It’s Monday evening, around 9:30, and it has been a good evening at home tonight.  I spent much of the evening getting caught up on my Bible reading so that I stay on track for completing it in a year.  It was a quiet evening, and it was good to absorb the words and reread the stories again- about Joseph and his dreaming, and his jealous brothers, and his rejection and disposal as a slave to Egypt.

Years later, in Joseph’s reunion with his brothers when he was Egypt’s prime minister, no less than three times the Scriptures said he had to get up and go outside to weep, letting the pain of what they had done to him wash over him and bleed the poison out of him.

I also read the start of Moses’ story, and realized in his introduction to us, before Pharaoh’s daughter pulled him out of the river, for three months he had no name, and his parents had no name.  He was simply the son of two Levite parents.  I thought that was interesting.

Tonight I really noticed that sometimes God allows some people to get lost in life to prepare them to help countless others.

Think about Joseph.  When Joseph was being sold to slave traders by his brothers, did it just roll off of him like it was a prank?  When he was thrown into prison under the false accusation of trying to seduce Potipher’s wife, did that really leave him thinking that his life was going according to plan?  When he was sitting in jail for two years, and he proved his wisdom interpreting dreams for cabinet officials and asked to be remembered, and he remained forgotten, did he sedately and simply think, “Hey, this is how it’s supposed to go.”  I suspect the answers to these questions lay hid in the tears that fell when he saw his brothers again.

And think of Moses.  Raised in Pharaoh’s house, with a future full or possibility and power, as a young man he finds himself one day a murderer, and the next a fugitive, wandering aimlessly for the next 40 years as a nomadic shepherd in a barren sea of sun and sand.

And yet both men were used by God out of their hardships.

Like Moses must have felt in his early desert days, sometimes we find ourselves bewildered and broken by life, dizzy and daunted by each passing day.  Sense has fled, and we feel lucky to get from one shade tree to the next.

It was comforting tonight to be reminded that God was with those two men, and when we are in the wilderness, He is with us.  And how often does He take our messes, our lost years, and make them soil for the development and display of His grace and mercy through us.

Life is hard sometimes.  I went to a counseling session after work this evening and chewed on some hard realizations about myself and my heart and my propensity to hide. I fear a lot. And I feel a lot.  And I hang on to too much.  And I don’t open up much.

As I left the counseling session, the song below popped into my head, because it’s like God wanted me to remember its message, and to chew on its words.  God loves us all, in our moments of greatest splendor and gravest poverty.  Mostly, I was just reminded tonight that in all of this life stuff- in the aching and the hoping- He is there, for us,”Emmanuel”, God with us, and he can redeem our failings and restore our futures.

The words to this song had extra meaning to me tonight, so I thought it suitable to end this post with the video and its lyrics.  God is big enough to bear it all with us, and to also fill us with a future of love and life.

“Unknown Hymn (Come to Jesus)” by Chris Rice

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O raise your head for Love is passing by

Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus
Come to Jesus and live

Now your burden’s lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain… so

Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live

And like a newborn baby
Don’t be afraid to crawl
And remember when you walk sometimes we fall… so

Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus
Fall on Jesus and live

Sometimes the way is lonely
And steep and filled with pain
So if your sky is dark and pours the rain… then

Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus
Cry to Jesus and live

O and when the love spills over
And music fills the night
And when you can’t contain your joy inside… then

Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus
Dance for Jesus and live

And with your final heartbeat
Kiss the world goodbye
Then go in peace and laugh on Glory’s side… and

Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live

Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus
Fly to Jesus and live.