Next to oil, joy may be the second scarcest commodity these days. Americans are not too much of a joyous lot. Recently a study noted that now medications for depression are the most prescribed medicines on the market. Collectively we hurt and are discouraged. We need new explorations for joy resources for the human family. We need to encourage drilling in the landscape of heretofore undeveloped human experience.

Jesus Christ made a connection between what He said and our experience of joy. The idea of our joy being made complete (John 15:11) is a notion universally embraced. We all want complete joy. Could the speech of God be the key to understanding and experiencing the joy for which we have always yearned?

In the temptation account Jesus noted that we do not find our subsistence from merely physical sustenance-a good meal. He argued that there is much more than "bread alone" (Matthew 4:4). In fact, He asserted that the Word revealed by God held the power to sustain our existence in a way that belittled the nourishment of food. There is a long history of all of us realizing that bread alone brings no enduring satisfaction. Jesus boldly claimed that fidelity to His Word held out the passage to the good and stable life-the joyous life (Matthew 7:24-27).

The reserves for joy most untapped and unexplored are the joys held out to anyone who will embrace the Living Word (Jesus Christ) and make it their glad discipline in life to live out (obey) His way of life. The autobahn to joy runs right through the pages of scripture and is marked out by the map of Jesus' way of living.

This, of course, is why I thrill at the privilege of sharing God's Word. Today I will soak in the substance of Psalm 34 in preparation for an upcoming Sunday. All day I will reflect and consider what this text means to our family at Southgate. I will probe just how these verses shape our approach to living and how in obeying their call they merge us into a stream of joy that is found in our obedience.

Last week I was reading 2 John. This little book only has thirteen verses. It is a tiny letter. John closes it notifying the readers of a pending visit. He is anxious for the visit to go down...for their sake. He suggests that it will be the occasion of a breakout of full joy, "...I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that your joy may be full". On the surface, a novice reader could conclude that John had a real ego problem. But that is misreading the text and misreading the joy. John was no egomaniac. John was eager to come and speak the Word of God to them because of what it held out for them in joy. John knew that in embracing what God has revealed about Himself, the people following Jesus could come into more joy. I know of the eagerness to which John speaks. What a privilege is mine to expose people to paths of joy in sharing the Word of God and inviting people to respond. Preachers are Johnny Appleseeders of the Word. We just go around and plant seed. When it is united with faith (fleshed out in obedience), joy breaks out in the life. Our highest joys are held out in our embrace of the Word of God.

Faith and joy come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17

Hear the Word of the Lord! Find joy in responding to what He says!