Surprised by Contentment

I spend a lot of time alone practicing, and much of that time is spent being dissatisfied. Serious musicians have honed their ability to spot weaknesses and flaws in order to fix them. Dissatisfaction comes easily and naturally. What is hard to find is contentment.

I received the gift of a fleeting moment of contentment during my practice today. It wasn't the result of playing perfectly, I still have work to do tomorrow, but it was there nonetheless. It actually surprised me when it came.

I was looking in one of my new [to me] organ books at a setting by Donald Busarow of the hymn tune SCHMÜCKE DICH. I associate this tune with the text "Soul, Adorn Yourself with Gladness." I've seen people criticize the tune as not being happy enough or even being sad. I completely disagree. I will admit, the tune does not go out of its way to be energetic or in your face about its happiness, but it is a contented tune. It is a tune that brings peace. And where peace and contentment are, there you can find gladness. This was the first time I had looked at the Donald Busarow setting, but I fell in love with it immediately because it is gorgeous and brings out the contentment in the tune. How Busarow treated the tune shows he seemed to understand that gladness can be calm and quiet contentment.

Contentment is undervalued. I treasure moments like tonight when I get a taste of contentment. When the worries of tomorrows and the regrets of yesterdays disappear in the peace of the gift of now. The gift of a foretaste of the eternal rest of heaven.

And that is what the hymn is about:

Soul, adorn yourself with gladness
Leave the gloomy haunts of sadness,
Come into the daylight's splendor,
There with joy your praises render.
Bless the One whose grace unbounded
This amazing banquet founded;
He, though heav'nly, high, and holy,
Deigns to dwell with you most lowly. 

[. . .]

Jesus, source of lasting pleasure,
Truest friend, and dearest treasure,
Peace beyond all understanding,
Joy into all life expanding:
Humbly now, I bow before you;
Love incarnate, I adore you;
Worthily let me receive You
And, so favored, never leave You.

We sing this hymn speaking of the Lord's Supper because it is the banquet where we receive a foretaste of the eternal feast of heaven. We are invited to a feast where God is not only with us, but we receive Him as He gives Himself to us. And where God is, there is peace and contentment and gladness. Here we struggle with our discontentedness as we receive glimpses and foretastes, but we look forward to the eternal feast where we will finally and forever be content in everlasting gladness.