My favourite story in the Bible has always been Joseph’s story. It probably is because like him, I am a dreamer. If you are not familiar with Joseph’s story it can be found beginning in Genesis 37. A number of wrongs were inflicted on Joseph but the one I want to talk about is in Gen 39.
Joseph is coming from a hard place where after being betrayed and sold by his brothers, he is finally starting to recover. His life is getting better and he is now in charge of his master’s house and things are changing. He is still a slave but a slave with privileges.
Then something bad happens. The wife of his master wants him and manages to get him in trouble because he doesn’t want to betray his faith and his master. Joseph is sent to prison. Later on we can read that Joseph will meet the right people in prison and he will go on to become in charge of Egypt.
Regardless of the fact that he didn’t do anything wrong; I am pretty sure a number of people still believed that the wife of his master was right.
I try to think of reasons why this had to happen to Joseph mainly because there are some things that I believe that are happening in my life that I think are unfair. I wonder why this has to happen to me now, because just like Joseph I felt like I was on the road to recovery and all was going well.
My only conclusion is that sometimes being right is not the point. Looking at Joseph’s story, I want to think that sometimes bad things happen so that we can be inspired to want more and better. Sometimes bad things happen to highlight the places where we have settled and stopped pursuing the best for us. Joseph was still a slave, but he was happy to be a slave because he couldn’t see anything else for him. Being in prison gave him a motivation to be proactive in finding a way out.
You could argue that Joseph could have met Pharaoh under different circumstances and that is probably true but that was not his life. We all have to go through our journey with the good and bad that come with it. In the middle of the injustices that affect us, let us try to remember that sometimes bad things open doors to new opportunities, and yes, I too was like Joseph, limited by the privileges of a bad condition. It took me awhile to realise.
MoiWinu 