Rejoice Always

This week I did not feel like rejoicing. I am in the cranky part of the year (I am a very complicated lady, I most definitely have extended cranky stages) and was more content to sit and mope and dwell on all the sad things in my life.

Then I saw that this month’s bible study was on rejoicing. I’m not ashamed to say that my heart sunk and I spent some time dreading talking about this. What kind of hypocrite did that make me that I was supposed to talk about rejoicing when all I wanted to do was to complain and pout? And maybe yell a little too. You know, just get all angry and worked up. But then we started to get deeper into this study and it became increasingly apparent that this was the perfect time for this study.

So of course when you think of rejoicing, first off you think of something fantastic happening. You think of a new baby, a wedding, a promotion, something that is huge and life altering…or if not that, something that is really exciting. This was certainly the case for the 72 that were sent out by Jesus to proclaim the message of God. They were excited, perhaps even rejoicing over the fact that they had authority over the demons. And honestly, they had ever reason to be excited about that. Think of your life, think of the things that tempt you, especially those temptations that are dang near impossible to overcome. That thing that you confess to every week, that you want so badly to stop doing but you just aren’t able to. Now imagine having control over it. Imagine not being controlled by it. It’s a good feeling right? And it’s something that you should be excited about. The danger comes when that’s where the rejoicing ends. When we, or when the 72, are so focused on what we are doing right now that we forget about what we really should be rejoicing in…the promise of everlasting life. That is of course our main source of rejoicing.

And this is great news. I am excited about this, really I am, but it’s still not enough to bring me out of my “My life sucks; why should I rejoice?” funk. Even reading through some of the Pauline descriptions of pain and sorrow being a blessing really wasn’t doing it. All that did was make me feel like a terrible Christian because I have way fewer problems (99 problems and persecution ain’t one) and yet I dwell on them way more and put them right in the centre of absolutely everything.

And that, my friends, is when it hit me. I put my problems right in the centre of everything.

Take a minute and go and look at John 16:20-22

Go ahead, I can wait.

It’s even hyperlinked for your ease.

Hope you like the ESV.

You can change it if you like.

You could even pull out your own bible.

Anyways, hopefully by now you have read it.

I love it.

I don’t think I had ever given it too much attention previously. It was always one of those parts that seemed to be really aimed at the disciples. I am apparently not the brightest crayon in the box!

There is a crazy amount of comfort in that section. More than Paul’s intimidating dedication to Christianity is Jesus’ words of understanding. He begins by saying that he completely understands how the disciples will feel. He knows that they will feel sorrow and he knows that they will go through a cranky stage that no one will understand. While the whole rest of the world is rejoicing, they will be filled with sorrow. This isn’t just the message for the disciples, it’s the message for us too. When we’re struggling with feelings of sorrow, even though it feels wrong because the whole of everyone around us is happy and joyful, it’s ok. It’s a natural reaction, something that we’re all prone too.

As you have noticed, that isn’t where the passage ends. Jesus goes on to say that even though you feel sorrow now, it isn’t forever. Our sorrow will be turned to joy.

It’s a huge promise; the fact that not only will we have joy, but it will be a joy that is never taken away.

This is the part that we don’t think about when we’re in the midst of our sorrow. We don’t stop and wonder about the joy that is to come. Heck, we don’t even think about the things that bring us joy right now. When we’re in the middle of our sorrow, our grief, our cranky stage, that is all that there is.

Let’s create a hypothetical situation here. Let’s pretend that you have an old beater of a car. It is on it’s last legs. But you are a thrifty person and continue to drive it. The inevitable happens and your car dies. Since it is May in Saskatchewan it is pouring rain. Also your phone is dead. It happens to be on a busy street, where everyone can see you. Oh, and did I mention that you are now late for a very important meeting? What a day!

Now, let’s play thesaurus and describe your mood. Angry, grumpy, embarrassed, extremely cranky and disappointed with the way everything is turning out.

Now let’s play the antonym game. In this hypothetical situation you are thankful that it happened on a busy road where people could see you, happy that you could meet new people, excited for the opportunity to buy a new car and grateful to have a legitimate excuse to miss out on a boring meeting.

Those aren’t the first things that come to mind. In our sorrowful, frustrating, embarrassing situations it’s the negative factors to which we hold fast. We get so entangled in these terrible things that we fail to see how anything good could possibly come from this.

This is what I think of with the passage from John. Jesus realizes that we are human, we have human emotions and sorrow and sadness is part of that. We shouldn’t try and pretend those emotions don’t exist, because they do, they always will. The important part is that we don’t dwell on these emotions. We don’t make sorrow the be all and end all of our lives. We realize that there is more than sorrow. There is joy. We have a great deal for which we can rejoice, and for which we should rejoice. When we dwell on the negative we do ourselves a disservice because we neglect everything around us that is meant to bring us joy.

I will always have my cranky times. There will always be things that make me sad. You will be filled with sorrow at many times during your life. What we want to look at is what comes after the sorrow. We look for the joy that comes from God in all circumstances. We ask God for the strength to see beyond our sadness and to look instead at his amazing love and that is when we begin to rejoice.

What do we tolerate?

So to start things off I have a couple of hard hitting news items to share with you, both from highly acclaimed Christian bloggers.

First: The most controversial yellow shirt

Second: The most controversial political-Christian blurt[i]

Now having read both blogs I am sure that you have some very definite opinions rising up in you. Or potentially, you have none and really remain quite apathetic towards both situations.

Both of these have at their core one central argument: the argument between what we believe as Christians, and what society holds to be true.

For me personally I had two very different reactions to these two very different blogs. I appreciate the way in which they both deal with the issue at hand and are able to express their own opinions on these items. But there was one I agreed with and one that really made me question what the definition of a Christian was.

One of the sentiments expressed in Jones’ post was that of Obama’s acceptance of homosexual marriage[ii] as being a true representation of Christianity. I have to admit that I took a bit of offence (is that too strong a term?) to the comparison. Whether or not Obama said what he said out of political concerns or whether it was just something that he felt the need to express, I don’t know that I would qualify that as something that exemplifies what Christians are.

I think what Jones is getting at is the idea expressed in the message of the woman at the well and the woman caught in adultery where Jesus had the opportunity to yell at them for being damnable sinners and instead showed grace. It’s a nice message, right? Jesus totally overlooks everything that these women have done and sends them on their way. Well, not quite. Here’s where I get up on my soapbox. 

Jesus never once said that he condoned what they had done. He told the woman at the well all of the things she had done wrong. With the woman caught in adultery he told her to go on and refrain from sinning. Jesus told them they were sinners. Jesus tells us that we are sinners.

So fine, as Christians we recognize that we are sinners. What about our neighbor that is living with his girlfriend. What about our colleague who frequents the strip club every Tuesday for “hot wings”? What about our grandmother who “samples” a few grapes at the grocery store? What do we say to them?

As human beings, our natural response is to do nothing. These people are capable of their own thoughts, they can manage their own lives and whatever we do is going to upset them rather than cause anything good to happen. I mean, we read that first blog about the boy in Nova Scotia, we saw the way the people in that community reacted, and we saw the way in which everyone who read about it reacted to. The main sentiment was simply: you do your thing, I’ll do mine, and never shall the two meet.

Does that actually work for us? Not really. I don’t know how we can go forth and proclaim the word of God without actually going forth. How we can be the light in the world, when we are trying to hide it from everyone.

I have to admit that I am as guilty of this as the next person. I don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings, I don’t want them to dislike me because of something that I’ve said. I really don’t want them to call me out for something that I’ve done and then allow that to negate everything that I’ve just said.

What I do want is to have the conversation that I am not a good person. What I want to say is that I have many things of which I am ashamed, and even when I try to do good things, I always end up screwing it up and looking like a fool. What I really want to do is to be real and to be honest about the things that I’ve messed up and to have the opportunity to be honest with you about the same things. I don’t want to be tolerant because it hurts you and it hurts me.

---

[i] I realize it wasn’t a blurt at all, but a carefully selected statement. Blurt rhymed better with shirt

[ii] Yes marriage, not civil union

The shirts that get you kicked out of school.

Oh boy.  I wasn't sure that I wanted to talk about this, but I don't think I can avoid it anymore.  Yes, it's the conundrum, the issue of the boy who wore a particular shirt to school in Nova Scotia.  If you aren't familiar with the story, I'll give you a minute to catch up.

This is the shirt in question.  How do I feel about it? I feel like I would look terrible in yellow, so I wouldn't wear it.  I also feel as though this is one of those things that isn't about this thing, but is about other things.  Confusing?  Okay, then I'll begin.

Often times, when my wife and I have a bit of a squabble over who left the commode seat in which orientation (which we never do, but to use an example), it's not really about that.  It's about other issues that may or may not be creeping up in our lives.  It's the same thing here.  I know I should never do it, but I perused the CBC comments page.  And those comments helped me to see what the real issue was all about.  The hearts and minds of people are a bit bent out of shape not about the shirt per se, but about a couple of other issues.  They are as follows.
1 - Teaching religion to children is tantamount to child abuse, and
2 - You are free to believe whatever you want to believe, as long as you don't 'cram it down anyone else's throat.'

I will address these points in turn.

Firstly, that teaching religion to children equals child abuse.  No,  I am not overstating the case.  That is literally what is being typed by a large number of people.
"The dad sounds like a raving nut job. There's probably a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Children's Aid should look into the home life of this child. It's likely that in addition to the psychological torture at the hands of this raving nutter, there's probably been a lot of physical abuse. If the boy is rescued in time, he can be de-programmed and taught to function like a normal human being."


"Don't pray in our schools and I won't think in you're church."


"This is all very one sided on the father's part. It was ok for his son to push his views on other students but once the school invites someone over to talk to students, the father takes the kid out of school. Sounds like the father has brainwashed the kid and doesn't want him to hear any other points of view"


"Put this sadly messed up and confused kid into a school established by his church; there he will find fertile ground for his preaching among like-minded brethren. And, perhaps there people will not look upon the brainwashing that has obviously been visited upon him as the child abuse it almost surely is."


"Religion has no place in school. Parents, stop brainwashing your children with the fanatical behaviour. Having religion as a strong part of your daily lives is fine, but know the line and don't cross it."


"another brainwashed kid ...
too bad parents are using their kid's virgin brain to put some kind of endoctrinate them"

"It's time we started treating early childhood religious indoctrination as child abuse."

There are plenty more of these comments, and if you want to read them all, be my guest.  Now, this is a bit of a thorny topic for me, because it  gets to something a little bigger than what was this child wearing or saying.  It talks about what he was taught.  And this is a bigger issue.  The reason this is a bigger issue is that critics of religion theoretically have to stand for free speech, but how can you both stand for freedom of speech, and yet hope to quell the spread of a religion that you find distasteful?  Well, the tactic used currently (and again, I am not trying to assert that all non-religious people believe this, only the ones who openly claim it) is to equate the teaching of religion to children, even and especially your own, with mental abuse.

"critics such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins use the term child abuse to describe the harm that some religious upbringings inflict on children.^[61][62]They claim that children are especially vulnerable to mental harms related to religion, including:^{[citation needed]}

• Terrorized by threats of punishment, such as eternal damnation in a fiery hell
• Extreme guilt about normal, healthy sexual functions
• Trained to disrespect science and reason
• Indoctrinated into a particular religious faith, thus depriving the child of the opportunity to make their own free inquiry later, when they are mature"

                                                                                            -The ever accurate Wikipedia.

Aha.  The problem is not just that the child in question professes these beliefs, but that he has them in the first place. And where did he get them from?  From his parents.  His parents who, through a course of religious education, have mentally abused him to the level that he can no longer make sensible, tolerant decisions.  This makes schools into a battleground, one that is perhaps unlikely to be conquered any time soon.  The issue at question is an ideological one, one in which there are acceptable views, and unacceptable ones.  Which brings us to point number two.

You are free to believe whatever you want, as long as you don't cram it down anyone's throat.

"This sounds like more than a T-shirt. Unfortunately, the issue was tied to the T-shirt. Are kids at this school allowed to wear shirts professing their love for AC/DC? Mickey Mouse? The hockey team of their choice? If so, he should be able to wear one professing his love for Jesus. However, if he's thumping his religion, the kids have a right to freedom from harassment in the school. He can wear the shirt, but shut up about it. I'm a Christian, but for the society to function in peace, there needs to be room for everyone and there is a place and a time for everything."

"I am not religious but I have no problem with others having beliefs and wearing symbols of their belief (e.g, cross, star of David, turban, hijab, etc,). I do have a big problem with those who try to force their beliefs on others. There is a place for religion, but public school is not one of those places unless it is for discussion about comparative religions."

"If someone wants to believe in an imaginary being having final say in the value of their existence, that is entirely their own choice.

But when that person preaches and threatens others based on those beliefs its no longer a 'personal' belief and is infringing on other people's rights.

Please keep religion at home or at church where it belongs."

"If this family does not wish to participate in a secular society this is their right. Just keep your religion at home, do not inflict it on students at public school who do not share your beliefs or attend a private Christian school."

"To this extent, all religion must be kept out of public schools. True tolerance is NOT pushing ones religious beliefs on other, NOT accepting the religious beliefs of those who chose to have them. I view religion as a mental illness but I keep that to myself until somebody chooses to approach me and start spewing off about an old man in the sky. Pure insanity."

"I believe wholeheartedly in the personal freedoms that we enjoy in Canada. This kid and his father are both free to believe whatever they want and are free to worship how they want, but these freedoms are not limitless. 

When someone else's religious beliefs infringe on my freedom to be non-religious, it upsets me. 

Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion."

"Freedom of religion doesn't mean freedom to put down others' religious beliefs. This form of Christianity where anyone who doesn't believe exactly what you do is damned and needs to be converted is a bigger threat to true religious freedom than any atheists or agnostics will ever be."

"Keep religion out of schools please. And your pushy t shirts.

Children need to learn free of religious controversy."

Again, there are many more besides. The issue of 'shoving religion down people's throats' is one that I've been interested in for a while.  You see, in this case, it was a student, not a teacher, who was sharing what he believed.  And I have no idea what format it took, because I wasn't there.  I don't go to that school.  But I do get the idea these days that any mention of religion equates it to 'pushing it down someone's throat.'  That shirt, those words, however mild they may have been, probably amount in the minds of individuals to cramming it down their throats.  Freedom of religion includes freedom from religion, and there's a time and place for you to talk about God, and it's at home or at church.  Where most everyone agrees with you anyway.

I'll be the first to admit it, that when I saw Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes, I thought he was pushing his atheism.  And he probably was.  When I saw the holy atheist open for Norm MacDonald at the Casino Regina, I thought he was pushing his atheism on me too.  And he was.  Because these individuals have worked out that if you think you've backed the right pony, and you think your view is the best way to happiness, delight, salvation, or whatever, and if you're convinced of that, then you want to tell people about it.  Norm MacDonald said some quite pro-Christian things during his show too, and I felt fine about them, though I'm sure there were many who were thinking "Norm, keep your Christianity out of the jokes, please.  Quit forcing your religion down my throat."

We like to hear what we agree with.  We dislike to hear what we disagree with.  I'm no different.  I wish I was, I wish I was very zen about this, but I'm not.  When I hear someone speak openly and passionately about stuff I disagree with, I get a little bit antsy.  But that's my problem, not theirs.  The 'disagree with what you say but defend your right to say it' thing actually only works with speech that you find to be offensive, that you disagree with, that you dislike.  As long as everything's legal, you may not care for his witnessing, but is it forbidden for him to do so?  The big question is why should the shirt be removed, and why should the student be suspended.  For bothering everyone?  Or is it the viewpoint itself that should not be expressed anywhere but inside a closed room under a blanket somewhere.  I do want to reiterate that I have no idea what format the 'preaching' took, but I know how uncomfortable I've been when people have preached to me.  And I've simply been able to tell them that I'm comfortable in what I believe, and thank them for their time.  I may not care for said preaching, religious or otherwise, but that's the cost of living in a world of free ideas, in which you can say what you please.  People may, and almost certainly will disagree with you, but speech isn't free as long as it's hidden or confined.

PJ.

Who do you say He is?

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that people find Jesus to be confusing. There is no straightforward answer when it comes to trying to describe who Jesus is. The ultimate answer comes from Peter in Matthew 16:13-16 where he answers by saying “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”

For some reason that doesn’t seem to be enough. We need more answers. We need to know exactly who he is, who he was, and who he will be. We need to know what the ratio of God to man actually is and we need to be able to prove all of this too.

As I’m sure you know, this is not a new issue. As we saw with Peter’s proclamation the question of who Jesus is has been on people’s minds ever since he first came to earth.

As is human nature people were and still are determined to logically explain who Jesus was/is and what role he played in the grand scheme of things. Now, speaking as someone who got their Bachelor of Arts degree and shied away from all classes that involved the word logic (ask me about my brief foray with a philosophy class…ohhhhh boy!) logical explanation very rarely seems very logical.

Looking back at some of the logical explanations that were provided for Jesus life here on earth, I can’t say that they really change my mind.

Now here is logic. You and I sin. We do the things that we don’t want to do. The root cause of our misdeeds…our sinful body. All the inside bits are all awesome and devoted to God. If only these dagblasted arms would stop stabbing people, these lips would stop bearing false witness and these eyes would stop lusting after people. The only way to stop sinning is in that day when our sinful body is removed from us, buried in the ground and our soul is united with God. Now what about Jesus? If he came to earth and lived as a man, how could he be perfect? The only solution to that would be to say that he obviously did not have a real body; it only looked like he did. God couldn’t abide in something as sinful as flesh and bones.

Or a different form of logic deals with the persona of God. The God we see in the Old Testament is a God of vengeance, a God of law, of fire and brimstone. The God we see in the New Testament sent his one and only son to die at the hands of those he came to save. The God of the New Testament talks about love, gives good gifts and is a God of mercy. These two Gods are so different that there is no way we could possibly believe that they are both the same being. With the drastic difference between the two, there must be two different godheads who are involved here.

How do we reconcile an ever changing logic with the steadfast word of God?

The truth is that we don’t. What we do is have faith.

We have faith in the words of scripture that tell us that Jesus was both true God and true man (Hebrews 2:14-18) that he needed to be man in order to be subject to the pain of sin to which we are subject but also needed to be God in order to conquer it.

We have faith that there is only one God (Ephesians 4:4-6). We realize that just as we react differently dependent on the circumstance, God also does the same. God judges us harshly when we are left to our own devices, knowing that there is no way that we can live up to the demanding measures that are required for salvation. In the light of Christ’s sacrifice we are made to live up to these demands. We are still judged harshly, but are successful because of what Christ has done. God’s judgment doesn’t change, it’s Christ’s sacrifice that changes us.

But in the end it isn’t about a successful argument. It isn’t about facts, nor is it even necessarily about the memorization of scripture. What it boils down to is faith. There will always be an argument that will tempt you to doubt what you have always believed. This isn’t a new thing, nor is it something that will soon disappear. What we do is believe that God has provided for us, that he created us and has given us the most amazing gift in the form of his son. We say together with Peter that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Messiah, the anointed one, the one who has come to be our salvation. 

Dreamer, nothing but a dreamer. Part 2

Last week we started looking at Joseph. If you’re anything like me you went back and looked again and again.

It’s a nice visual, that’s all I’m saying.

By the end of the post last week I was feeling just awful for poor Joseph. He had been thrown in a pit by his brothers, hit on by some married old lady, thrown in jail for standing up for what he believed in and had been separated from his family for years. That poor kid! It’s a rough life, even if you are ridiculously good looking.

This week as we continue on with the story of Joseph, things become a bit clearer. It suddenly makes sense why he had to go through so much to get to a place where he could be used by God.

We were starting to see little clues of the way that God was going to be using Joseph for his ministry. The fact that he went on this crazy rollercoaster ride of responsibility was one of the major ways we saw God’s influence; there was no way that on his own Joseph could continually rise higher and higher after falling so low every time. In Genesis 41 it becomes glaringly obvious that this was all part of God’s plan to call Joseph into his service.

We don’t see the glaring white light like Paul (Saul) saw on the road to Damascus; Joseph doesn’t have his lips purified by seraphs like Isaiah; there isn’t even any “and the word of the Lord came upon him.” Joseph and God never have this tête-à-tête where they discuss what path Joseph’s ministry is going to take. Instead, Joseph’s call just happens as an inevitable result of the circumstances of his life. As I stated eearlier, by the end of last week I was feeling bad for poor Joseph. This week, however, it made sense.

Let’s pretend for a moment that Joseph’s brothers had not sold him to the Ishmaelites. This would mean that Joseph would never have made it to Egypt and definitely wouldn’t have made his way to be right-hand man to the Pharaoh. If he hadn’t been thrown in jail he wouldn’t have been made known to the Pharaoh. Even his time serving in a position of authority for both Potiphar and in the jail made him and ideal candidate to, in essence, rule alongside the Pharaoh.

One of the greatest lines comes up in Genesis 41:15-16, where Pharaoh is all like “Mmmm, hey there, can you interpret my dream?” And then Joseph is all like, “Actually, I can’t do that, yep, I have no interpreting ability at all!” I can only imagine the atmosphere all around with him saying that. The cupbearer is fearing for his life, he was the one who made the recommendation. The bystanders are wondering why he wouldn’t just make something up! The Pharaoh is steamed because nobody, that’s right, NOBODY, says no to Pharaoh!!! And following that split second of tension, Joseph follows up by saying “But I’m sure God can give you the answer you’re looking for.”

And this becomes Joseph’s standard response. He avoids taking credit for the things that are done because he realizes that all of this is coming from God. When he tells Pharaoh to appoint a wise and discerning man to essentially rule over the land, he never suggests himself as that man. Instead Pharaoh sees Joseph’s wisdom through the faith that he has in God. Joseph does not seek out Pharaoh to show how astute he is. He never says more than he needs to in order to seem wiser. Instead, he says what needs to be said and gives all credit to God. This is in essence his call; to believe in God and to give God the credit for these amazing acts of faith.

Too bad we’re not called to do the same.

Joseph and the technicolor dream-call

What better way to start your day off than with a little bit of Donny Osmond? Isn’t he handsome in form and appearance?

And for your listening pleasures (this is dedicated to my sister, it’s her birthday today)

I hope you realize that I’m not just getting my kicks from a young Donny Osmond, but that we’re looking at the story of Joseph.

Joseph seems to suffer from a condition that I have diagnosed as YSS- Younger Sibling Syndrome. He is your typical younger sibling, you know, needing attention all the time and getting all the best stuff and being loved most by his dad, ermm, not that I’m an older sibling who is bitter or anything!

But let’s be honest here, in Genesis 37 Joseph comes off as a bit of a brat. He’s tattling on his brothers, trying to make himself seem more important than them (Hey look guys, I had this dream where I was greater than you and you all bowed down to me, isn’t that weird? Heh, I guess dreams mimic real life don’t they?). I mean surely he knew that his brothers were not very fond of him, why poke the bear?

I suppose the short and easy answer is because that’s what was supposed to happen.

When I have a dream (not the Martin Luther King Jr. variety) and I actually remember it in the morning, I’m pretty quick to share it with everyone who I think might be interested. Now usually it elicits nothing more than a “what did you eat before you went to bed???” but every once in a while someone might try and interpret it, to see what is going on in my life that might have produced such a weird dream.

Joseph’s dream was meant to be interpreted. Whether he knew it or not as he was sharing it with his family, it had significant meaning and was the beginning of his call from God.

Unfortunately, even though these dreams were signaling the beginning of his call, it wasn’t necessarily a happy beginning. These dreams had him hated even more fiercely by his brothers to the point where murder was a very real possibility. But luckily all they did was steal his coat, dump him in a cistern, sell him into slavery and then tell his dad that he was murdered and his body eaten so that said father wouldn’t go looking for him.

Oh boy is it fun to receive a call from God!

And really this is where we get stuck too, right? There’s all this crap that comes at us, usually all at the same time, and it gets us down. We get depressed and are sure that God has completely forgotten that we exist. There’s no way he would let all of this horrible stuff happen to us if he knew what was actually going on. Or maybe if I just stop what I’m doing, this horrible stuff will stop too. I mean, if God wanted me to follow him he would have made it easier.

Luckily, Joseph doesn’t follow this same thought process. Even though this all happens he keeps going and as it says several times throughout Genesis 39 the Lord was with him. It was something that even those who didn’t believe in God noticed about him. It was this faith in God, the way that God worked in his life that caused him to rise up higher again. He had it even better than before: he was in charge, had lots of respect and authority; what a great life!

Of course you know the story as well as I do and you know that it wasn’t meant to be. The respect and authority didn’t last for too long. Potiphar’s wife had other plans for Joseph, plans that my innocent little mind can’t even begin to comprehend. And as soon as he had begun to climb up that ladder again, he was punished for something else that he didn’t do.

His father spoils him; his brothers sell him into slavery. Potiphar gives him a big promotion; Potiphar’s wife is upset with Joseph’s morals and has him sent to jail. As soon as he makes progress he’s sent down even further than he was before. With all of this yo-yoing up and down, you’d think that Joseph would lose faith, give into the temptations that are surrounding him and really stop trying to please God.

Obviously, Joseph isn’t us. God had big plans for him and even when he was at his lowest; God used him to do good. His call wasn’t limited to one event, it wasn’t even really vocalized. By the end of chapter 39 we’ve only started to get a bit of background on how God is preparing Joseph to really carry out his call. There’s still a few more ups and downs before Joseph gets to the point where God wants him to be.

Yep, this far in and it’s only just beginning. As Beyonce would say “I don’t think you can handle this.”

Stayed tuned next week for part 2 of Joseph and his unusual call from God!

Be Strong and Courageous

Easier said than done, right?

The narrative about Joshua and his call to ministry is a little different than what we are used to seeing. Typically in the people that we’ve looked at so far there has been a very clear circumstance in which the word of God came upon them in some form or another. With Moses we see a burning bush; with Mary there is an angel sent to proclaim her impending role as mother of God; with Isaiah there were seraphim with burning coals; with Joshua, he isn’t even consulted until the matter has been decided. Yep, I would say that would take a heck of a lot of strength and courage to live out a call that someone accepted on your behalf.

One of the things that I like best about my job is that I have a lot of flexibility with the way in which I do things. There are certain things that I have to do, but I get to make a lot of decisions about when and how they get done, and I like that. I like the feeling that I am in charge and can choose a lot of what I do. I think this is the part that throws me for a loop with Joshua is that he really didn’t have any choice.

Numbers 27 outlines the call of Joshua. Now, what you may find weird is the fact that Joshua is not involved in the process at all. The section that you read is essentially a conversation between God and Moses where Moses expresses his concern and God gives Joshua as a solution. In my humble opinion, if I were called to be the leader of the Israelite people and expected to lead them in the fulfillment of God’s promise, I’d kinda like to be involved in the decision process.

It’s ok though because later on in Deuteronomy Moses took Joshua to tell him all about what he and God had decided. Oh right, he told him in front of all the people of Israel. It’s really easy to decline or dispute this appointment with all of these people who are now expectantly waiting for you to lead them. Again, this is a situation in which I, myself, would be pretty dang ticked; but I guess that’s why I wasn’t chosen to be in this situation.

Joshua really seems to take it all in stride, rather than feeling angry about the fact that he wasn’t consulted in the huge turn that his life was now taking, he understood it as the will of God and recognized the importance of God choosing him for that task. And let’s be honest here, that takes an awful lot of strength and courage. But really this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what he will face in the days to come.

Joshua’s ministry is not easy. He is called to fill some very big shoes…errr…sandals. Following after such an influential and well-known leader as Moses would not be easy for anyone to endeavor to take on. Although we look at it now and see the difficulty that was inherent in this calling, the one thing that we need to focus on is the promise that God makes in saying “Be strong and courageous.”

It doesn’t really seem like much of a promise, does it? You’re all probably thinking that with the coming of the end of the week I’ve lost my head a little and forgotten the proper grammatical term here; you’re drifting over to the comments section and your fingers are longing to type out, “It’s a command!” “That’s the imperative, you dummy!” “Bleearggghh! I’m angry!”

It does seem an awful lot like an instruction; as though God is commanding Joshua to take on this task of remaining strong and filled with courage no matter what the circumstance may be. The promise comes into play in Joshua 1 where God promises that just as he was with Moses, he will also be with Joshua. The reason that Joshua can remain strong and confident is not because he is superhuman and can deflect any troubles that threaten him but rather because God has promised to be with him. God gives him the strength and courage that he needs in order to take on this massive mission.

This calling of Joshua reminds us of one of the greatest failings that we find in our own lives: our dependence upon ourselves. We want so badly to prove to those around us that we are good enough to undertake anything thrown our way that we forget about God’s promise to be with us as well. We look inwardly for that strength and courage that God has told us comes from Him. We try so hard to do it on our own that we are shocked when we fail; shocked when it’s so difficult; shocked when it has drained us of all energy and all confidence.

When we look at the call of Joshua and the call to be strong and courageous, what we are really looking at is the call to believe in God. We are called to believe that God is there to give us the strength that we need in order to overcome the difficult situations in our lives. Joshua was never promised a life of comfort and ease. From the beginning he was told that he would encounter several difficult situations, whether from the people that he was leading or the very task of fulfilling God’s promise to his people. The difference is that he was never told that he had to do it on his own. As ludicrous as God’s plans seemed and as impossible as the Israelite people acted, Joshua was able to remain strong and courageous because of God’s promise that He was (and still is) always there.