What Do You Do When Your Dream Takes a Detour?

God planned an incredible work in and through Joseph, and communicated that plan to him at an early age. Lacking the maturity to handle the vision of such a glorious dream, Joseph shared it with anyone and everyone who would listen…and even a few who didn’t want to listen?

His brothers didn’t take too kindly to hearing Joseph boast of God’s plan to exalt him over his brothers and to make Joseph a ruler over even his own family. They took matters into their own hands, at first plotting to kill him, but eventually satisfied to sell him off as a common slave to a caravan headed for Egypt. They thought distance would derail Joseph’s dream, and it almost did.

Joseph began at his father’s house, the favored child of his father, and a future brimming with promise. He eventually ascended to second in command to the most powerful ruler of his time – the Egyptian Pharaoh. The road from daddy’s house to Pharaoh’s palace took some disappointing and odd twists and turns, but he eventually wound up in exactly the same position God had promised him.

Joseph probably never would have chosen to leave his father’s house. He would have been pleased to inherit Jacob’s extensive holdings and to take over for his father – one of the wealthiest men of his time. God’s plan for Joseph however was not to preside over a family business but to administer the most powerful empire of his time.

Consider this, however. Joseph could not have made it to Pharaoh’s palace without a pit, Potiphar’s house, and prison. God led Joseph through some really dark times before fulfilling His promise.

Things did not end at my previous church the way I would have chosen, but God necessarily allowed it to happen to prepare me for what is next. Without my present circumstances, I may not be as open to whatever God may choose to do with me next.

As for you, do not be quick to despise unexpected and unwelcome circumstances in your life. God may have you in your pit or your prison to prepare you for His version of your Pharaoh’s palace. Let God reveal Himself to you in your present circumstances. Let God prepare you for what He has in store next. Know that the “various trials” James writes about make us complete and ready for what God already has planned for us.

Then? There? Them? – A Lesson in Christmas Abnormalties

Why then? The timing seemed odd, after all, since Augustus ruled most of the known world with an iron fist. Why did Mary and Joseph have to travel when she was pregnant? Couldn’t this have waited a few months?

Why there? Bethlehem…seriously? A Podunk town that no one outside of the “house and lineage” of David even knew existed. Wouldn’t a metropolitan area, a crossroads of culture like Jerusalem have been a much more appropriate and effective setting? And a manger? The King of Kings was coming to earth not in a palace but in a slobbery feed trough?

Why them? Joseph? He was a mere blue-collar, calloused carpenter. Why would God choose to use him in such a plan? And Mary? Such a young girl that no one would notice her, or even believe her story. Shepherds? The lowest of the low. Foul-mouthed. Dirty. Smelly. Ostracized. In many cases, criminal. They were the first to hear the good news?

If there is one truth demonstrated in the Christmas story, it is the sovereignty of God. He knew what He was doing, through whom He was doing, and where it was all taking place. In fact, in Galatians 4:4 Paul refers to God’s timing in bringing Jesus into the world as “the fullness of time.” When the chronology was just right, when earth’s clock hit the exactly perfect beat, with impeccable timing God acted with a perfect when, where, and whom.

Augustus thought he was in charged when he called for the tax registration, but God was using him to bring Mary and Joseph to the little town the prophet had indicated years before would bring forth the Messiah. Bethlehem was the perfect setting, a town too small to handle the large crowd who would come so that the Jesus would lay in a manger, making Him easily identifiable to short-witted shepherds who may not have found Him otherwise. Speaking of shepherds, can you think of a group who needed more to hear a message of hope than they? They were the perfect testimony to the redeeming work God was doing through His Son.

Yes, God was sovereignly at work in the when, where, and whom that first Christmas night. The Christmas story also reminds me that God is sovereignly at work in the whens, wheres, and whoms, of my life. I do not experience accidental circumstances, blind luck, or strange coincidences.

My life is part of a bigger story. God is working His plan for His creation. This is all HIS stage, I am just a small part and He will accomplish what He has begun in me. Friend, if things aren’t going the way you think they should in your life, remember that our all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful God will never fail in His purposes. In the fullness of time for you, He will come through and make His glory known. Celebrate the Sovereign Lord this Christmas season.

Joseph Did You Know?

We can only speculate precisely what was going through Joseph’s mind when he heard the news that his fiancé Mary was pregnant.

      • How could this happen?
      • What will people say?
      • What should I do?
      • I love her so much, why did she do this?

He came to a very compassionate decision .

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:19

He wanted to do both the right and compassionate thing, so he decided to absolve the engagement, but to attempt to do so in a way that would cause her the least amount of embarrassment and shame.  He had every right to divorce her publicly, thereby exonerating himself at the expense of her reputation, but he CHOSE not to exercise that right and to handle the matter quietly and discreetly.

We know the rest of the story.  Gabriel appeared to him and explained God’s plan to him.  I am sure even that message was hard to grasp, but it gave him a glimmer of hope and rewarded his willingness to exercise meekness and compassion.

His compassionate treatment of Mary leads me to a further thought, however.  What would have become of Mary in today’s church culture?  Would anyone have believed her story?  I must admit that I would probably find it incredible and would assume she had fabricated the entire tale.

Let’s admit it though, we are quick to judge others aren’t we?  We assume that we KNOW why they are in their circumstances and why they act in what SEEMS to us an unacceptable manner.  But… we DON’T KNOW.

I think one of the most profound lessons I have learned in my life is that we never know what load another person may be carrying.  We may think we know what is going on in their lives, but we don’t.  We don’t know what they are thinking, feeling, or experiencing.  We just don’t.  And we are arrogant to believe that we can stand judgment on them without knowing the facts…KNOWING not HEARING…the FACTS not the GOSSIP.

So this Christmas, let me challenge you as I challenge myself to try and be more compassionate and merciful toward others.  If we KNOW of sin in their lives, then we should address it WITH THEM.  If we truly do not KNOW then we should cut them some slack.

Imagine what Joseph would’ve missed had he given up on Mary.  WOW!  Only heaven knows what we miss when we give up on others too soon.