John 16:24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
This was part of the New Testament reading in church this past Sunday morning. The Old Testament reading was from Deuteronomy 16 and ended with verse 15: “the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” See the parallel, at least in the NIV versions we have in our pews? What does it mean for joy to be complete? Can you have partial joy? Can you have unfulfilled joy? Can you have joy that would be joy or should be joy but isn’t totally joy? Yes, I guess you can. Most of us have had a taste of joy, an experience of joy that is real and satisfying and amazing but is either contained by time and ends or is contained by quality and leaves you knowing there is and could be and should be more. Such is the experience of most of us in this life. It is the way of things. But this verse promises more; more in the ever after and more in the here and now. Could it be, as C.S. Lewis wrote, that we were made for joy? This week think, what would it mean for your joy to be complete?
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 