Lessons from a Hard Life: God Guides Joseph

It's January 1st, 2021. A new year has arrived. Christians finished celebrating Christmas a week ago. As I prepare for a new year, 2021 does not immediately appear as though it will be any easier than 2020, which was perhaps the most difficult year of my life.

For my wife, Megan, and I, in 2020 we faced her mother's death, my father's terminal cancer diagnosis, having to resign from a church we loved, a cross-country move, and a career change. One important truth that has helped us immensely through a difficult year is this: there is a big difference between right and easy. In fact, many times to live in the center of God's will is just a different kind of hard. For much of life, one must choose which hard to face. 

This truth is seen clearly in the life of Joseph, the man chosen by God to serve as the earthly father for Jesus. Four times Joseph is guided personally by God in dreams. Four times Joseph fulfills prophecy from God with his obedience. Four times of subjective guidance and four times of objective guidance come to Joseph. Here was a man who lived obedient to God's objective and subjective will. He followed God, even when the guidance was odd or difficult.

A Time for Reading, Trusting, Obeying, and Camping?

What trouble lurks behind the active thoughts in your mind? What worry jumps at you in your sleep and yells "Got you!"? For each of us, we could likely quickly call to mind two or three issues in our lives that snatch from us peace or a sense of settled purpose or contentment or all of the above. What do you do to combat the worries, the fears, the doubts, the difficulties that want first place in your life?

Some of us work harder, run farther, out-perform others, and turn to the promise of success in diligence. It is not wrong to work diligently. But, when Paul says, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men," (Colossians 3:23), that's not the same thing as saying, "If you work hard, your life will be complete, and you'll be happy because you will find the success and satisfaction you are looking for." No, there is a divide between God's version of success and American can-do-ism.

Long Live the King (a Grisly Story of Blood and Victory)

Real history or real experience never transpires in tidy pieces. Movies and stories follow a plot line, but often our experience feels like there is no plot, no progression, no resolution. As a Christian, I believe there is a plot because there is an Author writing His Story. But, that does not make me so naive or pompous as to think I know from day to day what the Author is doing and why. God is bringing His story to His desired ends, but that doesn't mean I can explain everything. Instead, I trust that He can explain what He is writing.

One odd place that I get comfort is in reading the chaotic accounts from long ago. The saga of Athaliah and Joash is one of those accounts. See 2 Chronicles 22-23 for the Bible's record of these events.

When Life Feels Rootless (Intro to 1 Chronicles)

Have you ever struggled with feeling rootless, unmoored, drifting, purposeless, or confused about where your life is going?