So at church this week, I preached about Joseph. What a great character in Scripture. There are so many layers to his story and places we can learn and grow and expand our understanding of and love for God.
One of my thoughts about Joseph is that I often marvel about how long it took God to fulfill the dreams that He had given to Joseph. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 years, give or take. In the sermon I made mention that we often quit on God's promises long before then and that we need to hang in there in order to see God fulfill His promise for us. This is great hope for me. And I often re-visit this thought as life brings various struggles to bear.
However, that is not what this post is about. After church, my oldest daughter and I were musing about the sermon and I asked her what she thought about it (checking to see if she was listening). She asked me a question that has continued to linger in my head since yesterday afternoon. I have to write about it. Maybe you can help me think this through. I am not sure if she realized the profound and expansive impact of this question, but it is haunting me...
She asked, "Why does God give people dreams so far in advance of fulfilling them?" Sounds like a simple enough question, but let's think about it for a minute. That is a GREAT question!
How many people have found themselves chasing a dream that they believe God has put in their hearts only to have someone or some event stamp out the fire of passion that chasing that dream brought? I have heard that story from many followers of Jesus over the years. The receiving of the dreams that God has for us is not nearly as hard as the waiting for their fulfillment - and the relational cost along the way.
And it was no different for Joseph either. Think about the 30 years between the dreams and their fulfillment. What were they like? He was rejected. He was a slave. He was a prisoner. He lived in a dungeon. And perhaps worst of all, he was forgotten. This once "golden child" with the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bowing before him spent the next 30 years rejected and in life's worst living conditions. This was a shame for a man who found himself truly a victim of circumstance.
Which leads me to perhaps one thought on why God gives dreams so far in advance... Perhaps one reason might be that the path that Joseph was going to have to walk down in order for his brothers to bow down to him was going to be so hard and odd and hurtful, that Joseph needed those dreams to keep him focused on being willing to walk the necessary journey to get there. Perhaps, the resolve to keep fighting through hard circumstances: whether that is rejection, bad living conditions, being lied about, being misused and abused (Joseph experienced all of that) - perhaps that resolve is connected to the hope that the dream brings.
What dreams has God given you that life has taken away from you? Is it time to strengthen the resolve to fight through? May the hope of God's best plans for you well up in you with great resolve and persistence. And May you find in those dreams a fulfillment that only God provides.
Thanks Cartier, for always inviting me to deeper thoughts about God, and myself. You are awesome!
I wonder if it is like my 7yr old. We often plan surprises, and on occasion, he acts out or whatever, and his discipline is that he is not allowed to participate. He will cry, and complain "But I didn't know what the surprise was" implying that he would have behaved if he had. I can rationalize that it is God telling us what the surprise is, so we can't say that we would have behaved if ONLY we had known....
ReplyDeleteRich L.
this is about your message on Joshua. it is interesting to look at the conquest of Jerico from the point of view of the people in Jerico. here you have an invading army coming to "conquer' you and all they do is walk around your city. tyo say you are puzzled would be an understatement. after a couple days of this you are wondering if this isn't the bore war. you then start making commentsd the army outside can such as ' is that all you got" what are you going to bore us to death etc. well they were suprized but imagine the moral of the tropps putside hearing these comments. Talk about a lot of faith to trust a leader who is obviously not going with conventional methods of warfare. this is such a good message for today for us who are out trrying to live out our Christain values in a culture that is all about me and what is in it for me that we are going against the tide most of the time. thank you for the reminder that God's ways are not alwaysd ours. Thank you !!!!!
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