Your mother died when you were only a child; leaving you with ten elder brothers born by three other women. Now you are your father’s favorite and this open show of special attention and affection has groomed rivalry in your big brothers’ hearts, sparking up envy, jealousy and malice against you. When you shared your fairy-tale dreams with them, they took you too seriously and plotted to make sure it never ended ‘happily ever after’ for you. They took their chance in your moment of weakness; stripped you of your glory, threw you in a dry pit, framed your demise, killed a goat to declare you dead, sold you into slavery and lied to your father. You were stunned at the extent your father’s sons went to take you out. You pleaded, cried, and prayed hard…. But God, like your brothers, seemed deaf, distant, unmoved, untouched, uninterested… Dear Joseph, do not give up on life now; live one more day.
You are now a slave in a faraway country to a general in the King’s affairs. Ah! God still finds a way to show you his face – at least he let you know he is still with you. Everything is going to be alright. You will serve Potiphar with all your heart and make Yahweh proud. Now Potiphar trusts you with his entire household because God has blessed them through you. Oh what a privilege! Only that his wife has begun stalking you, asking for the forbidden… So you turn to God again for help…. yet nothing….. no answer or respite from heaven…. Then she sets you up, you fall, you are trapped. Potiphar is enraged, the other servants are in disbelief, tongues are wagging, news flying… No one believes you, even if they want to. You’re thrown into jail indefinitely and without fair hearing. Oh God where are you?... That silence again… But Joseph, do not think the worst; live one more day.
Even though you cannot explain why your heavenly Father would leave you undefended in prison especially for a crime you did not commit, you discover, to your amusement, that His distinguishing presence shows up in the cell too. Well-done Joseph, you have become better, not bitter. Even in this dungeon you are willing to put your calling and gift to use. You impress the chief guard of the king’s prisoners and he places you in charge. Awesome! Then one day you have a chat of destiny with the king’s chief baker and chief butler. You plead with the baker to mention your name before Pharaoh after he is reinstated, according to your interpretation of his dream. Wow! The break you’ve been waiting for! Hallelujah!…. But… the butler forgets you… As days roll into weeks, into months, into years….. your despair deepens… But wait for tomorrow Joseph; live one more day.
For tomorrow may be the day that strange dreams from the Lord will assail the king so terribly he will be desperate for a solution that only you can provide. It may be tomorrow that the butler will suddenly remember you and mention your name and prowess to the King. Tomorrow you may be hastily prepared to stand in Pharaoh’s presence. It may even be tomorrow that the king will be so pleased with you that he will put his royal robes on you, hand you his signet, give you a new name, place you in his chariot and declare you Prime Minister of Egypt. Tomorrow may be the day the king gives you a wife you did not labour to marry. Tomorrow you may beget your Manasseh and Ephraim; fruits of reward in the land of your affliction. It may be tomorrow that your spiritual gifts will preserve nations including your own father’s house. Tomorrow the men who rejected you as brother may kneel to call you lord…
Wait for tomorrow Child of God, for tomorrow will come. Do you know how your story ends? Not exactly, but you can believe for the best, because we have an expected end, a hope, a future of peace and not evil.
Live one more day dear friend. What if things get worse? Then oh! That cannot be the end. One more day, child of God, our God has written the script and it ends in praise. Stay in the act. Do not die yet, live one more day.
- Sista Mercie
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