The pain we sometimes go through can be unbearable. These are the meditations of my prayer for you this morning. The true pilgrimage in life is a journey upward to God, a pilgrimage we make with many others. The darkness of the journey should not diminish the destination. The brightness of the second coming that will fill the earth with one blaze of glory, like lightening from the east, is “the blessed hope.” However, we all know that life is an ebb and flow. It is a mixture of shadows and sunshine, need and supply, sorrow and joy, reverse, and success. In Psalm 126:5 tears and sorrow become joy and laughter. This will be your final outcome on the shores of eternity.  Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit – a gift from God. It is not happiness. Happiness is a fluctuating emotion, like the weather, changeable. Right now, you may be under a dark and horrible cloud. Joy is the strength we have amidst the trials of life. It is confidence in the dream of final outcomes – for those we pray for, or the reunion with those we have lost. This is the blessed hope. Amidst the shadows we can celebrate God’s amazing work with joy and singing because we have been set free from the captivity of sin and death (The historical context of Psalm 126). I pray that your life will be filled with the confident joy that will be ours on that wonderful morning.