When Jon mentioned that he wanted to talk about Joseph, I was very excited. I remember hearing Joseph’s story from pastor Judah Smith (Generation Church), but I don’t even remember what the lesson that he’d linked together was. So to be honest, I don’t even know why I was excited, really.
Jon was talking about how we all should have hopes. Hopes for higher things than just “I hope to have a house one day” or “I hope to make <this> and <that> before I’m <how old>”. After all, Joseph had shown much more than that. He went through a lot of crap for almost 20 years of his life. With that, there were 4 things that really stood out in his life for today’s lesson. Those things were:
- Joseph always did the right thing. No matter what situation he was in.
- He knew God and His faithfulness. He trusted God’s greater plan, even though his life was in a gutter.
- By trusting in God, he was also not giving up. He’ll do his thing while waiting for God.
- He had opportunities to confront people in his life that had done him wrong, he chose grace to confront. Not anger.
Afterward, we met up as a small group. I really wasn’t getting any input from anyone. Mainly because there were only 4 of us and our main topic of conversation was how have we grown and how can we improve after the 6 months of small group together. That also was a good conversation, but that’s for another time. Although the focus in the small group wasn’t there, that didn’t mean the message was slowly slipping away, or starting to lose its impact on me.
A day earlier, I was in a car accident. I felt very stupid because a guy that’d hit me and ran away. I had a night to cool off my head, but anger was still burning and growing inside of me. That entire night, I imagined all night that had I caught up with that car, what I would have done to him. I played so many scenarios in my head. Imagined that the guy won’t stop and I’ll ram my car to get his car to flip, or slam into a wall. Then there was a scenario that he had a knife/gun and what would I have done. Of course, there were more details and stuff that needs not to be mentioned :) But after hearing Jon’s message. The part that said Joseph always did the right thing in all situations. That hit me. During those scenarios, I was no longer myself. Anger has gotten the best of me. I was willing to do anything to get back to that person. (had I explained to you what I thought, you’d know that it’s pretty bad… but let’s leave it at that). I guess that Jon’s message had hit me where it hurt.
So after hearing that, I actually calmed down. I’m still angry from time to time. I would still complain about the dent on the door, but Jon’s message reminded me to cool off. I guess I was reminded that I have my own hopes and dreams. To reach there, I better not be distracted that easily with this sort of things. Am I still angry when I see the dent? Yep, but God had taught me to cool off too.
Getting hit sucked. Badly. Letting the guy go probably was worst (for me). But there’s something else that’s bigger than just me getting that instant satisfaction of the moment. Let it go… And move on. *sigh*
- Shogun
