I am praying for you and your family during your crisis.

The “hard times” are the “sowing times” in our lives. If we will have faith, trust and obey, like Joseph, we will reap a harvest from those sowing times, oftentimes allowing others to reap a harvest as well. True heartfelt empathy for others comes only after we’ve “walked the walk”. Our troubles, problems and heartaches are fertile soil in which to grow a miracle. And each of us can share our miracle with others.

We can all be God’s comeback kids, just like Joseph.

Ebby

Reared in a Christian home with both parents being loving, Christian people and having a comfortable, happy existence as the baby in the family, it never occurred to me as a younger adult that I could not accomplish anything I chose to do. Many times I attempted things, and finished them, which others told me were “too difficult”, “professionally unnecessary”, etc. In doing these things it seemed to me that there really wasn’t much in life that couldn’t be accomplished by anyone who was disciplined and “set his/her mind to it.” Consequently, while having a certain amount of sympathy for those less fortunate than me, I also held a strong belief that God helped those who helped themselves. I proceeded quite self-sufficiently along this path for many years. THEN, as if scripted (and I believe now that it was), some of my decisions and choices were being made during periods of duress: working without break for 60 or more hours per week, facing injury and deaths of several loved ones, and I made poor decisions when too stressed or tired to consider them carefully, etc. The “next thing I know”, I had lost everything.

For years I walked around in anger, GUILT, etc., etc. Then, one day while I was working in a retail establishment, having lost professional licenses, an old friend walked into the store, took me by the hand to lunch, and gave me some reading materials and a not-to-gentle lesson in returning to the faith with which I was reared. That friend also reminded me that I had gotten myself into this mess, and that only God and I together could get me up and out; but that it was necessary and that God had a plan for me. At the time it didn’t seem likely that God could do anything with or for me. But politely I took the materials home and I gradually started reading and studying. My faith was, over a period of years, restored and as I studied, I began to open my mind to new possibilities and experiences; having no idea what they might be.

After several years of studying and healing, one day I was invited to lunch by an old client/friend. At that lunch I was invited to work with a new organization being developed to help underprivileged youth who have become caught in a legal system from which many never escape. I explained that this was a foreign subject to me and I was without any training or background for such a task. She stated that she believed my years of “being lost and wandering in the desert” (coupled with my educational background) were good training for helping those who know nothing about the “System” in which they are trapped. Thankfully, I listened to her and over a few months became aware that without my own failures and seemingly endless “tunnels of darkness”, I NEVER would have understood the feelings of fear, rejection, and hopelessness faced by so many people in our world today. Having recognized that, it seemed that God had indeed prepared me and placed me in circumstances where I can, hopefully, serve to some good.

Sorry to have taken so much space, but I wanted to perhaps encourage others, and YOU especially, to continue to walk the path to self-knowledge and an even stronger faith in God. Remember what it takes to make steel, and it seems to me that surrendering ourselves to those same formulas of heat and pressure, may be the only way we become the steel-like Christians who can honestly say we were “honed” by God. Please continue your writings as your insights are needed by so many.

It is hard to imagine what Joseph went through when he went to prison. We know how the story ends, but he didn’t know . . . except in the sense that he trusted God for the outcome.

I started doing some prison ministry last year and got to walk the whole prison a few months back. The conditions are livable, to be sure, but as you would expect they aren’t much. I can only imagine what Joseph lived in.

More food for thought here: I believe God chose Abraham to form his covenant with, because he knew Abraham would teach his children the covenant. Covenant people know better than to disobey! And I believe Jacob likely spoke often with Joseph about these things, serving Joseph well spiritually, even at his young age. So when God brought about the divine appointment: being thrown into a well, then in prison for thirteen years for something he didn’t do, because a work needed to be done in him, Joseph was up to the test and the task. Suffering is meaningful, and for Joseph his time in the well and prison will become incredibly meaningful. God honored Joseph’s faith, trust and obedience in a mighty way, didn’t he? Again, almost makes one eager for his/her own test and task. (Now Don, you may need to remind me I said that when I’m in my own “well” or “prison!” And when it happens, I just pray I have the faith, trust and obedience of Joseph.. smile.