Wednesday’s thoughts
It was the low point of his life. It causes us to ask the question; “What do we do when life is the pits?”
Umphrey Lee has this to say about this section of Genesis,
“IN A FEW SHORT SENTENCES THE NARRATOR HAS SKETCHED OUT AN UNUSUALLY COMPLEX WORLD OF FATEFUL FAMILIAL STRATIFICATION, RELATIONS AND EMOTIONS; YOUTH VERSES OLD AGE, INTRA-FAMILIAL SOCIAL HIERARCHY, CONCEALED REALMS OF DISCOURSE, RIVALRY, BETRAYAL, OBSESSIVE LOVE, ILL-CONSIDERED GIFTS OF PASSION, HATRED, SHUNNING. THE BALANCE WITH WHICH THIS SYSTEM IS PRESENTED LEAVES NOT HEROES AND NO VILLAINS.”
The thing we will want to appreciate about the story of Joseph and the goat is that. There are not heroes and there are no villains; just people. Joseph is one of us. There are things we do in life that cause us problems, but we have a non-malicious intent. There are outrageous actions other people take toward us and there is little we can do to stand and take it.
Sometimes, we too, are in the pit. What do we do with that?
One of the most important things we can do it to take the mess we’re in and look for a matrix into which that fits. Most of the time it is never just to us that things happen, but the things that happen to us come in a context. I was thinking about the Denver Nugget basketball player Nene. He has had cancer surgery recently and will be out of basketball for a while; maybe forever. His coach, George Karl, has had cancer surgery, and Karl’s son, who is a rookie has had cancer. The situation these three athletes have discovered they have in common has created a realization that they are bonded in a common thing. Martin Luther King said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied to a single garment of destiny.” Howard Thurman said, “The moving finger of God in human history points ever in the same direction. there must be community.”
Things happen to us in a personal way but we cannot take them personally. We have the opportunity to see ourselves as part of the larger community, and to see the pit we’re in as a part of a larger matrix.
What happens to one of us happens to all of us. There are no heroes or villains. We are all in this thing together.
Have you ever had the worst day of your life turn into the best because you realized a sense of community you had never known before?
If so write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net (click on the empty space and the address will pop up).
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles
