Lent #6: A Story about Bullying...with a happy ending!




Today is a spectacularly beautiful day in Dallas...the temperature is perfect, and the sky is clear blue. When I began reading today's Psalms, I was excited because Psalm 19 speaks of how the creation declares the glory of God...and it does!




When I came to the Old Testament reading from Genesis, I was overwhelmed once again, with the amazing story of Joseph. What an incredible person he was...this teenager who was thrown into a pit by his brothers, and then sold into slavery...




I've been reading several articles about bullying, due to the shooting that took place in an Ohio high school earlier this week. The articles remind me that people who are bullied most often become bullies. We've seen this over and again in high school shootings and bomb plots. On a smaller scale, I think we miss the fact that bullying happens to kids everyday, and it even happens to adults in the workplace.




If Joseph wasn't bullied by his older brothers, I don't know what we could call it...and yet, Joseph's story is an example of how good can come out of evil. Genesis 39 talks about the man who came to own Joseph as his slavemaster...Potiphar. Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his entire household...he trusted Joseph with the care of everything he owned. The scripture says that Potiphar trusted Joseph so completely, he didn't concern himself with anything...other than what he was going to eat each day.




Joseph's story speaks to the power of faithfulness, regardless of our circumstances...and his story speaks to the power of being trustworthy. It's breathtaking when you stop to think about it. Joseph could have become the stereotypical adolescent, wearing a black trenchcoat and shooting classmates in the school cafeteria. But instead, Joseph became a man that you could trust with your life. He inspires me tremendously.




Here are my "lessons" from Joseph...practical ways that we can emulate his amazing example:




No matter what has happened to you, how you've been treated, how others may have betrayed your trust...trust God and let it go. Refuse to harbor bitterness and anger. Before you can become trustworthy, you must trust. The scriptures do not give us an inside view of Joseph's thought-life, but somehow we know that Joseph was able to trust God, even when his brothers betrayed and sold him into slavery.




Become trustworthy. You never know what God may have in store for you, so look forward, cultivate faithfulness in your character, trust God with both your past and your future...and become a person that others can trust completely.




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