You’re sitting across the desk from your oncologist waiting anxiously to hear the results from your last scan. When you hear the words: “You are cancer-free!” you want to stand up and dance a jig!

After many months of sending out countless resumes in a search for a new job, you finally open up a letter and read the good news! It’s a great offer and you start next Monday. What do you want to do? Go out and shout to the world: “I’ve got a job!”

It’s been a long journey of grief since your spouse of 50 years died, and you’re finally feeling like you want to get back into the swing of life. And as you sit drinking your morning coffee to watch the beautiful sunrise, you realize that a new sense of joy is breaking into your heart. And what do you do? You give thanks to God for his healing presence.

All the above scenarios reflect the journey of Psalm 30 as the Psalmist describes coming out on the other side of a difficult life event. No one is sure exactly what happened in his life, but his words: “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning,” makes it clear: he is filled with gratitude for the ways in which God has guided him through the darkest moments into a new and better day.

Can the same be said of you? Can you say to God: “You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy?” Or, are you still in the “thick of things?” No matter, come this weekend and join as we celebrate: Joy comes in the morning!”

To prepare for worship, please read Psalm 30 and weekend— John 6:66-69: When Jesus asks his disciples whether they will desert, Peter replies: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”