Really? This is Your plan? Really?!?

Plans - we all make them.  Life just interrupts most of them.  Many of our plans don't happen, and this causes great disappointment and frustration on our part.  Have you ever looked at your life and your plans and thought, "Really? This is Your plan?"

I know that according to Jeremiah 29.11 God has a plan for my life, a plan to prosper me and not to harm me.  But sometimes I wonder, "This is Your plan?  Really?"  This plan doesn't make sense.  It doesn't add up.  Check out the life of Joseph and see if you can relate at all:

When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him (Joseph) -- they wouldn't even speak to him.  Joseph had a dream.  When he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.  He said, "Listen to this dream i had.  We were all out in the field gathering bundles of wheat.  All of a sudden my bundle stood straight up and your bundles circled around it and bowed down to mine."(Gen 37.4-7 MSG)...

 ...He had another dream and told this one also to his brothers: "I dreamed another dream--the sun and moon and eleven starts bowed down to me!"  When he told it to his father and brothers, his father reprimanded him... (Gen 37.9-10 MSG)

Joseph had a dream of greatness.  God had given him a dream - a passion.  He shared that dream with the ones closest to him and was despised and  rejected.  Ultimately he was sold into slavery by his brothers (Gen 37.12-28).  Can you imagine Joseph's bewilderment and questions the first night he spent with this caravan?  Can you imagine the frustration when he was sold as a slave to Potiphar in Egypt (Gen 39.1)?  How do the events of the recent past match up with the dream of greatness and rulership?

I am sure that he questioned God in the night.  We don't have it written in the story anywhere, but Joseph was human, not super human.  He was a 17-19 year old young man when this was all happening.

Then he is thrown into prison for a false accusation of adultery (rape) with Potiphar's wife (Gen 39.2-23).  Again with the questions, frustrations, confusion and bewilderment- "What the heck?  Are You kidding me?  I was second in command of Potiphar's house.  My dream of being the ruler of somethings was coming to pass.  Now I'm sitting in prison being falsely accused.  I'm innocent I tell you."  Those have to be the thoughts and words of his prayers to God.  I know they would be mine - and yours if you were honest.

He spent over 2 years in prison before he was released, only to be tested by Pharoah with the interpretation of a dream (Gen 41.1-38).  "Are you kidding me?  More tests?  I've done the right thing at every turn.  I've tried to be a man of integrity and honor, and all that has been done is hardship and pain, frustration and heartache.  How does living for God really help any thing?"  These had to be his thoughts.

One thing that keeps sticking out to me in this story is, "As it turned out, God was with Joseph and things went very well with him." (Gen 39.2)  "But there in jail God was still with Joseph: He reached out in kindness to him; he put him on good terms with the head jailer." (Gen 39.19-23)  God was still with Joseph in all of this.  In this mess called life, God was with him.  Joseph was never alone.  "...because God was with him; whatever he did God made sure it worked out for the best." (Gen 39.23)

Even when life doesn't seem to match up with what you know, or better yet, think, should be happening, God is with you.  Even when we question God's plan we can rest assured that God is with us.  Our part in this is to do the next right thing.  That is what Joseph kept doing.  He did the next right thing in the midst of pain, suffering, hardship, trials.  He kept his hope in God, even though I know there were questions.  He kept his eyes on his Lord and Master.

So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "You're the man for us.  God has given you the inside story--no one is as qualified as you in experience and wisdom.  From now on, you're in charge of my affairs; all my people will report to you.  Only as king will I be over you." (Gen 41.39-40 MSG)...And Joseph took up his duties over the land of Egypt.  Joseph was thirty years old when he went to work for Pharaoh the king of Egypt. (Gen 41.45-46)

 There were 13 years from the dream to the realization of the dream.  God allowed, and I would dare say that it was God's will, for Joseph to be sold by his brothers and travel to Egypt.  If that event had never happened Joseph wouldn't have ever been in the position to save the people of God like he did when the famine hit.  If Potiphar's wife hadn't accused him and he had never been thrown in jail he would never have interpreted the dreams of the baker and cup bearer - then ultimately Pharaoh's dream.

God had a plan for Joseph.  The path didn't, and looking at it now still doesn't, make sense.  Some times in our lives the path doesn't make sense.  It doesn't seem to match up with what we think should happen.  We can rest assured that God is in control and He is with us.  We just keep doing the next right thing.  That is what we can learn from Joseph - do the next right thing and let God worry about the plan.