Affixing Blame

1/18/2016

Genesis 45.7-8 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. – St. Joseph

The history of Joseph is full of difficulties and disappointments. Part of this, we might say, was self-inflicted, but for sure, Joseph seemed to be one who attracted trouble. The amazing thing to me is that Joseph didn’t ever seem to whine and complain about his plight – he simply turned it all over to God and went along for the ride.

Joseph, for all he faced, accepted the fact that God was in complete control over all his comings and goings. I think, in some way, it made his treatment by others (his brothers, Potiphar, the Midianite traders) more bearable. Joseph seemed to be able to give God the credit for all that happened to him. When he told his brothers that God had sent him to where he was to look out for them, I think he’d had that conversation with himself many times before. Joseph decided that human difficulties led to God’s glories.

We could write off Joseph as naïve. We might want to write him off as someone slightly ‘tetched’ in the head, but those thoughts have no place in the life of Joseph who learned that big problems require a big God; and there is more manliness in that, than any other thought process among men. To be able to say, despite all that happened, God did this to me so I could look out for you – that’s huge. And it takes more than naïveté to get to that place in one’s mind. Joseph was noble.

It takes a noble mindset to include God in all I do, and am. It might be easier to affix blame to my circumstances by accusing others of being the reason all this bad stuff is happening to me. Affixing blame never deals with the bigger question: how am I going to find God in all His goodness and glory in all that is happening to me?

Multiplied millions of everyday people every day leave the greatest Resource in all of the Universe on the table and go about their powerless lives powerlessly. It boils down to this: will we accept God’s presence and participation in all we do, or will we blame God for all that happens to us? It’s this simple: how we accept or deny God will show up in our attitude about what’s going on around us. Our attitude toward the circumstances will reveal our attitude toward God.

Joseph chose to call God his Ally and Friend. Joseph viewed God as his Master and Lord. Joseph understood the principle: God is present in everything around me; and everything that goes on around me is completely under His control and within His divine, gracious, and loving plan for me. I am never apart from God and He is never apart from me.

Today, I have a choice: I can accept God in His presence and power in my life and in His will – or – I can blame God (and everybody else) for all that happens to me.

Father, Your grace is sufficient, and You are present in all I do and am; find me humble, find me submissive; find me obedient to all You are and am in my life’s comings and goings. Amen.