Vision

"So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt." -Genesis 45:8
Recently I remembered the story of Joseph in the bible. Joseph was a man who probably had all the reason to believe his life could not be any worse. His own brothers disowned him and sold him to slavery because they hated him. It's bad enough being sold into slavery, but Joseph was sold by his own brothers. After that, he was able to gain favor with his master, and his master trusted Joseph with more and more responsibilities. When the master left the house, he left Joseph in charge. The master's wife found that Joseph was handsome and strong, and so she tried to have sex with him. Joseph knew that if he gave in to her, his master would be upset with him, and so would God. So Joseph decided to fight his desire to sleep with her and he literally ran away from her. She became upset with Joseph and made false accusations about him to his master, and he was thrown into prison. In prison, Joseph was able to gain favor with the prison keeper, and eventually with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Joseph was able to get the position of second in command of Egypt. His brothers went to Egypt during a famine, and he was able to help them. (If you want to read the whole story you should read Genesis. I think his story starts around chapter 37.) While Joseph's story has many amazing things in it, what I find amazing is his vision. The way he viewed his life is incredible. He had so many chances in his life to just give up and forget about any vision he ever had for his life, but he didn't. When nothing was going right for him, he was still able to look at the bigger picture of his life. Had he only focused on his current situation, he probably would have given up on life. He was able to see his life as a whole, not in parts. Many times we focus on different parts in life, and we forget that how the parts fit together is what really matters, not the parts themselves. Think of a puzzle; it's not one part that makes the picture, but the sum of the parts. When your vision is focused on only your current situation, you forget the bigger picture. In an earlier post I talked about relaxing. Use that time to see how the different times in your life fit together. Don't let your vision become to narrow. Never forget that there is more to life than your current situation. Maybe your life doesn't seem to make sense. Remember that there is going to be more to your life than your current situation. Keep your vision broad.
-Smart