God is good even when things are bad
Out of envy, Joseph's (in the book of Genesis) brothers sold him into slavery. You can imagine how Joseph felt. It really hurts when the people that should care about you don’t. I have left a few churches I've attended for a long time. One of the worst feelings is losing friends you thought were close to you. Now that I’m no longer in those circles we rarely talk. It can hurt terribly when you're close to someone and they ignore you. It’s almost like God ignores you. Many times, it can seem like God hates you when people hate you. But you would be wrong to assume that. How people treated Joseph was not an indicator of God’s idea of who Joseph was. Joseph never deserved what he went through. He just went through it. People often go through things and believe God wants them to go through it, but He doesn’t. We go through things because of people's intentions or our lack of intention. We go through things because of the world around us. We are limited to seeing the goodness of God by the way we look at things. The goodness of God can often be on the other side of bad things happening. When bad things happen don’t ask God why, ask God what. What can I learn from this? What abilities or talents should I be using? What people should I be talking to during this? Talking to the right people is just as important as being the right person. Who cares if you're gifted. If you're with the wrong crowd your gift gets wasted. Joseph never stayed in the prison this world put him in. He kept moving. What can I focus on besides the problems? Why is a good question but what is always the answer. What good things am I going to work on when bad things are happening? Focus on the good and you will always see God through the bad things.
God is great even when things seem sad
Joseph was a great man. But at the moment he was in prison. Oftentimes in life it can seem like our everyday circumstances are a prison. The job you work or the relationships you deal with or just even existing. As great men do, Joseph had great dreams. Things no one else was seeing. It’s a common denominator in greatness. You live in a space that people avoid. Joseph’s greatness showed up in excellence. The story reads that he had an excellent spirit. He became second in command in a prison. “A PRISON”. What that tells me is even in our own prisons we can become something. Greatness leads us to be who we are even when we are not in places we want to be. Greatness doesn’t let our surroundings define us. His excellent spirit was never taken away by people's sad spirit. It is very easy to let the things you deal with become who you are. It is very easy to allow the things you're going through to decide how you act. Joseph didn’t. His God was great even when sad things happened to him. Joseph was sold into slavery because he told his brothers his dream. Many people hide their potential because of what someone else said. If I was Joseph and all these horrible things happened to me because I told a dream. I would stop telling dreams. Joseph didn’t. He didn’t let the things he went through decide the usefulness of his life and abilities. No matter what happened to him he treated himself and the people around him with excellence. His level of problems didn’t decide his level of life. He didn’t let what happened to him decide what happened inside of himself. Those are two different worlds. You have to separate them. If you don’t do your part, you can’t see the greatness of what God has for you. What God puts inside of you is great. Don't let the sadness around you decide God’s greatness inside of your heart.
God cares even when people won’t
Joseph made it into a house serving a powerful leader. He was still a slave. The job was better than most. But the leader's wife lied about Joseph, and they sent him to prison. At every point in Joseph’s life, he keeps meeting people that don’t care about him, they only care about using him. When they can’t use him, they discard him. It's important to understand that even if people don’t care about you, God cares. Even though someone forgets about you, God doesn’t. He sees us through everything we face. Just because people treat you a certain way doesn’t mean God created you to be that way. Just because people do things to you it doesn’t mean God approved it. People have a habit of doing things God never approved and then calling it good or ignoring how it affects you. They tend to focus on their own good and not what their so-called good did to you. God could have just taken Joseph from his father's lands and put him in front of Pharoah. It would have been much easier but because of people, Joseph went on the most frustrating journey ever. The things you go through will create a desire inside of you to not care but you need to care. God cares, you should too. Even when people don’t. Joseph eventually goes from being a slave to being second in command of all of Egypt. He doesn’t get there if he doesn’t care. Life is meant to be cared for.
Our life may not be exactly like Joseph, but life has a way of being teachable in all aspects. Maybe you don't go through exactly everything that Joseph went through but the same hangups, feelings, and ideas that Joseph experienced we experience every day. Today you have a choice to be full of greatness by being grateful. I pray we all choose to be grateful no matter where you are in life.
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