"God Is Able To Help Us Recover"
Saints, I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am grateful to serve as a guest contributor to the Pastor’s Corner for September 2020. My wife (Mindy), daughter (McKenzie), and I are blessed to be in a community of faithful believers who obey God in love and humility. We have lived in many places and have been members of several churches, but Florence, AL, and Trinity Missionary Baptist Church (Trinity) are among the most satisfying.
I am writing under a theme that has relevance in my life. September is Recovery Month. During Recovery Month, I have an abundance of responsibilities: my obligations as a husband and father, along with my job, divinity school course load, and ministerial tasks during Pastor Crenshaw’s sabbatical leave. Thus, at some point, I will need to dedicate time to recovery.
Recovery is essential for me because I have experienced recovery in many areas of my life. Whether it has been a physical, spiritual, or mental trial, I have come out of it as a better person. I have never made it through the recovery process without God. Through the recovery process, God has strengthened me and shaped my character and conduct.
The original focus of Recovery Month was alcohol and drug addiction and the subsequent recovery process. However, Recovery Month has expanded to include all forms of recovery. Thus, recovery is a powerful tool in rebuilding one’s life after tragedy, adversity, and misfortune. Recovery speaks to the power of God and His ability to work through at least three inexorable phases of life. At some juncture, everyone will experience the following: creation, disorientation, and reorientation. Everything in life has a beginning or initial existence (creation). Whatever God allows to exist, He also makes concessions for disorder (disorientation). Whenever God allows a person to experience disorientation, that person becomes a viable candidate for a new beginning (reorientation).
Genesis chapters 37-50 highlights one of the most famous recovery (reorientation) narratives in the Bible. Joseph was a symbol of faithfulness, obedience, love, humility, and recovery. After mistreatment and abandonment by his brothers (Gen. 37:18-28), he was sold as a slave (Gen. 37:36) and later falsely imprisoned in Egypt (39:19-23). How was Joseph able to recover from these traumatic experiences?
Faithfulness and Obedience
In his book Genesis, Allen P. Ross states the following: “That Joseph did not lose faith in God’s promise is proven by his willingness to interpret dreams. He was still convinced that God’s revelation in his two previous dreams (37:5-7, 9) would be fulfilled.” Joseph had faith that God would also do there, in that foreign land, what had gotten him into trouble in his hometown, that is, interpreting dreams. To interpret dreams, Joseph had to stay connected to God. Also, he had to keep trusting and exercising his faith in God. In times of disorientation, one of the worst things that we can do is disconnect or lose faith in God. Facing the tumultuous moments in life requires that one remain faithful and never doubt or lose trust in God. Our faith in God reveals that we are not serving Him because He shields us from life’s adversities. Often, our faith in God is “in spite of.” In spite of the disorientation that God allows into our lives, we must remain faithful (Job 13:14).
In addition to our faithfulness, in times of disorientation, God has mysterious ways of testing our faith (1 Pet. 1:6-7). However, our devout faithfulness and obedience to His will should always remain steadfast. Why? God is sovereign. Thus, at any point, He can allow our lives to reach a state of disarray and require restoration and recovery. Joseph’s life epitomizes God’s desire for His people to serve him faithfully, no matter the amount and level of adversity He allows them to encounter.
Love and Humility
While maintaining his faithfulness and obedience to God, Joseph also demonstrated love and humility. In Genesis 45:1-15, Joseph tearfully and humbly accepted the brothers who abandoned him in the cistern many years earlier (37:24). The love and forgiveness that Joseph showed his brothers were further enhanced by blessing them with prized land in Goshen (Gen. 45:9-10). When his brothers were brought before him, not knowing who he was, they bowed down to him (Gen. 43:28). Joseph could have bragged that he always knew his dream would come true. However, as a sign of love and humility toward his brothers, he “wept” (Gen. 43:30; 45:1).
The Recovery
After Joseph was sold into slavery (Gen. 37:36), the narrator does not offer any insight into Joseph’s feelings, emotions, and thoughts while traveling to Egypt as a slave. One is left to assume that Joseph may have had feelings of fear and uncertainty. The biblical text does not paint a pretty picture of Joseph’s road to recovery, but his recovery is forever etched on the pages of biblical history. Joseph’s recovery presents at least three things: purpose, provision, and pardon.
Through all that Joseph experienced, he did not lose sight of God’s purpose for his life. To his brothers, he stated, “God sent me before you to preserve life” (Gen. 46:5; 50:20b). Joseph was not in Egypt by accident. Thus, whenever you find yourself in a state of disorientation, and you make it to a place of recovery, you did not get there by accident. God divinely orchestrates the events of your life (Jer. 29:11). Another point of Joseph’s recovery is the idea of God’s provision. In Egypt, Joseph ascended to second in command to Pharaoh (Gen. 41:38-45), and when the famine struck, since Joseph was over the process for food collection and distribution (Gen. 41:46-49), he was able to provide food for his brothers (Gen. 45:11, 21). In our stage of recovery (reorientation), God can bless and enrich our lives to the extent that we can bless others. The final component of Joseph’s recovery is the ability to pardon. After Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers thought he would execute revenge on them for their prior mistreatment of him (Gen. 50:15). However, Joseph did what all of us should do when we have been mistreated to the extent that our lives are cast into a state of disorientation, he pardoned his brothers. He said, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place?.... You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” (Gen. 50:19-20a). When God allows us to recover, we should never hold a grudge against anyone who contributed to our lives being in a state disorientation.