Seeking Joy

Seeking Joy 
Imagine that you and I are going on a hunting trip to try and shoot an elk. After we pack our bags, load the truck, and say goodbye to our families we head out. We drive for about 15 minutes until we pull into a McDonald’s parking lot and I tell you that we have made it to the hunting ground. At this point, you would think that I am out of my mind. No one goes to McDonald’s to try and hunt elk. You cannot hunt an elk where there are no elk.

The Christian life is similar to this in that we are to seek our joy where it is. It is foolish to try and seek joy where it is not found. As silly as an elk hunter at McDonald’s seems, far more laughable is the Christian who seeks joy outside of Christ. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). 

C.S. Lewis in his “The Weight of Glory” points out that mankind is like a child that lives in the slums who is content to go on making mud pies because he cannot fathom what a vacation at the beach is like. Lewis concludes that “we are far too easily pleased.” Lewis is right. Infinite joy has been offered to us in the gospel. We were created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, yet too often we are content with lesser things. We, like Lewis’s child in the slum, fail to comprehend all the glory and joy that comes from knowing more and more of Christ. The issue is not that we want too much. Rather, it is that we want too little.

Certainly, Christians are to be content with what they have (1 Tim. 6:6-8). However, we are not to be content with a surface-level, minuscule knowledge of who God is. We are to press on to maturity in Christ, to grow in the fruit of the Spirit, to become wiser in Christ that we may pass down to our children what Christ has given to us, and more. For it is a foolish thing to say that we believe in God and then live as if joy is found by giving Christ less than two percent of our attention. Instead, let us, as the author to the Hebrews said, press on to maturity. Seek Christ, for He is our joy.

Grace be with you,
C. R. Hamilton