Soul Kitchen

This week, I have been thinking about Joseph. The one whose brothers tossed him in an empty cistern, was sold into slavery and ended up saving a couple of nations.

He came to mind as I was anticipating training for a supervisory position in my new job. As I may have already mentioned in a previous post, my job is in a whole new arena for me, a whole new industry which requires for me a new way of thinking, at least as it pertains to the requirements of my position. I have to think of things I never had to think of before, look at things from an unfamiliar perspective, do things according to another list of priorities. I can't rely on past experience in this field to help me.

That's where Joseph comes in. When he was purchased by Potiphar as a slave, what experience did he have running the affairs of the household of an Egyptian officer of the government? He was in a whole new country, a whole new culture, a whole new way of life. He went from being a spoiled shepherd boy to an overseer in charge of all that his master had, in house and field, so that all Potiphar had to concern himself with was the food he ate. (Wouldn't we all like to have a Joseph?)

Talk about a new way of thinking! Joseph had to concern himself with things he never knew anything about before. If you stop to think about it, it would have been ridiculous for anyone to think that a Hebrew slave would be anything but someone to order around, much less the guy who did all the ordering. But,

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. Genesis 39:2-3

God had a plan from the beginning. The Lord was with Joseph all along. It was not a mistake or an unfortunate turn of events that put him in Egypt. He was there for a purpose.

It is no different for me. It is no different for you. God has had a plan for us from the beginning. It is not a mistake or an unfortunate turn of events that have put us where we are (Or on the flip side - it's not our own great choices and talents that have landed us in an agreeable or prominent position in life.)

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for wholeness, and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:16

When God led Joseph into a whole new way of doing life, he taught him a whole new way of thinking in order to be successful in it so that his purpose would be accomplished. If he did it for Joseph, he will do it for me. It doesn't make sense that he wouldn't, because he has said,

For (I am) we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that (I) we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10