Pleasant Places

May 14, 2018

“Surely the lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places.” So says the writer of Psalm 16:6. These words came to mind this morning as I drove the back roads to visit a church member who has been sick and absent from worship for a few weeks. The verdant and variegated greens of the spring grasses in the fields, the willows along the creeks, and the brush springing up alongside the road contrasted with the brown of newly cultivated fields awaiting the spring planting. The hills seemed almost to dance with delight as the breezes stirred the trees into rhythmic motion. 

A few days ago, I read an article about war-torn Iraq. One of the accompanying photographs showed a portion of a city that was nothing but rubble. Two men were carrying a body through the debris. It was utter devastation on a scale about which we know nothing. Even the urban blight of Detroit pales in comparison. And here I am, driving through beauty many cannot even imagine.

I know that discord and heartache are not the exclusive property of war-torn places. Behind the doors of many of the homes I passed, tragedies play themselves out in a too-regular pattern of anger, deceit, betrayal, and violence. Some of the homes are well-kept, while others are little more than shacks perched precariously amid a clutter of refuse and decay. But still, the lines have fallen to me...

With manifold blessing comes much responsibility. The Dead Sea is lifeless because the flow that feeds it feeds no one else. None of us were meant to be merely recipients of God’s blessings, whether they come in a flood or a trickle. The only way to thrive is to not only thank God for the blessings we receive, but also to pass them along to others. That’s why my retirement didn’t last long. Those lines that have fallen to me I must gather up and cast before others. The rest of the verse gives the reason: “a godly heritage.” Tonight, I am thankful for those lines, and pray that I will hold them only long enough for someone else to pick them up and discover their new heritage in Jesus Christ.