Finding Comfort in the Bad Times

Have you ever felt like things were going completely wrong? That nothing good could ever come from this disastrous experience? Do you feel like maybe God has forgotten you, or worse, doesn't care? That's something I've struggled with for a long time, and continue to struggle with. I've found comfort, though, which I would like to share with you. When God starts to show, teach, or do something in your life, how can you not want to share it?

I just finished up a study that Tony Evans was doing called Detours. The study focused on Joseph's life and how the things he went through prepared him and led him to his ultimate goal/destiny. In case you don't know the story:

 Joseph was given a tunic of many colors by his father who loved him more than his bothers, which led to his brothers becoming jealous and throwing him into slavery. He became a slave to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and made Joseph second in command of the household.  Potiphar's wife lied to everyone saying that Joseph tried to rape her. This gets Joseph sent to prison. Now in prison, the Lord was with Joseph; "Because the Lord was with him (Joseph); and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper." Genesis 39:23 Joseph became second in charge over the prisoners. Two men were thrown into the prison. They had dreams, which Joseph interpreted. One of the two men died, while the other was released, as had been predicted from the dream that Joseph interpreted. Joseph asked the man who would be set free to remember Joseph and mention him to Pharaoh, that he was imprisoned wrongly. But the man did not remember Joseph. Later, Pharaoh has a dream. The freed man remembered Joseph, and told Pharaoh, who then brings Joseph out of prison to interpret the dream. This led to Joseph becoming second in charge of Egypt, saving many from the famine to come, including his own family.

God was with Joseph in everything that happened. Joseph was with God. "If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. Psalm 139:8 If Joseph hadn't been put into slavery, he wouldn't have went to prison, which wouldn't have gotten him to Pharaoh. But it goes way farther than that. If Mrs. Potiphar hadn't lied, Joseph wouldn't have gone to prison. If the man in prison had remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh about him sooner, things may have turned out differently. The experience being in charge of a household prepared him to be in charge of a prison, which prepared him to be second in command over Egypt. Everything happened for a reason, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It all led up to something so much bigger than you would ever imagine. All the bad things that happened to Joseph had to happen. For me, this is a huge comfort in my heart to know that every bad experience, accident, mistake that I have ever gone through or have done myself can be used to glorify God. Nothing is unnecessary or purposeless.

Going off of this, I have been thinking a lot lately about things I did in the past, and how I've been able to use things that I thought to be useless. Small things. I worked as a home health caregiver for Boo, which furthered my career without even starting college yet. In AmeriCorps, I learned many amazing skills that brought me to where I am today. I also learned skills I didn't think I needed. We were on the tightest budget ever-$4.75 a day for food. I'm able to use that now to budget for myself and help my clients with their budgeting needs. Another one would be A-Driving, where you sit in the passenger seat of a 15 passenger van and give directions, tell the driver they can switch lanes, using hand signals to back the vans into parking spots. I thought it was pretty pointless. I was wrong. It helped me quickly get my drivers license and adjust to long commutes, and winter driving.

It amazes me how much of that I took with me.
Now I'm going to college studying Community Health and Prevention Science in the hopes of going into Peace Corps or something equivalent.

Then there are the other times, the harder times, that are just down right hard to understand. My car engine blew. I'm searching as quickly and desperately as I can for another car. Problem is, I drive a hundred miles a day. I have to have a reliable care that can take a lot of miles, but for really cheap. It's hard to remember that God has this situation, too. Same with every other hard situation any of us have ever faced in our lives. Why did I get into that car accident? Why did I get sick/hurt? Why did that person hurt me? It's so easy for us to get mad at God and angrily ask Him why. Slowly, I'm learning that good will come from these negative experiences. I have faith that God can take our negatives and turn them into positives. If Joseph can go through all the awful times, then so can we. If good can come from that big mess, then good can come from our big messes too.   
But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Genesis 50:20 
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11