Boundary Lines
The boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places.
A phrase I haven’t been able to escape from in recent weeks.
Boundary lines. Pleasant places.
What a pairing.
Boundaries, pleasant?
Possible?
YES. More than possible.
BOUNDARIES (n.)
a line that marks the limits of an area; a dividing line; a limit of a subject or sphere of activity.
Synonyms include: border, frontier, divide, line of demarcation, threshold, confines, limits, parameters.
PLEASANT (adj.)
giving a sense of happy satisfaction or enjoyment.
Synonyms include: enjoyable, pleasing, pleasurable, nice, agreeable, satisfying, gratifying, welcome, good, acceptable.
How?
Where and how can this happy satisfaction or enjoyment be found, especially in boundaries? In limits?
Psalm 16:5-6 in The Passion Translation (TPT) of the Scriptures reads:
Lord, I have chosen you alone as my inheritance. You are my prize, my pleasure, and my portion. I leave my destiny and its timing in your hands. Your pleasant path leads me to pleasant places. I’m overwhelmed by the privileges that come with following you, for you have given me the best!
The same passage but in the New International Version (NIV) reads:
LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
A few principles that stand out in this passage:
Choice.
Surrender.
Faith.
It is a choice to recognize and embrace the LORD, Yahweh, as our ultimate gift, source of pleasure, life, delight and inheritance.
This requires a surrender of our own ideas, plans, and timing of what we believe our destiny or calling to be.
There is then a faith that must be drawn upon to believe that a pleasantness or delight can be discovered in the choice to surrender to the boundaries and limits found in any given season and embrace them rather than reject, fight or despise them.
Whether we are wrestling with how to best raise our children, struggling to keep a business afloat or get a new one off the ground, navigating challenging relational dynamics or chronic health problems — whatever limits our current situation(s) seem to present us — there IS a way to know a pleasantness found within the given boundaries we are presented with.
May we each come to know more of the overwhelming privileges and delightful inheritance that can be found in the embracing of our boundaries.
Photo by Zach Lezniewicz on Unsplash
