You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, (Psalm 30:11 NKJV)

I kept repeating the word, enjoying my guide dog, Iva’s reaction as she did little half jumps. As a trained guide dog, Iva knows better than to jump, especially while I’m sitting at the kitchen table eating one of her favorite treats, watermelon. She found it difficult to contain her joy, and she did a great job about not breaking the rules, keeping those hind feet on the ground.

Next, I laid my hand on the top of her head. Now each time I said “Bath!” I could feel her ears stand up. I enjoy these playful moments as much as she does. Nothing gets Iva more excited than her bath. We try to spell the word until the morning when the Pampered Pup comes by for Iva’s scheduled appointment.

As she jumped, panting with exhilaration, and her velvety black ears shot up, I wondered how excited do I get about Jesus. Iva’s jubilation shouldn’t exceed my joy about Jesus. Some Sundays, I wake up saying, “I get to go to church today.” I hate to admit that most Sunday mornings, I just want to sleep a little bit longer. My joy for Jesus is being outdone by a black Lab’s joy for a bath.

Then life gets rushed, routine, or just rough. Where’s my joy then? As Christians we should be the most joyful people on the planet, but we often fall short.

Our verse says that the Lord has turned our mourning into dancing. King David was referring to a season of grief.   Sackcloth was usually worn by people in mourning, and David recalled how God removed his clothes for grief and replaced them with gladness.

Each morning, we need to fill up on joy in our time with the Lord. When we start off with a full tank of joy, it won’t be so easily depleted as we go through the day. Then perhaps, we should refuel before going to sleep.

If we don’t get intentional about joy, we’ll start sputtering along by lunchtime. At the end of the day, we feel tired, frustrated, and sometimes discouraged, because we lacked the joy we needed for that day.

I’m as guilty as anyone, but I want to recall my black lab jumping for joy. It made me smile. Can you imagine how God will smile when He sees our joy?

Originally posted on June 6, 2022 @ 3:00 am