June 14, 2026
3 Steps to Joy
- The First Book of the Kings, Commonly Called the Third Book of the Kings 1 Kings 8:62-1 Kings 9:5
- Josh Akin
What makes you joyful and glad of heart? We are the richest, most entertained, most connected generation in human history. And the most miserable. Consider the evidence.
Anxiety and depression have tripled since the pandemic—not during the pandemic, since. Nearly 3 in 5 teenage girls report persistent hopelessness. One in three teenage girls has considered suicide.
The Surgeon General calls loneliness a public health epidemic—as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The most “connected” generation in history is the loneliest age group alive.
And then there are the “deaths of despair”—suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related deaths combined. In 2016, they claimed 142,000 American lives. By 2021, they peaked at over 200,000 deaths in a single year—more than the entire Vietnam War, every year, on repeat.
Now, if you saw a child smoking a pack a day, you would say something. But if you see a child spending his life in front of an iPad you say nothing? One kills the lungs, the others erodes the heart. We need to be refreshed in God’s design for us to find Joy.