Reading Gensis 37 the life of Joseph.  Joseph son of Jacob, turned on by his brothers, stripped of his cloths, beaten, thrown in a pit, and left there till he was sold a slave.  A dysfunctional family, complete with betrayal, cover up and cheating.  These are the great grandsons of Abraham, the family line that Jesus would be born from and they sound like a show off of Jerry Springer.  So whose life is normal.  The Pit Joseph lay in is no different from any of the pits we all lay in.  His was a cistern, mine is an illness-hole, others may be addictions, or a bad marriage, loneliness, everyone has their pits.  The one thing all pits have in common they are all hard to get out of, and are all deep, dark, and scary. In Joseph’s case he came out of his pit and 20 years later found his brothers in a pit of starvation.  It is  very easy to look at this story and say “well yes God took what was intended evil and made it good. ” In the end the family came together, wounds were healed, starvation ended.  This happened over the majority of a life time for this family.  Even though Joseph went through a series of events that took him from slavery and prison to the second in command. In that time Joseph’s heart was worn raw with disloyalty, lies, hardness of others hearts, and pure evil.   This was the first time I thought of this story in this light.  The pits we all deal with are deep and scary, but somewhere, somewhere there is an opening and in that opening a light.

I may not always believe strongly in God, there are times when the darkness of the pit blocks the sun, but on a dark and cloudy, stormy, night there is always sunlight beyond the clouds and sometimes you need to keep looking in the dark to eventually see the light.  Sometimes climbing out of the pit means we fall and dirt gets in our eyes and dispar enters our hearts.   A friend told me recently to” just trust in God there is nothing left beyond the grief and pain there is only trust in God.”  My first reaction was; that is the problem there is no trust., no trust at all.  But I think it is more a case of this eeb and flow of the pain of depression hardens your resolve.  I know these things of God, I know he knows what is best for me is in the light is beyond the dark clouds.  But when I am seeing the sun and feel refreshed and happy and standing in the warmth of a beautiful day, like a soul that has survived a tornado a small dark speck of a cloud on the horison, clinchs the heart and instead of embracing the sun; you acknowledge it with a nod and keep the heart numb cause if the heart is numb it is not worn down, and maybe this time the pit will not be so deep, and the dark not so dark, if you stay in a numb state of denial of both light and dark. 

We are impatient people – How frustrated God must be with this generation.  We have everything at our fingertips and we complain bitterly when it is not. People in the bible waited for years and years for God to fulfill his promises, sometimes we can’t wait till we finish praying to see the answer we want.  The story of Joseph shows us how God’s plans worked out.  It gives us a frame-work to study him, to see of Satan‘s logic is evil and simple, destroy the line of Jesus destroy the chance of the son of man being born.  We see also God’s faithfulness, and through the fear Joseph managed to climb out of his pit, into the sun.

We fear.    We fear that the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave.  Here in the pits, surrounded by steep walls and angry brothers, we wonder, Will this gray sky ever brighten? the load ever lighten? We feel stuck trapped, locked in,  Predestined for failure, will we ever exit this pit? Yes, for in the bible God shows us all the pits and how all were delivered.  Daniel from the lion’s den, Peter from prison, Jonah from the whales belly, David from Goliath, grave for Lazarus, Prison for Paul.

Isaiah 43:2 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned

Nor shall the flame scorch you.

The fear may not leave, the pain may persist for now, you just need to trust God, read of his deliverances and pray. I most ly pray that God forgive my unbelief, in the darkness of the storm.

till next time……………