Retail therapy?

I was thinking about joy this morning and I was curious as to what a quick Google and images search would produce.

Shopping and sex.

My next stop was my concordance.

I was interested to discover that one of the three times joy is mentioned in the book of Matthew, also happens to be in the same verse I was thinking about last week in connection with the word everything.

Any guesses?

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold everything he had and bought that field.
Matthew 13:44

What I love about this is not only the total committment to God but the absolute joy in doing so.

The man didn't check to see what money he had in the bank or what he could reasonably afford. He sold everything in order to buy the field to get the treasure buried within it.

And even better, he didn't act out of a sense of duty or obligation or guilt, he was motivated by joy.

True, lasting and meaningful joy, drove this man to a whole-hearted course of action that cost him everything, but gained him everything too.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15