One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the story of Joseph. If you read and really understand this story, you will see that nothing is coincidental and that all things work according to God's plan. It might not be according to YOUR plan, but it all works out for the best.
Just check out the story of Joseph.
Joseph had a bunch of brothers. I think it was about 12 of them mugs altogether. But Joseph's father loved him the best. The reason he loved him more is because Joseph's father had a bunch of baby Momma's and he loved Joseph's mother more than the other momma's and therefore was the proudest of Joseph.
The other brothers didn't like Joseph because of their father's blatant favoritism. (Side note: you should never treat any of your children better than the others. If you don't believe me, check out this story for proof.)
Well, one day, Joseph's father bought him a really nice coat with a lot of colors in it. It was an expensive coat and his brothers were jealous because of it. To give you an example using today's standards-did you ever watch the movie, Starsky and Hutch where Snoop Dog plays Huggy Bear? I think it's on either Showtime or HBO right now. Towards the end of the show, Snoop comes out in this big old fur coat with a lot of colors in it. I don't know why, but when I saw that movie, I thought of Joseph and wondered if his coat looked anything like the one Snoop Dog was wearing in that movie.
Anyway, I digress.
Well, Joseph loved the coat and wore it all the time. Then, one day Joseph had a dream and made the apparent mistake of sharing his dream with his brothers. He dreamed that one day they would bow down to him.
Well, if this wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back. His brother's started plotting and came up with a plan to get rid of him so that their father can stop showing him all the love and start showing them some. Their plan was to kill him. One of the brother's talked them out of killing him and made them agree to simply put him in a ditch and leave him there. They were going to bring his coat back home and tell his father that some wild animal must have killed Joseph.
So they did. They threw him in the ditch and took his coat. But then, they had another fantastic idea. There were these guys who were buying people to bring them to Egypt to be slaves. So, the brother's said, hey, why not make a few bucks off of him and sell him to these guys as a slave. This way our brother's blood won't be on our hands, but he will be out of our lives.
That's exactly what they did.
Now, I don't know about you, but if I were Joseph, I might not be able to see any Godly plan in all of this. How could this be a POSITIVE thing-my brothers selling me into slavery and taking my Huggy Bear coat?
I know I would have gotten angry with my brothers and been ready to fight. I probably would have gotten a little angry with God, too, for allowing this to happen to me.
There will be times when you are working towards a goal or towards something that is important to you, and then something comes out of nowhere and sets you back. At the time, it might seem like a horrible thing. But chances are, it is not. God has a plan. You might not understand His plan it right now, but trust me, He does.
Well, back to Joseph.
He gets sold into slavery.
Listen to this. God never left his side. Joseph knew this and simply allowed God to lead his life.
Because God loved him and showed favor to him, Joseph wasn't the kind of slave that we visualize when we think of slavery. He wasn't picking cotton and singing, "Swing Lo'". No, none of that. But he was a slave who had a wise master. His master saw that God was with Joseph and that everything that Joseph did, even though he was a slave, prospered. So, his master found favor in him and made him a "house slave." Joseph's job was to take care of the master's needs.
Joseph was cool with where he was and simply went with the flow. He remained positive and held fast to his belief in God.
His master had a wife who was big on Joseph. I liken her to a "gold digger." She saw that everything Joseph did was prosperous and so she wanted to get her hands around him and get in like Flynn. But Joseph was a godly man and was not going to sleep with his master's wife. Then, like any other Gold Digger, she got highly offended because Joseph wasn't falling for her little games. She figured he'd get him back by lying to her husband and telling her husband that Joseph was trying to get with her. This, of course, angered her husband, Joseph's master, who couldn't believe that Joseph would do such a thing, especially after how wonderful he had treated Joseph. But, of course, he took his wife's word over Joseph's and had Joseph put in jail.
Now, I don't know about the laws back then, but that seemed like a harsh punishment for coming on to someone's wife (even though he never did come on to her). But, nevertheless, that is where he ended up.
So now, look at Joseph's life-his brothers get angry with him because their father loves him more (nothing Joseph has control over). Then, he gets sold into slavery--gets a good master, but a bad master's wife, who gets him thrown in jail for nothing.
Seems rather hard, doesn't it?
But God isn't finished with him yet. Everything happens for a reason.
Joseph goes to jail and is simply forgotten-or so it seems. Time keeps ticking away and he has more than served his time. Why is he forgotten? Well, because right now the timing isn't right. Everything works in God's time-not ours.
Even though he is in jail, God is still with him and the wardens find favor in him (isn't it "coincidental" that everyone finds favor in Joseph? No, because nothing is coincidental. Everything happens for a reason. God has him in jail-waiting for the right time so He is going to make his stay as pleasant as possible.)
While he was in jail, he interprets two inmates' dreams, both of which come true exactly the way he said they would. One gets out and one gets the electric chair (or the equivalent to the electric chair nowadays.)
The one that gets out is supposed to remind the people that Joseph is there so he, too, can get out. But, he forgets about Joseph. Sounds like a bad thing, doesn't it? Well, it is not because the timing still isn't right for the plan that God has for Joseph.
Then one day the King has a dream that bothers him. He doesn't understand what it means, but feels that it has a meaning to it. There is no one who could interpret his dream. This is when the guy (who happens to be the baker for the King-coincidence? Not at all) remembers Joseph and how accurate he was in his dream interpretation.
So, they call Joseph out of jail. He interprets the dream and the King puts him in charge of saving Egypt by preparing for the drought that is going to hit the land over the next seven years. He is no longer a slave but the most important person in Egypt.
WOW. Now this entire story is fantastic when you think of it. His brothers HAD to do what they did. Even though it was evil and the whole nine yards, but without this part of his life, Joseph would not have been able to save Egypt. See how everything works for the best.
If Joseph wasn't sold into slavery and given the master that he was given, you know, the one with the whore, gold digging, wife, Joseph probably would never have ended up in jail where he happen to be at the exact same time as the two men who had dreams. If he wasn't there to interpret their dreams, who knows what could have happened? Even more "coincidental" one of the inmates was let go. If both of them died, no one would have known that Joseph could interpret dreams. And the ex-con who lived, just coincidentally worked as a baker for the King, who coincidentally (two years later mind you) had a dream that needed to be interpreted.
Now, if after reading this you still believe in coincidences, I don't know what to tell you. Your life is not a series of coincidences, but a series of related events that is planned out by God.
When hardships come into your life, it is just preparing you for the greatness that is on the way. Now, your timing may not be aligned with God's timing so just be patient. Everything happens for a reason, and your day to shine is on its way.
Oh, and by the way, Joseph's brothers did end up bowing down to him-just as they did in the dream that started it all.
Dawn Fields is a motivational speaker, author and life coach. She teaches how to discover your life's purpose and incorporate it into your life. Visit the web site at http://www.dawnfields.com and be sure to sign up for Your Lifes Purpose newsletter by sending a blank email to dawn@dawnfields.com and SUBSCRIBE in the subject line and tune in Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST to her radio broadcast at http://www.dawnfields.com/radioshow.htm.