Title: Making Lemonade
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Genesis 45:1-15
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." "Every cloud has a silver lining." "It's not over until it's over." "When one door shuts, another door opens." "Things are never as bad as they seem." "It's a blessing in disguise." "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." We have lots of ways to tell people their experiences are not really bad. We tell them it actually only seems bad. We tell them it is all part of God's plan. Is it really? If everything that happens is God's plan, we bear no responsibility for our actions and attitudes. When we downplay another's experience of trauma, grief, and pain, isn't a cop out to make us feel better about our lack of empathy? Our "You can do it" attitude is often about deciding not to help. One might make lemonade with lemons, but the recipe requires more than lemons.
Things had not gone well for Joseph. After his brothers sold him into slavery, he was put to work in a good setting, yet as a slave. He rose to prominence in Potifar's household due to his administrative skills, but he was still in exile. He found himself unjustly imprisoned and seemingly forgotten. His life was hidden away with little to no hope of ever leaving Pharaoh's dungeons. He became a trusted assistant to the master jailer. As Potifar had done, so the jailer placed everything and everyone under Joseph's charge. This gave Joseph a modicum of freedom within the prison, but it was still a prison. Joseph befriended prisoners and helped interpret their dreams, but that did not really help him when one of them was redeemed from prison.
Life was hard. He was on no pleasure cruise. Perhaps he was removed from the worst of the sun's heat, but he was far from home, far from his father, cut off even from his half-brothers, some of whom had wanted to kill him. None of this was good, wholesome, or even pleasant. As rosy as the text seems to paint J ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Genesis 45:1-15
"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." "Every cloud has a silver lining." "It's not over until it's over." "When one door shuts, another door opens." "Things are never as bad as they seem." "It's a blessing in disguise." "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." We have lots of ways to tell people their experiences are not really bad. We tell them it actually only seems bad. We tell them it is all part of God's plan. Is it really? If everything that happens is God's plan, we bear no responsibility for our actions and attitudes. When we downplay another's experience of trauma, grief, and pain, isn't a cop out to make us feel better about our lack of empathy? Our "You can do it" attitude is often about deciding not to help. One might make lemonade with lemons, but the recipe requires more than lemons.
Things had not gone well for Joseph. After his brothers sold him into slavery, he was put to work in a good setting, yet as a slave. He rose to prominence in Potifar's household due to his administrative skills, but he was still in exile. He found himself unjustly imprisoned and seemingly forgotten. His life was hidden away with little to no hope of ever leaving Pharaoh's dungeons. He became a trusted assistant to the master jailer. As Potifar had done, so the jailer placed everything and everyone under Joseph's charge. This gave Joseph a modicum of freedom within the prison, but it was still a prison. Joseph befriended prisoners and helped interpret their dreams, but that did not really help him when one of them was redeemed from prison.
Life was hard. He was on no pleasure cruise. Perhaps he was removed from the worst of the sun's heat, but he was far from home, far from his father, cut off even from his half-brothers, some of whom had wanted to kill him. None of this was good, wholesome, or even pleasant. As rosy as the text seems to paint J ...
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