Holding onto hope is hard sometimes! It seems like the trials keep coming, one on top of the other. Recently, I purchased a riding lawnmower, and three times I tried to use it and it broke down on me! This last time, the transmission would not budge, so I shut it down, pushed it back to the garage, and called the guy who sold it to me and told him to come get it and give me my money back! So he came, it starts right up, goes into gear and he can load it on his trailer - no problem!!! Figures, it worked perfectly for him, but not for me! Fortunately, he did give me back my money!
I rent my basement which I converted into a one-bedroom apartment to Travel Nurses and my new Travel Nurse tenant was halfway across the country when they got news the hospital canceled their contract! This is the second time in a row, the last two nurses got their contracts canceled at the last minute! Now I am trying to find new tenants to rent my space so no extra money this month for this fixed-income retiree!
Of course, that is not all - nope - a Kidney Stone decided to form and leave my kidney! It was very painful and a long process waiting for it to pass! They say (whomever they are!), it comes in threes!
It's so tempting and easy to get discouraged by all of this. Sometimes I do well with adjusting to the struggles and trials life throws my way but when it keeps happening over and over, it becomes a battle to hold onto the hope it will get better! Do you relate? I know I am not the only one who has to go through this. In fact, we all do! When I am in the thick of it and fighting to hold onto my hope, I renew my mind with the Promises of God. I remind myself; He knows my situation; He knew this was coming, and He has begun to provide the solution to my situation! My job is to trust and believe!
One of the ways I do that is to remind myself of some of my Biblical heroes who went through far worse things than I have and see how God got them through and also blessed them in the midst of their struggles. One of my favorites is Joseph, he is someone I can learn a few lessons from when it comes to the seemingly "life's unfair" kind of struggles! You can read his story starting in Genesis 37.
Joseph lived in a blended family. His father was tricked into marrying Leah by her father Lot when Jacob was working, thinking he was earning Rachel to be his wife. But cunning Lot slipped Leah in unknown to Jacob and he married her instead of Rachel. Then Lot convinced Jacob to work another seven years for Rachel. Leah had 10 sons, while Rachel remained barren. The Bible tells us Leah was unloved, so you know there had to be animosity between the sisters! Well, that bitterness and resentment Leah had toward Jacob and Rachel's love trickled down to her sons. When Rachel finally conceived late in life, she gave birth to Joseph, who quickly became Jacob's favorite son. This further fueled the undealt with bitterness and resentment among Leah and her sons.
When Joseph was a teenager, he had a couple of dreams where his brothers would bow down to him as well as his mother and father in the second dream. I'm sure you know of someone who seemed to always be the favorite, and they knew how to use that against you! Undealt with bitterness and resentment leads people into places they should not be. For Joseph's brothers, they were scheming how to kill him and get rid of him. So much so that when he was sent to check on them while they were tending sheep in the fields, they saw him coming and devised a plan to get rid of him once and for all! When he reached them, they stripped him of his coat of many colors and threw him into the cistern/pit. They then argued about how to kill him, but one of his brothers, Ruben, came to his senses and, seeing a caravan far off, talked his brothers into selling him as a slave!
I am sure Joseph must have felt discouraged and overwhelmed with fear when his brothers threw him in the pit and were discussing killing him. Did he think about his dreams and wonder how could they be fulfilled now? Were they really from God? Where are you, God? How could you let this happen to me? I'm sure those questions must have crossed his mind!
Then a rope falls down to pull him up, and he didn't know what to expect on the other end - will they kill him? Should he stay in the pit? He must have had to muster up so much courage and trust in God as he climbed out of the pit only to find he was sold into slavery and taken far away from his home! Must have been so hard for a teenager to face! Yet despite it all, somehow, he found the key to strengthening himself in the Lord and we see by his story, in time, he rose to the top of servanthood being elevated to be in charge of Potiphar's household! Just when he was at the top of his game - POW!
Then came false accusations on him by Potiphar's wife and again, he finds himself stripped of his position of favor and thrown into prison to be forgotten for years! Yet again, he found the key to strengthening himself in the Lord and soon was appointed over the prisoners' care! Finally, after being forgotten 2 years after he interpreted the dreams of the baker and cupbearer, he was pulled out of prison to come before Pharoah and interpret his dreams!
Finally, he was placed 2nd in command over Egypt and able to save nations of people, including his brothers who had sought to kill him because of his dreams - now they experienced the fulfillment of those dreams! It took years and years to face the unknown and what appeared to be a bleak and horrible outcome. Somehow God turned it all around for him. If He did it once, He can do it again and turn our situations around! Lord God, I ask you to please turn it around for me too!
So Joseph leaves us a legacy to follow - despite the hand life gives us, we must still believe God is with us and for us, even when it seems all is lost! We must trust Him and do the best that we can do with the situation before us. Never give up, never quit trying. Be diligent, work hard, and one day, one day, we will see the purpose behind the things we struggle with and suffer through. Hopefully, like Joseph, our life of hardships, trials, and triumphs will help save nations of people!