Employment update:   Oh wait…. there is nothing to share! Still no job offers.

 

We have been working through the book of Genesis on Sunday mornings for some time now – and yesterday, we spent time in Chapter 40.  Jo-Jo-Jo-Joseph (you know the guy from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat?) is in prison because Potiphar’s wife set him up by pretending that he had raped her.  So her husband sent Joseph to prison – I mean what else could he do, call his wife a liar?  There he met a cupbearer and a baker, whose dreams he interpreted.He asked the cupbearer that when he got out of prison he would remember him to the King so that he might be released from prison.

Both interpretations came true – and only the cupbearer lived. And Joey stayed in prison. For something he didn’t do. And the cupbearer got to go back to work for Pharaoh, and here is the saddest part…. forgot about Joseph…..Chapter 41 tells us he forgot about him for TWO YEARS.

Two years??? For real??? Nice cupbearer….

Man, I don’t have it in me to wait two years… but good ole Joseph did.  He just went along until one day Pharaoh had a dream that needed to be interpreted, and lo and behold – Mr. Cupbearer, wanting to look good in his master’s eyes I am sure, suddenly remembers his good prison friend Joe.   The rest is a different story. Maybe I will get to that one another day…

Anybody think that it would be great to wait around for someone to return a favor for two full years?  When you shouldn’t  really be in jail in the first place?  Not me! But we have no evidence that Joseph was dismayed by this.  He just did what he was supposed to do in prison and waited – for the right timing. For the right circumstances. For the nod of God – to take on the next important task. And, granted, he was not in the worst of the worst types of prisons, but he was in prison none the less.

One of the things my DH said yesterday about Joseph was that while he was certainly not able to choose what he had to go through, he could choose how to go through it.  And he went through it trusting that God had not forgotten him. He never really put his trust in the cupbearer to remember him – he put his trust in God to remember him. I am sure that he did not want to be where he was while he was there, but he knew that God still had a hold of him.

So where am I in all of this…. oh friends, today you do not want to know. I fear that if I write about my “stuff” today, it will be overwhelming for most of you.  But I promised to be honest – so I will say this;  I have a life situation that is out of my control -not my joblessness, (I did not choose for any of those involved to go through this) but I am trying ever so hard to choose HOW I will go through it.  I am working very hard at letting go and letting God – but I am NOT  good at that.  Therefore, I am also working very hard at repenting of that too. I am a doer – not a waiter. A song that meets my needs right now is by a group called for King and Country – SHOULDER.  I am including the words here for you today because I can’t say it any better – as I wait in my prison for my cupbearer to remember me before the King.

When confusion’s my companion

And despair holds me for ransom

I will feel no fear

I know that You are near

When I’m caught deep in the valley

With chaos for my company

I’ll find my comfort here

‘Cause I know that You are near

CHORUS

My help comes from You

You’re right here, pulling me through

You carry my weakness, my sickness, my brokenness all on Your shoulders

Your shoulders

My help comes from You

You are my rest, my rescue

I don’t have to see to believe that You’re lifting me up on Your shoulders

Your shoulders

You mend what once was shattered

And You turn my tears to laughter

Your forgiveness is my fortress

Oh Your mercy is relentless

My help is from You

Don’t have to see it to believe it

My help is from you

Don’t have to see it, ‘cause I know, ‘cause I know it’s true

Writer(s): Luke Smallbone / Joel Smallbone / Ben Glover / Tedd Tjornhom