Of Course, I Would Much Rather Be Right!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my faith tradition has never been much for rote or memorized prayers. In that post, I spoke of the Serenity Prayer and even went as far as to change the wording of that prayer in order to make it more meaningful and applicable to me.

The courage to change the person I can and the wisdom to know that person is me lies at the very core of this blog. This realization was not true on the day I started. I started out just trying to get a few laughs, do a little venting, and maybe start an argument or two. But I am finding it close to impossible to throw some of these thoughts out into the blogosphere and not be confronted with a lot of these principles on, almost, a daily basis.

A month or so ago, I listened to a friend, for over two hours, as he explained, justified, and rationalized some ridiculously bad behavior. I finally surrendered! I cried "Uncle!" I could not listen to another word and threw in the towel. The wisdom to know the difference.

I did end the conversation, however, with the understanding that I was going to continue to hold him accountable and would reserve the right to point out things to him if I saw the need. He graciously responded that he had no problem with me holding him accountable as long as I never "told him he was wrong." He quickly laughed as he had immediately realized what a STUPID thing he had said. I just got into my truck and drove away.

All the above reminds me of yet another prayer that I've read dozens of times. The prayer was penned by Saint Francis of Assisi. Mother Theresa changed it up in 1985 when she addressed the United Nations. It is a beautiful prayer. You can look it up yourself. I'm just addressing the first few lines.

 This is what it said:

"Lord, make me a channel of thy peace---that where this is hatred,
I may bring love---that where this is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness."

This is what I read:

"Lord, make me a channel of thy peace---that where this is hatred,
I may bring love---that where this is wrong, I may bring RIGHT!"

Is this idea not abundantly clear to any normal, living, breathing, human being? The opposite of wrong is right! I need to be right. I need you to be right. I need the world to be right. Wouldn't we all be much bettter off if everyone was just......RIGHT?

Hundreds of times, I've had people offend me with the stupidest question I've ever heard. "Kevin, do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?" Thus far, I've answered EVERY time that "I want to be right."

Trust me, I'm aware of the hypocrisy of this stance. It is not consistent with the Serenity Prayer or the wishes of Saint Francis. But somewhere, deep down, in this heart of stone, the knowledge is there and a flicker of hope remains. Until that day....