"You cannot escape pain.
But you can escape joy.”
PS Chris Bishop
This side of heaven there will always be contrast: Light and dark, hardship and pleasure, laughter and crying. When we sang this old song this morning, it struck me how the choir leader lays exactly the same emphasis on the goodness of the Lord in both:
Blessed be Your name
When the sun is shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Although there is pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
On both sides of being okay, the Lord is there.
He is there in the mornings when I get up with a song in my heart and
He is there when I wake up in Egypt after going to bed in Canaan.
Even more…
He is good when my heart lies light within me and
He's still good when it feels like the place I'm carries with it a life sentence.
Joseph was young and naive and maybe just a little entitled too. For that he ends up in big trouble and very far from his home.
But the Lord's blessing was on Joseph and before long the who's-who realized it too. And the blessing that was on Joseph drips down and runs over everyone around him.
The good and the bad.
And then it was test time.
Character test time.
Would Josef still be the willful, spoiled brat who would be content to play the apple of his father's eye and get one colourful K-Way after another?
Or would the work the Lord was doing in Joseph be ready to bear good fruit?
Potiphar's wife was the test.
And Joseph showed who he really was.
Every time the Potiphar's Wife monkey puzzle was put before him, he chose to refuse and remain.
Up to a point.
That day his only viable choice was to refuse and run.
It did not end well for Joseph.
In earthly terms.
However, the Lord's economy works a little differently:
"While Joseph was in prison, the Lord helped him and was good to him...
the Lord was with Joseph and made him successful in all that he did.”
Gen 39:20 CEV
And Joseph became the leader and saviour of many, including his family.
The Lord could not use him powerfully, until He had first tried him to the utmost.
I can be successful, even if it feels like I'm in prison.
His goodness seeks me and finds me inside the places I least want to be.
May I not miss the joy He plans for me
while waiting for the pain
to go away
first.
Your inspiration for the week: Hope in front of me
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