Shift Happens:
Introduction
Cistern
A few weeks ago I began a series on the life of Joseph as representative of our own unexpected shifts.
We pick up the story with Joseph at the bottom of a cistern.
I can only imagine what Joseph was thinking: What has just happened? HOW did this happen? WHY is this happening
to me?
What about those dreams, the one’s God Himself gave me? What about his plans to make my life great?
How the hell does this fit in?
Remember that in many ways this was all set in motion because of the dreams God gave teenager Joseph In the ancient near east dreams were a common way of divine communication. Like his brothers (who were pretty ticked at those acts of divine communication, especially how Joseph bragged about those communiqués) Joseph would have understood its prophetic nature, that God was doing something in his life and saying something about him and his life.
So at the beginning of Joseph’s story you have God directing its events. These dreams are from God.
He not only gave literal dreams to Joseph, but also planted in his heart a seed of promise for his life. To this teenager these dreams would have meant 2 things: God has a plan for his life and those plans include some type of leadership.
So at an early age God give Joseph a vision for his life.
Maybe some of us have experienced that same kernel of life-vision. We have had some hopes and dreams for our lives, ones that we were certain were from God, and now our life has shifted.
Now we are sitting at the bottom of a cistern asking, “What is happening to me? What about God’s plans for my life? How will I survive?”
I know I was asking these questions after my shift in DC. I went to Washington with a vision of how God wanted to use me in American politics and culture. I was a bright-eyed, bushied-tailed, freshly graduated conservative Republican Christian who thought he was called to confront culture with Christ. but then
SHIFT!
And at the bottom of my own cistern I had a real hard time seeing how God would fulfill those dreams, let alone survive. Engulfed in the fallout from my unexpected shift, I remember walking outside the Capitol Building and sitting on some benches just outside the House Chambers. It was a nice DC summer evening and I just stared at the Capitol, not so much asking “Why?” but “What?” and “How?” I prayed, “God what have you done, what are you doing in my life? How does this fit in with your plans and how am I going to survive?”
But I did survive. And so did Joseph.
Why? Because “the Lord was with him” and “what was meant for evil, the Lord meant for good.”
