Living on Mission with Joseph When Life is Unfair

Living on Mission with Joseph When Life is Unfair

Talk about unfair. First Joseph is hated by his brothers to the point that they consider killing him. Luckily, they decide instead to just sell him as a slave. Then, Joseph works really hard for Potiphar and finds himself trusted with running his entire household. But, Potiphar's wife finds him irresistible and gets mad when she can't have him... so she falsely accuses him and he lands in prison. Then he works really hard in prison and finds himself running the place. He helps some powerful folks figure out their scary dreams but is forgotten and left to rot in prison.

There seems to be a pattern here. Maybe not the pattern we think.

Yes, life is unfair. Every one of us encounters things that are really unfair - sometimes extraordinarily so. We live in a fallen world and that is just the way life is for us all. It stinks!!

The pattern that we can see in the life of Joseph goes beyond the unfair. It's his faithful service to others and his faithfulness to honor God in every situation that really stand out.

How easy would it have been for Joseph to sit in the corner and have himself a pity party and a good long pout? How easy would it have been to shake his fist at God and say "where are you?!?!"  He could have considered his life cursed and just given up.

He didn't go that route. He chose faithfulness instead. He didn't know the whole story ahead of time. He chose to be faithful and trust God in the hardest of times.

Living on mission isn't an easy road. We will encounter many kinds of injustice, pain  and sorrow in our own lives and I'm the lives of others. It's unfair. But, let's not throw our hands up and quit when life is unbearably hard. Let's choose to remain faithful and continue to serve others and to honor God. Let's choose a better perspective. "Maybe you haven't been cursed with this. Maybe you've been entrusted with it." (Lysa TerKeurst)

Let's practice living on mission and remain faithful when life is unfair.

Pastor Angela