Trapped?

(on Ro’s message at Station One last week)

I’m sure, at some point in all our lives, we have felt, one way or another, trapped. By that itchy dress that we never wanted to wear in the first place, but mom thought lace and frills look so cute; while in between buses during rush hour traffic; being in a job you no longer enjoy; or while stuck in a relationship or a situation you don’t have any control over—and you just want to trust that any time now, God will just swoop in and take you out of that situation, but you’re already at that point where it’s been months already and you’re asking, “Why is it taking so long, God?!”

But enough about me. (heh)

Last week, Pastor Ro focused on Genesis 40, the chapter where Joseph was still “prospering” (see last week’s summary of Rainier’s message) in the Egyptian jail for a crime that he did not commit. It’s been more than a decade already since he was sold into slavery by his brothers.  If anyone had the right to feel trapped, it would be Joseph, his life was mostly being moved from one form of prison to another– from the dry cistern, to slavery, to an actual prison– even if he never did a thing to deserve it! If anyone had the right to cry out to God and demand for an explanation, it would be Joseph. But there was never a record of a grumble or complaint from him!

In this episode in Joseph’s life, the Pharaoh’s butler and baker came into the picture when they too were thrown in prison and was put in Joseph’s charge. These two had dreams that Joseph interpreted correctly. If we remember, Joseph had two dreams too! Way back when he was still at home with his family. So, all this time, God had given the Joseph the ability to interpret dreams—which could mean he must have known what his dreams had meant even way back then!

Imagine, knowing that God had promised that he would be placed in a position of power, where even his family would bow down to him, and yet everything that had happened since those dreams seem to be taking him to the opposite end. Slave for ten years, and now a prisoner, didn’t he ask himself if the dreams were really from God, or if he had interpreted the dreams correctly? Yet, Joseph said, “Do not all interpretations come from God?” Joseph was patient. He stayed with God because he knew that it was God who gave him those dreams.

When Joseph asked the butler to mention his situation to the Pharaoh, Joseph wasn’t desperate, he was simply stating facts. He wasn’t complaining, but while he knew that God had everything in control, he din’t just passively wait for God to do something to get him out of jail. And when time passed and the butler seemed to have forgotten him, Joseph didn’t despair, because he knew that even if man forgets you, God will never forget you.

Joseph was a man, albeit an exceptional man, he is still human, subject to time and the passing seasons, to pain and discomfort and despair. Yet he didn’t feel trapped, even if his circumstances said otherwise, because he knew that his life was in God’s hands.

We know this too, right? Our lives are in God’s hands! That He loves us; that He is in control; that GOD IS FAITHFUL. So why do we still feel trapped? Why do we grumble?

The thing about hardships, they help build patience by letting us put our patience into good use. No temptation has seized us except what is common to man. God is faithful, He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Cor. 10:13). He created us and He knows us inside out, so He knows what we can and cannot handle. In His awesome grace, God gives us opportunities to put everything that we know of Him and make them real in our lives by putting them into practice. We say we love God, then let it happen! The Fruits of the Spirit aren’t there to just be memorized and enumerated, they’re to be lived out in our lives! God doesn’t want us to have weak minds, but to have renewed minds that see Him in everything, including in suffering. We say we know this, then let other people see it in us by living it!

Whenever you feel impatient or trapped, remember that God is faithful and He loves us. The proof is not found in situations that we find ourselves in at the moment—because situations change—but in the Cross of Calvary. God had exchanged His Son for us. And it’s done already. That will never change, and that is why that’s the foundation of our faith. We have been saved by God’s grace! Not by anything that we have done or will do.

We look to future grace, even if we can’t find it now—although, as Ravi Zacharias has pointed out in the Grand Weaver, even in the silence, and in the darkness, God moves in the shadows, weaving events in our lives into this beautiful design He has for our lives. We are made for eternity—so what’s a year? A decade? A lifetime? Hebrews 11 is a list of people who died without seeing God’s promises come to pass, yet they still held on to Him! Because God is their portion; because they know Him, they know that He is faithful, and that His faithfulness extends to all eternity.

Wow.

Doesn’t that just blow you away?!

Come to Station One for more on the “Tough Life,” this June, every Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. UCM Basement 2. Rainier’s up next.