The Boundary Lines Have Fallen for me in Pleasant Places
I’ll follow thankfulness around until it leads me to a place where I’m content, a place where I’m at peace.
We will always struggle with contentment. No matter what desires we have that get fulfilled, or what dreams we have that come to fruition, or what prayers we have that get answered - there will always be more. More desires, more dreams; more prayers we will want God to answer.
But the struggle for contentment is such a liar, too, because inasmuch as experience has taught me that getting the next thing I want won’t actually accomplish unending contentment for me, I still find myself believing otherwise. Maybe if I just hit [this measure of success], or achieve [this status marker], or finally get [this thing I’ve wanted/needed], then I’ll chill out and just relish in [having that thing I want]. But no: Getting the things you want/work for does not contentment make. Once you hit a measure of success, in time you will simply replace it with another one to shoot for. That status marker you’re aiming at is awfully fickle and it changes constantly, so you might hit it today and feel like you’re nowhere close tomorrow.
I don’t know about you, but I have found that I’m kind of a bottomless pit of human needs and wants. Maybe it’s because I’m a little bit ambitious, maybe I’m insecure, or maybe it’s because I have an active imagination so I’m always thinking about what could be. But perhaps the fact that my mind is often somewhere else (tomorrow, onto the next thing, hoping to reach a new goal) is a big reason why I struggle with contentment as much as I do. When my mind is filled with the what-could-be’s of life, then it’s not filled with the here-and-now’s. And there are a lot of blessings in the here-and-now.
In that way, discontentment operates a little bit like anxiety. Instead of being consumed by what could go wrong tomorrow and feeling anxious about it today, I am consumed by what could be better tomorrow, and feel discontent about it today.
This is why gratitude plays such a big role in the fight for contentment. Choosing to be thankful is choosing to bring to mind all the blessings you have now. It’s remembering past answers to prayer, and currently completed goals that you once worked so hard to meet; it’s remembering that right now, you have things you used to long for (and struggled to be content without).
When I am disciplined in it, gratitude slows me down to the pace of appreciation. It brings me into the present moment and enables me to experience some satisfaction in what I already have. As an analogy, it helps me to savor each course of the meal as I’m eating it, instead of stuffing my face while staring at the dessert menu.
But alas. If only it were easy.
That kind of gratitude takes discipline. And I’m not always disciplined in it.
So, that is why I’ll stop writing honest songs, and instead I’ll write what I wish I believed. I wish gratitude overflowed from me, so I’ll try to form habits and develop a better sense of discipline at it. I will sing these words till they take root, I will sing these words till they sink deep down in my soul - and hope that eventually, they will transform my heart.
This is why I wrote ‘Pleasant Places’: because I struggle with contentment, but I don’t want to. Looks like it’s time for me to follow thankfulness around until it leads me to a place where I am [deep breath] c o n t e n t.
“Gratitude is not a simple emotion or an obvious attitude. It is a difficult discipline in which I constantly reclaim my whole past as the concrete way God has led me to this moment and is sending me into the future. It is hard precisely because it challenges me to face my painful moments - experiences of rejection and abandonment, feelings of loss and failure - and gradually to discover in them the pruning hands of God, purifying my heart for deeper love, stronger hope, and broader faith.”
Watch the music video for ‘Pleasant Places’ on YouTube now!