Pleasant Places

I didn’t intend to write this. I sat down on the floor in my apartment on the Sunday night before finals with the intention of mindlessly cranking out all the Psalm reflections that I neglected to for my 100 level psych class that I don’t give any craps about. Somehow I ended up here, reading the words I’ve been looking for all semester and couldn’t formulate myself. And I hope with everything in my heart that some of this may show you rest, because that’s what the Lord has been showing me.

“The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” –Psalm 16:5&6

This prayer is for contentment today.

My heart is restless a lot of the time. I know in my head that my lines have fallen in pleasant places, but still my heart is restless. I know that the Lord has me where he wants me but it’s often hard to feel it in our hearts when life is happening. Life goes on and things happen that give us tired days and sleepless nights. There are days that we’re sad all day for no specific reason and we do not feel at all that our lines have fallen in pleasant places. But guess what? They have.

This semester has been shambles at times, and if I’m being transparent there have been far too many days that I have let myself stew in that. There have been too many times that I have felt that I could make my own pleasant places, but look—the text says that the lines have fallen for me. As in I don’t get a say. It ‘s not mine to place. We don’t get to tell him what we think contentment will best look like for us. And that’s a great big jumble of uncomfortable/scary/relieving.

But after this semester has been said and done you know what’s been pleasant? Growth. The ways the Lord has put me into places that are uncomfortable and said ‘look’ or ‘stay here’, or ‘do you see what they mean?’ That is pleasant to me. Not often the moments, but the result that has come after. We have to get up and know that our lines have fallen in pleasant places, even when we are so positive in our human spirit that we have a better place to put our lines.

So this is my encouragement to you and me, our lines have fallen in good places. I’m not saying that life isn’t hard. I’m not saying that life doesn’t suck sometimes, because it does. I’m saying that the Lord wants to show you things through the times that suck. There is no better place your lines could be falling than where the Lord is putting them, so let him put them there. The Lord has our best interest, even when we are fighting him tooth and nail to submit to places that feel anything but pleasant. My prayer is that the Lord would show us how to be content with the pleasant places of today. I pray that we can stop wrestling about where we should be, and just be present where we are today. I struggle with that daily, it’s so freaking hard sometimes, but the Lord knows what he’s doing, and that gives me rest.