeanorFrancis did reassure Irresistible, immovable stonesAre best left alone. But wisdom to know the differenceBetween terminal…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2009-01-26T16:03:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SX4l1TN1lJI\/AAAAAAAAB0Q\/Ah7An3UKxK0\/s400\/DSC02209.JPG"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html","name":"SERENITY - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SX4l1TN1lJI\/AAAAAAAAB0Q\/Ah7An3UKxK0\/s400\/DSC02209.JPG","datePublished":"2009-01-26T16:03:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-26T16:03:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SX4l1TN1lJI\/AAAAAAAAB0Q\/Ah7An3UKxK0\/s400\/DSC02209.JPG","contentUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SX4l1TN1lJI\/AAAAAAAAB0Q\/Ah7An3UKxK0\/s400\/DSC02209.JPG"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2009\/01\/serenity.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SERENITY"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}