Lately, I’ve heard a great deal about joy. And why not? We all need it. Scripture is packed full of verses on joy and its many derivatives. We were designed to have joy, our hearts pine for it. Without it we walk around with a deep chasm, searching aimlessly for purpose and fulfillment.

King Solomon tried all manner of worldly delights to satisfy his emptiness.^[1] Denying himself nothing he saw around him, he concluded that it was all “vanity and striving after the wind.”  Ecclesiastes 2:11b (NASB)

Trying everything, but failing to find joy, Solomon was left hopeless and despondent. “I hated life, for the work which has been done under the sun was grievous to me, because everything is futility and striving after wind.”  Ecclesiastes 2:17 (NASB)

He would later conclude, that God has set eternity in the hearts of men.^[2] Solomon had the means to try all the world has to offer to try and satisfy his deep need for joy. None of it worked. In fact, at the end of his search, he hated life because he recognized the utter futility of trying to fill the eternal hole in our hearts with anything around us.

Lord, help us not to fall into Solomon’s trap. The glitter of riches, fame, success and pleasure can keep us in a boundless pursuit of fool’s gold. If we could carry this quest to the ends that Solomon did, we too would find it a vain pursuit, a chasing after the wind. Lord, may we seek you, the pearl of great value, worthy of our all.[3] 

^[1] Ecclesiastes 2:1-10

^[2] Ecclesiastes 3:11

[3] Matthew 13:46