“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” -Genesis 50: 20 (NIV)
Max Lucado begins Chapter 1 of You’ll Get Through This: Hope and Help for Your Turbulent Times with three vignettes about life in the pits, one involving a fifty-seven-year-old friend who had just been fired from his job for making inappropriate, crude, and offensive remarks. He had brought his dismissal on himself. Sensing that his friend needed assurance, Max gave it:
“You’ll get through this. It won’t be painless, It won’t be quick. But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime don’t be foolish or naïve. But don’t despair either. With God’s help you will get through this.”
Max based that statement on the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, who definitely was an authority on life in the pits. The attack by his brothers caught Joseph off-guard, as did our ministry downsizing or vocation loss. Yet, as Pastor Lucado notes, Joseph came to understand that “in God’s hands intended evil becomes eventual good.”
When Joseph told his brothers they meant evil against him, he used a Hebrew verb meaning to “weave” or “plait”. In effect, Joseph was saying:
“You wove evil, but God rewove it for good.”
Today’s question: How has God rewoven your ministry downsizing or vocation loss for good? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Master Weaver, Master Builder”
