Christian Contentment: A Hymn

This is a hymn my friend wrote on Christian contentment. The following is her explanation for it...

I wrote this hymn during a season of uncertainty. The first stanza is a paraphrase of a favorite quote of mine by Sinclair Ferguson: "Christian contentment is the direct fruit of having no higher ambition than to belong to the Lord and to be totally at his disposal in the place He appoints, at the time He chooses, with the provision He is pleased to make."

James 4 tells us that we are mists that appear for a little while and then vanish. Ephesians 1, on the other hand, tells us that God has chosen His people to be His own even before creation, whose lives would end in the praise of His glory. Now put these two together and you see a marvelous God—why should He take transient mists and appoint to them an eternal, weighty destiny, mists to bear the weight of His glory?

This perspective has borne deep comfort to me: even before creation, God knew exactly what He would do with my life to bring the greatest glory to Him. However longer this mist would last and wherever this mist would float to next, one thing is sure: God's faithfulness to keep His promise to this mist that He astonishingly loves.


Words:

If Christian contentment is the direct fruit
Of dreaming no higher than being Thine own,
And at Thy disposal, Thine own ends to suit,
Then, Lord, how I long for its seed to be sown. (2x)

How much sunshine and water would it need to flourish?
And what soil is best, in which it must lie?
This seed will not sprout unless it is nourished,
Yet dormant it stays if it doth not first die. (2x)

Death to my dreams, my will and my kingdom,
Death to curiosity of the things Thou hast hidden;
Resting instead on Thy goodness and wisdom,
Far-off from the fruit that Thou hast forbidden. (2x)

Alive as it lies confined in the ground,
Alive in the dark, enclosed within;
When all things are stripped and boundaries surround,
'Tis here Thou hast deemed its life to begin. (2x)

Awake to Thy Kingdom—what undreamable grandeur!
Awake to Thy will, larger than mine existence;
The praise of Thy glory, my one end that is sure,
Ah, suddenly things loom in such vibrant brilliance! (2x)