The Bigger Picture

One of the comments last week was about God's "plan." Personally, I've always been really disheartened by talk of God's "plan" because who the heck knows what that is? It's a black hole of shrugs. So whenever I feel disturbed and need to know why  something is happening or how it can ever be better, a reference to God's "plan" can fill me with rage. As a Christian. So I really understand how non-Christians can be done in by it.

We're closing out our Joseph detour in Hebrews 11 by going to his verse:

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. - Hebrews 11:22

We really went over the big parts of Joseph's life in the past three posts, so why is something at his death the big deal? Why are a few words concerning something that was very far out and not even fathomed by others at this point, that being their descendants' enslavement in and exodus from Egypt? 

Every day that Joseph spent as a slave, and every day that he was locked up in a prison was for one purpose. And that purpose is revealed when Joseph's brothers come to apologize and offer themselves up as his slaves in Egypt: 

But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. - Genesis 50:19-20.

Joseph went through what he went through so he would be in a position to save lives as Prime Minister/Vizier of Egypt. Understanding and acknowledging that seems like a HUGE faith moment, but it's not the moment that is mentioned in Hebrews 11.Through everything he went through, Joseph's eye wasn't to his own issues but rather to the everlasting covenant that God had made to him through Abraham. Joseph's faith was in the bigger picture, and he knew he wouldn't live to see the bigger picture, so he wanted his bones carried out of Egypt to the Promised Land with his people. The same people who had betrayed and deserted him to some cruel fates. He could've dwelt on that issue, but he saw the Bigger Picture...and it included them.

Those squiggles represent "mystery" and that's supposed to be a sun in the corner...

I never see the Bigger Picture, because I'm very focused on the little picture. That's why comments about God's "plan" will likely be met with an eye roll. The little picture excludes a lot of people who have a role in both your life and God's overall plan. I often ignore these people, dismiss them, or flat out hate them because they're not in my little picture, so who cares?! The little picture is simply SO much easier to see. Since I can see everything in the little picture, it requires zero faith...and I think (I don't know) that in the absence of faith there exists despair. If Joseph didn't have faith beyond his situation, but just looked at the little picture and all the things in it and analyzed them...he would've lost it. I have no doubt, he would've totally lost it.

I lose it on a regular basis. But I'm praying for faith to look at the bigger picture so that it will drive out all of my fear and despair, so that I can open up myself to others when I really want to close myself off. So I can be joyful when everything in the little picture is sad. And so I can leave room for God to turn it all around, instead of confine myself to the frame of small tragic picture. It's super hard, but whoever said that genuine faith was easy?

"The worst thing in my whole life became the most beautiful thing..." 

- Tye Tribbett "Beauty for Ashes"