“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”
GENESIS 38-40
JOURNAL
It is easy to become calloused to stories. Growing up hearing the story of Joseph, it is easy to pass right over the difficult parts because you already know how it ends. You know he rises. You know God redeems it. You know it all works out. So you skim the pain like it is just scenery on the way to the happy ending.
But when I slow down and sit inside the story, right here in the middle of it, it feels brutal. It feels unfair. It feels like one disappointment stacked on top of another until there is no room left to breathe. Joseph has been betrayed by his brothers, sold, humiliated, stripped of identity, and thrown into a life he never chose. Then he is falsely accused and thrown back into prison. And just when it seems like God might finally open a door, the one person who could help him simply forgets him. Forgotten. Left behind. Again.
That line hits me every time. “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” It feels like the final twist that would break a man. The kind of moment where you want to look up and say, really God? Really? How is this not too much?
And the longer I sit with it, the more I realize the reason Joseph doesn’t come apart is because his entire goal is different than what mine would be. Joseph’s objective is not comfort. It is not control. It is not getting the timeline he wants. His identity is not anchored to where he is. His identity is anchored to Who is with him.
That is what makes Joseph’s story so beautiful. It is the ultimate story of redemption, hope, persistence, kindness, and the fulfillment of God’s promises. Not because Joseph never suffers, but because suffering never gets to define him. Not because the road is easy, but because God is steady. Joseph keeps showing up. He keeps doing what is right. He keeps honoring God even when no one is watching and even when it seems like it makes no difference.
And what is so powerful is that Joseph doesn’t just survive prison. He becomes Joseph in prison. He becomes the kind of man who can handle what God is building toward. He becomes the kind of person who can be given influence without being destroyed by it. That is what God is doing in him. God is not just trying to rescue him from the pit. God is forming him into someone who can steward the promise.
It is so easy to think the promise means God is going to remove the hardship. But sometimes the promise is that God will be with you in it, and He will use it, and He will turn it into something that blesses people beyond what you can see. That is Joseph’s life. Nothing was wasted. Not one betrayal. Not one false accusation. Not one lonely year. God was writing a story that Joseph could not yet understand while Joseph was living it.
I love that the passage says, “the Lord was with him.” That is everything. That is the difference between despair and endurance. Joseph is not clinging to a perfect outcome. He is clinging to a faithful God. And even in prison, God shows him kindness and grants him favor. God is proving something to Joseph and to everyone watching: the presence of God is not limited by the location of man. You can be in chains and still be free. You can be forgotten by people and still be seen by God.
I think this is what Jesus is talking about when He says a tree is recognized by its fruit. Whatever is really inside you eventually comes out of you. If the core of you is self, then self will show up everywhere. It will show up in success and it will show up in suffering. It will show up in comfort and it will show up in disappointment. But if the core of you is surrender to God, then goodness will still come out of you even when life is hard. Love will still come out of you even when life is unfair. Faith will still come out of you even when life feels delayed.
Joseph’s fruit is faithfulness. Again and again. In the pit. In Potiphar’s house. In prison. In waiting. In power. And that is what makes his redemption so meaningful because his character didn’t change when his circumstances changed. He just kept being who God was forming him to be.
It also makes me take Jesus’ warning about words seriously. Our words reveal what is in our hearts, and they create ripples we don’t always see. Joseph’s story reminds me that my words matter and my obedience matters even when it feels like nothing is happening. God is always doing more than I can see.
And maybe that is the heart of this whole thing. This life is not about arriving. It is about becoming. God is building something in me that will one day make sense, even if right now it just feels like waiting.
It is easy to become calloused to stories. Growing up hearing the story of Joseph, it is easy to pass right over the difficult parts because you already know how it ends. You know he rises. You know God redeems it. You know it all works out. So you skim the pain like it is just scenery on the way to the happy ending.
But when I slow down and sit inside the story, right here in the middle of it, it feels brutal. It feels unfair. It feels like one disappointment stacked on top of another until there is no room left to breathe. Joseph has been betrayed by his brothers, sold, humiliated, stripped of identity, and thrown into a life he never chose. Then he is falsely accused and thrown back into prison. And just when it seems like God might finally open a door, the one person who could help him simply forgets him. Forgotten. Left behind. Again.
That line hits me every time. “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” It feels like the final twist that would break a man. The kind of moment where you want to look up and say, really God? Really? How is this not too much?
And the longer I sit with it, the more I realize the reason Joseph doesn’t come apart is because his entire goal is different than what mine would be. Joseph’s objective is not comfort. It is not control. It is not getting the timeline he wants. His identity is not anchored to where he is. His identity is anchored to Who is with him.
That is what makes Joseph’s story so beautiful. It is the ultimate story of redemption, hope, persistence, kindness, and the fulfillment of God’s promises. Not because Joseph never suffers, but because suffering never gets to define him. Not because the road is easy, but because God is steady. Joseph keeps showing up. He keeps doing what is right. He keeps honoring God even when no one is watching and even when it seems like it makes no difference.
And what is so powerful is that Joseph doesn’t just survive prison. He becomes Joseph in prison. He becomes the kind of man who can handle what God is building toward. He becomes the kind of person who can be given influence without being destroyed by it. That is what God is doing in him. God is not just trying to rescue him from the pit. God is forming him into someone who can steward the promise.
It is so easy to think the promise means God is going to remove the hardship. But sometimes the promise is that God will be with you in it, and He will use it, and He will turn it into something that blesses people beyond what you can see. That is Joseph’s life. Nothing was wasted. Not one betrayal. Not one false accusation. Not one lonely year. God was writing a story that Joseph could not yet understand while Joseph was living it.
I love that the passage says, “the Lord was with him.” That is everything. That is the difference between despair and endurance. Joseph is not clinging to a perfect outcome. He is clinging to a faithful God. And even in prison, God shows him kindness and grants him favor. God is proving something to Joseph and to everyone watching: the presence of God is not limited by the location of man. You can be in chains and still be free. You can be forgotten by people and still be seen by God.
I think this is what Jesus is talking about when He says a tree is recognized by its fruit. Whatever is really inside you eventually comes out of you. If the core of you is self, then self will show up everywhere. It will show up in success and it will show up in suffering. It will show up in comfort and it will show up in disappointment. But if the core of you is surrender to God, then goodness will still come out of you even when life is hard. Love will still come out of you even when life is unfair. Faith will still come out of you even when life feels delayed.
Joseph’s fruit is faithfulness. Again and again. In the pit. In Potiphar’s house. In prison. In waiting. In power. And that is what makes his redemption so meaningful because his character didn’t change when his circumstances changed. He just kept being who God was forming him to be.
It also makes me take Jesus’ warning about words seriously. Our words reveal what is in our hearts, and they create ripples we don’t always see. Joseph’s story reminds me that my words matter and my obedience matters even when it feels like nothing is happening. God is always doing more than I can see.
And maybe that is the heart of this whole thing. This life is not about arriving. It is about becoming. God is building something in me that will one day make sense, even if right now it just feels like waiting.
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