As I scroll through my newsfeed on Facebook…as I receive text messages from family or friends…as we pray through the prayer requests shared by my fourth graders as we sit in a circle on the rug…I am constantly reminded of one thing. We are hurting and life is hard. We are mourning a laundry list of items and some days it just feels like it’s too hard and it won’t get better. There is conflict everywhere. There is then division and then things are even harder….or so it seems. I so desperately want to turn my eyes. I want to look away beyond the gray skies and to the rainbow on the other side.

But I can’t. I can’t dwell on what is hard, because I know…

I know sin is real. Sin is all around us, and until Jesus returns, sin isn’t going anywhere…and this can make me tired…

But, there is Hope.

It is so hard to see the hard in our day to day and rejoice. It seems as though we are doing something wrong when life is hard but we are full of joy. Can I live in a broken world…and rejoice? Can I walk alongside my friends who are hurting…and rejoice? Can I find joy in the midst of this mess? Can I find joy in the mourning?

Yes. Yes, I can…because the Lord delights in me.

My prayer is that I would live a life of balance. On the days where all I can do is mourn…may the Lord restore in me the JOY of my Salvation…even if that is all I have to cling to. On the days that are the opposite…when all is well and Joy is all I can see, may my eyes be open to the hurt in the world and the world’s desperate need of Jesus, and mourn with my brothers and sisters….I am praying this for you, too, friend.

Lord, turn our mourning to joy…Clothe us with your joy…Thank you for Your joy, that comes in the mourning…

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy. |Psalm 30:11|