live the dream…

joseph in genesis in the old testament moved from israel on a quick journey with some slave traders down to egypt where he’s sold into slavery to a man named potiphar.  joseph is on an elevator.  but the elevator only has one button and it says “down”.  and every time he pushes the button he goes down.  he meets his bothers and he’s thrown down into a pit.  his brothers sell him down into slavery.  every move in his life is a downward move. 

he’s got to be thinking, “GOD, don’t you have any other buttons?  i’d like one more button to push!”  it’s down, down, down.  he’s waiting for the dream and as he’s doing so he’s feeling like his life is on the way down.

what do you do during those times of life?  you feel GOD’s given a dream in my life as a parent, GOD’s given a dream in my life for marriage, GOD’s given a dream in my life for a ministry to make a difference in this world but every time i push the button it seems like i’m moving the wrong way.  how do you handle those times of life?  joseph shows us.  GOD’s put HIS story into HIS word so you and i can face those times of life that all of us have to face.  what do i do? 

for one you live the dream.  even on the way down, even when it doesn’t seem like it’s real, you live the dream even though you don’t see the dream. 

oftentimes what we do is we give up, we feel like it’s going the wrong direction, it’s destroyed and the dream starts to fade.  joseph didn’t do that.  GOD had given into his life a dream to be a leader.  he’s sold into slavery and he’s in the household of a man named potiphar and before long what does he become in that household?  he becomes the leader of all the slaves in that household. 

that’s not GOD’s eventual dream for his life but even there as a slave he was living the dream.  even though he didn’t see the dream. joseph shows us how to live the dream even when we don’t see it. 

just a thought from the front porch…