When I was a kid, I used to imagine myself as a starting quarterback in the NFL. I would run around the house with a playbook on my wrist and imagine that I was calling plays, managing the huddle, calling audibles, and throwing touchdowns to receivers. However, when I grew up and joined football in middle school, I realized that it wasn’t anything like I imagined. The guys were bigger, faster, stronger, and hit harder than I thought. In fact, I once went up against our starting running back in a tackling drill and got completely run over. My football career was over.
So the next year, I tried out for the basketball team. However, despite my best effort, I ended up being one of the first people that didn’t make the cut and they offered me a manager position instead. This sounded lame to me at first, but it actually turned out to be really fun as I still got to practice and travel with the team. Rather than being bitter that I didn’t make the team, I embraced the position I was in and did the best job I could where I was.
This is similar to the story of Joseph in the Bible. Joseph was the youngest of 12 sons from Jacob, one of the biblical patriarchs. The Bible says that Joseph was loved and favorited more than all the others because he was born from Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel. As Joseph got a little older, Jacob made him a coat of many colors which started a sibling rivalry and all of his brothers hated him.
One night, Joseph had two dreams that made his brothers hate him even more. In the first dream, Joseph sees himself and his brothers binding sheaves in a field. His brothers’ sheaves circle around his and bow low to the ground. The second dream was a vision of the sun, the moon and eleven stars (this symbolized his eleven brothers) bowing down to him.
After Joseph had these dreams, he ignorantly shared both of them with his brothers and they did not take it well. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another. They stripped his coat, threw him in an empty well, and sold him into slavery to some Midianite traders for eight ounces of silver.
A year later, Joseph finds himself in Egypt serving Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials. Potiphar was impressed with Joseph’s knowledge and promotes him to the master of his household. However, more trouble comes Joseph’s way as Potiphar’s wife wrongly accuses him of attempted rape after she asked him to sleep with her and he ran away. Potiphar believes his wife’s lie and sends Joseph to prison for over 12 years. Still the Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered in everything that he did. (Genesis 39:2)
The story comes to a close as Joseph correctly interprets one of Pharaoh’s dreams in prison and is promoted to second-in-command in Egypt. During a severe famine in the land, Jacob and all of Joseph’s brothers take a trip to Egypt to buy some grain from none other than Joseph himself. When he finally reveals himself, Joseph told them one of the most famous verses in the Bible: “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)
At the beginning of his journey, Joseph was cocky and thought his brothers were just going to bow down to him right there. But it took many years of suffering and hardship to shape him into a humble man that served other people. In the end, Joseph’s brothers did bow down to him, but Joseph was in a position of service to them rather than using his power and influence over them. God used everything he went through for a bigger purpose and it looked nothing like he originally expected it to look.
That is the same way with our journey. Just like how I originally thought I would be an NFL quarterback, and a basketball player, God had different plans for me. If I would have let bitterness take root after I didn’t make the basketball team and decided to say no to the manager position, I would have missed out on a lot of great memories and opportunities.
God has a perfect playbook and he is the perfect play caller to lead us to victory in our life. He demonstrated this victorious power when he sacrificed his one and only son and resurrected him three days later. The more we try and resist God’s plays for our life and insist on having our own way, the more unhappy we will be. Life is best lived when it is summitted to God’s plan and purpose. Even through our doubt and uncertainty, it’s our job to embrace the journey and trust that His play calls are always best for us.
The Bigger Picture: God has a plan and a strategy for your life even though it might not always look like what you expect.
The Bigger Picture 