Where's my dreamcoat?

Jasmine and I are reading through the Bible in a year and Jan 17th took us to the end of Genesis. After seemingly endless chapters of genealogies and people "begetting" other people, we finally have come to the end of the first book of the Bible.  I'm not sure where you are today. It's Friday and many of us have the weekend ahead, even a three day weekend. However, the break from work doesn't always mean a break from responsibility, a break from life. For many of us work is our escape, our way to distract ourselves from the numerous aspects of life that are out of our control. In Gen 50 we find Joseph looking back on the events of his life and showing tremendous grace to his brothers in light of what they did. 50:20: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
 Looking back on the story of his life, we could say that Joseph kept his mind off his own suffering by consuming himself with his work.  Here is a guy that was sold by his family into slavery, falsely imprisoned, and left in jail because the cup bearer was too self absorbed to remember the guy who gave him hope, yet through his whole story we never read that Joseph felt sorry for himself, or that he was depressed and questioning why these terrible things keep happening.  I don't think it's because it never happened, but because it isn't the focus of the story.  Feeling sorry for himself and saying "Woe is me" isn't the point.  Joseph's story is about persevering, it is about serving God and doing what needs to be done regardless of what we may be dealing with.  It is a story of believing that God is working in even the darkest moments of our lives.  
Some times it does come across a bit cliche, or even thoughtless, but it is true: things are not always what they seem, no matter how deep or dark the place is that we find ourselves. When we are hurting or struggling in life we don't want to hear "It could be worse" or "God has a plan". We want to hurt and we want people to hurt with us so that we don't feel so alone. But when we are ready to pick ourselves up, or be picked up which is often the case, these words of Joseph will hopefully resonate in our souls. God is working. We are not alone, He is right there with us.