Suffering Successfully

I used to try and find a woman in the bible that I could relate to the most. I thought it would make me a stronger woman of God to find someone relatable to model myself after. But I never found a woman whose life sounded like mine. Full of hardship and various trials, one after another.

Then I did a course study that focused on the story of Joseph. And something finally felt relatable

If you don’t know the story of Joseph, I’ll give you the condensed version. Joseph had 11 brothers who were all jealous of Joseph because he was the favored son. He has a dream and tells his brothers about it. Genesis 37:6-8 “He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly my sheaf stood up, and you sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” “Are you really going to reign over us?” his brothers asked him. “Are you really going to rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and what he had said.”

His brothers were so angry, they tried to plot to kill him. Instead, they decided to throw him into a pit.

Sometimes when you follow the dream God has for you, you find yourself in the bottom of a pit.

That’s where we found ourselves just 3 weeks after moving to Florida. The dream that I had since I was a little girl. The dream Josh and I had together to move somewhere warm and to be outdoors more with our kids and to be more intentional about our time together. We followed that dream and all of the doors swung wide open when we put everything in place in order to make our move happen. We didn’t face a single road block. 3 weeks later we were standing on a stage speaking at our little girl’s funeral.

The bottom of the pit.

After the pit, Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and faked his death to their father. He grew into a great slave under an Egyptian officer named Potiphar. Genesis 39:2-4 “The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority.” Talk about being the best slave you could possibly be!

What we have had to learn is that we can face pain and still prosper at the same time. That it is possible to be successful in our suffering. It doesn’t mean it hurts any less. Starting this blog doesn’t take away a single ounce of pain I feel from losing my little girl. But it puts a purpose to my pain.

Joseph goes on to get into some trouble with Potiphar’s wife, who keeps trying to seduce him into sleeping with her. After Joseph denies her several times, she decides to scream as loud as she could that he was trying to sleep with her, and he ran out of the house so terrified he even left his clothes behind. Which obviously made him look extremely guilty. So, Potiphar throws him in jail.

Genesis 39:21-23 “But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there. The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.” Joseph is basically running the entire prison now.

What’s important to remember, and it so hard to remember, especially in the middle of suffering, is that God doesn’t cause the devastating things that happen in our lives. He doesn’t cause all of the evil that exists in our world today. But there is a reason He allows is. He will use our situation for something bigger. He will turn the evil pit around for good. He will turn the prison that you feel trapped in, into your classroom for something greater that is to come. That’s what he did with Joseph.

While he was in prison, Joseph began to interpret some of the prisoners’ dreams. Which is ironic, because him interpreting his own dream for his brothers is what led him down this path that ended in him being in prison. One night, the Pharaoh of Egypt has a dream, and tells many people, none of which could interrupt the dream for him. His chief cupbearer, who had previously been in prison and had his dream interpreted by Joseph, tells Pharoah about him. Pharoah sends for Joseph, he interprets his dream, and the Pharoah is pleased. Pharoah then basically makes Joseph his second in command. Genesis 41:39-40 “So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as discerning and wise as you are. You will be over my house, and all my people will obey your commands. Only I, as king, will be greater than you.”

Joseph goes on to encounter his brothers again, and they bow down to him (though they did not know it was Joseph at the time). Genesis 42:6 “His brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.”

Joseph held onto the dream God had for him, never losing sight of that during his hardships. And God fulfilled His promise.

Joseph forgives his brothers and tells them not to be angry with themselves for selling him as an Egyptian slave. Genesis 45:8 “Therefor it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

Joseph saw the importance of his pit.

Joseph had spent all of those years suffering so successfully that he went from the bottom of a pit to ruling over all the land of Egypt. The pit, being a slave, going to prison, were all necessary so that God’s will for Joseph’s life could come to pass. So that the dream God gave Joseph would come true. It was in the hardships, in the suffering, that Joseph was being pruned, being taught, gaining strength, gaining wisdom, being prepared in order to fulfill his purpose.

That’s who I want to model my life after.

Joseph never held a victim mentality. He never asked “why me, why me God.” He embraced his pit, embraced his prison, because he was able to see further than his current circumstance. He knew the dream God had given him, and he knew it was going to come to pass. His hardships were never the end of his story, they were only minor delays on the way to fulfilling his God given purpose.

I don’t know why I’ve been given this pit of child loss. Never in a million years could I have imagined myself here. But instead of focusing on trying to figure out “why me,” I want to be like Joseph. I want my focus to be how I can navigate this suffering successfully.

This isn’t the end of my story, or Ellie’s. It’s just the beginning. To finding the purpose behind the pain.