January 19 - Quoting Juno? Really

Genesis 39:1-41:16

Matthew 12:46-13:23

Psalm 17:1-15

Proverbs 3:33-35

Yes, really.  It may seem a bit strange, but the quote occurred to me as suitable reassurance for Joseph when he found himself in jail.  Juno is a high school student who has gotten pregnant; she's just told her father and her step mother, and her father is taking it badly.  Her step mother's words of wisdom: "Someone is going to find a precious blessing from Jesus in this garbage dump of a situation."  Now those of you who know me know I tend to memorize movie lines, but this one has always stood out for various reasons.  I think of the worry, the hurt, the fear that father must have been feeling, and I realize why. First, his first wife leaves him with a young daughter, then he was doing the best he could to provide for his family, and this happens.

That was probably not very different from what Joseph was feeling.  First, his brothers throw him down a cistern and threaten to kill him, then they sell him into slavery.  He's trying to do the best he can - and doing a good job, by all accounts - then this happens!  He does the right thing, refusing to sleep with the boss's wife, and he gets thrown in jail. He does the right thing, interpreting the prisoners' dreams, and the one he helps, the one who lives, forgets to speak to Pharaoh on his behalf.  The striking thing about Joseph through all of this is, he never seems to lose his relationship with God.  Indeed, he continues to do what is right, and when he is finally sprung from the big house, and stands before Pharaoh, he denies he can do what Pharaoh asks...and instead says God can.  

Today's psalm is just so appropriate to Joseph's situation.  David cries out to God for vindication, as someone who has planned no evil, whose mouth has not transgressed; who has kept himself from the ways of the violent though people have tried to bribe him.  Joseph must have called on God, and God turned His ear to hear Joseph's prayer.  And yes, Joseph was vindicated.  Joseph was the seed that fell on good soil, and the fruit he bore saved the people of Egypt when the famine came.  And I have to wonder how many people since then have looked at him and his example, and been inspired to do the same.  

Something to try today:

1.  Think about a difficulty you face - the harder, the longer it has lasted, the better

2.  Pray today's psalm

3.  This is the hard part - choose to trust, and pray for the strength to trust, that God is going to use your garbage dump of a situation, the way He did Joseph's

4.  And as difficult as it may be to believe, know that, by doing so, you are becoming the seed in good soil...and you will yield a harvest of a hundred, sixty or thirty times the difficulty that has been sown in you