Clint,

As an OT example, one can also look at Elijah. Certainly Elijah was a great prophet, so much so that God did not let him see death. Nevertheless, after slaying the Baal propheths and was threatend by Jezebel, he was depressed.

We definitely should not expect our lives to be "upbeat" in the sense that we are always on a high. We still are flesh and blood. The joy that Pauls writes about definitely is that inner joy that Pilgrim referred to.

Johan