Last week, I wrote about a seeming lack of joy among us. For all intents and purposes, we appear to have lost perspective on the magnitude of the birth of our Savior, the source of all joy.
In his soon-to-be-available book “Crave,” Chris Tomlinson also reminds us that our joy is found only in Jesus (p. 198-199):
“Our craving for happiness and joy is from God. He created us with a craving that longs to be filled. And when we fill this hole with anything but Him, we realize none of it works. We find ourselves in a story that has been told for centuries. As the pages turn in our lives, each chapter brings a new pursuit that eventually ends in disappointment. The plot twists and turns, but the cast of characters remains the same: security, comfort, wealth, power, sex, success, popularity, status…anything and everything we believe will bring us fulfillment. We fail to read between the lines, to see the beauty of the story behind the story. I think we misunderstand the point of the craving itself.
“Joy or happiness is what we all crave, but we can satisfy it in only one way. We cannot make joy our ultimate aim because we are not pure enough to seek after it in the right way. We must seek to satisfy our longings, the deepest cravings of our soul, by seeking the One who made us with a desire for Him.
“This is the purpose of our cravings. They are signs that lead us to Him.”
How are you pursuing joy today? Through earthly pursuits and human efforts or by drawing nearer to God?
You can download the book’s chapter on joy from Chris’s blog Crave Something More. It’s worth a read. The book will be available for purchase Jan. 1.
