I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. - John 15:11

I hate unfinished projects. Unfinished projects have a habit of remaining unfinished longer than you ever expected. To make things worse, most of the time the reason an unfinished project doesn’t get finished is because another project gets started before the first project finds its end. Then, of course, there is always a third, or fourth, or fiftieth project. Before you know it you have more unfinished projects than you know what to do with.

As much as I hate unfinished projects, I find I am a master at them. I have no end of good ideas and good intentions. There is no short supply of motivation at acting on a good idea. It’s the follow-through to the end that is hardest for me.

Jesus has a project for each and everyone of us. His project is that we live lives of joy. He isn’t satisfied with us experiencing moments of joy. He wants us to not only to experience joy but to own it. Partial joy is not enough. He wants us to have a joy that is complete. A complete joy is a joy that is still there when the bills are due. It’s there when we get the breakup call. It’s there when we don’t get the job. It’s there when we get the flat tire. It’s there when we don’t get the grade we wanted. It’s there when we don’t achieve our goals on time. It’s there when we find out we won’t achieve a particular goal ever.

How do we do that? Jesus says, “Love each other as I have loved you.” (vs. 12)

That’s the trick. The better we learn to love others, the more complete our joy is. God-powered, God-sustained, God-oriented joy is always, always, always gained in the context of relationship. If your relationship with God is great, and all your other relationships are great, the external circumstances of life won’t touch your joy. If your relationships are out of whack, you joy will suffer.

Want joy? Finish your “loving people” project.