One of my favorite series of books to read growing up was called A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (a very cool pseudonym). Thinking back, I’m really not sure why I liked them, because every book had a terrible ending. I was the most infuriated 4th grader there ever was. But that was part of what kept us reading the books – to find out if the poor Baudelaire orphans ever found happy endings (no spoilers here).
Sometimes, though, our lives really do feel like a series of unfortunate events: "it’s just one thing after another," and it’s not fiction, and it’s not fun. Living through these last two years in a pandemic- and panic-stricken world...I'm sure we can all relate. How do we hold on to hope when it feels like life is constantly bringing us down, making us anxious, and dishing us its worst?
When I feel like it’s hard to find hope, I often remind myself about the life of Joseph (in Genesis 37-50). Reading and reflecting on what Joseph went through usually puts my hardships to shame. I mean, Joseph didn’t just have a bad day, he had a bad decade. His life was a series of unfortunate events if there ever was one – it really was just one thing after another. First, Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery. Then, when things seem to be looking up, Joseph is wrongly accused of rape. He’s thrown in jail unjustly, and he sits there for YEARS, waiting for God to act. What makes it all worse: Joseph is one of the only characters in the Bible who didn’t have some kind of huge moral failing. From what we read, Joseph never disobeyed God. “Why do bad things happen to good people?!” our souls scream. When we read stories like Joseph’s or when we encounter real, live, wonderful people who are dealing with heartbreaking situations – a loved one dies, the cancer comes back, a childhood home is lost in a fire – what is our response? Where is God when life seems unfair? Where is He when it all goes wrong? While we certainly don’t have all the answers, there are a few things we can be sure of. First, we know that bad things don’t happen to us as a punishment from God.
Joseph didn’t do anything wrong, but was still dealt many awful, painful trials. The Bible is clear: we no longer receive punishment for the wrong things we do because Jesus shouldered that punishment for us on the cross once and for all (Rom. 3:21-31). God doesn’t deal with us according to our sin, He deals with us according to His grace. This doesn’t mean that if I steal a car from someone, there isn’t going to be a consequence – there probably is (and it’s probably jail time). That isn’t a punishment from God, that’s a consequence that comes from a direct decision I made. And often, people are deeply affected by the decisions that people around them make as well. There are consequences when I make decisions, and those consequences affect more than just me, but that’s not 'God's punishment.' We can know that when unfortunate circumstances happen to us – cancer, death, sickness, anxiety, family issues – those things don’t happen to us as some sort of cosmic punishment from God. That's just bad theology.
Jesus addressed this in John 9 as well:
“As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.”
We also know that when unfortunate things happen to us, God is still working.
I believe that God takes our situations and tough circumstances and somehow, He redeems them. He works in spite of them. In Genesis 50, after all the pain Joseph went through, after all the years he spent wondering if God was there, after all of the unfortunate events in his life, much of which was caused by his brothers, he forgives them and he says to them,
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (Gen. 50:20).
And Joseph did save the lives of many people – he ended up second-in-command in the government of a foreign land, leading them to store up enough food through years of famine. Joseph trusted that God had a plan, even through his many years of trials and suffering. We can trust God, too. He knows what He’s doing. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, God is working things out.
It’s not easy, but we can choose to believe that God is good even when life isn’t.
Lastly, we can know that God is with us in the middle of our pain. 'Immanuel: God is with us' isn't just a Christmas thing. God is not some far-removed deity in the clouds pulling puppet strings. Where is God when everything sucks? He’s right here, in the middle of it.
“But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love” (Gen 39:21 NLT).
If you’re going through something hard or unfortunate right now, know that God sees you and He cares about you. He is with you. We don’t have all the answers, but we can know the one who does.
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