Chapter Three... "Favorite Son"

I read this week about a girl named Jennifer.  She had attended church where Randy Frazee, the editor of "The Story" was preaching at the time.  She had come up in a rough family situation.  Single mom.  Drug-addict brother.  She was bound and determined to "make it" in life. but the cards seemed stacked against her.  But she was a "dreamer."

She dreamed of going to college and becoming a nurse.  She imagined herself helping people, especially people who were hurting.  She had a sharp mind and a tender heart and she wanted to learn the skills necessary to help hurting people when they needed it most.  Her family was unable to carry the financial burden of college, however so Jennifer was pretty much on her own with her dreams.  After high school she was accepted into college - one with a strong nursing program- but she didn't have the money to pay her tuition.  She didn't give up.  Deferring her dream a little while, she took a job and began saving every penny, hoping one day to have enough.  Week by week, dollar by dollar, Frazee tells, she saved her money in a special box that she hid in her bedroom.

Meanwhile, her brother had some run-ins with police.  He had begun stealing things and had gotten into some trouble in school.  Jennifer loved her brother and helped him in every way she could.  One week, she went to deposit her paycheck into her savings box and when she opened it, she discovered all but $20 was missing!  Her own brother had stolen from her to support his habit.  Her dream was shattered... and she felt betrayed.

Personal betrayal cuts to the core.  Many of us have experienced it... some by a family member or a close friend.  Those hurt the worst.  In our story this week, Joseph experienced betrayal by his own brothers.  Not just a little one either.  His brothers conspire against him, sell him to traveling gypsies, and lie to their father about his whereabouts.  They tell their father, Jacob, that his favorite son Joseph is dead.  He isn't of course.  He is enslaved in Egypt and spends the next 22 years struggling with one injustice after another.  At the end, however, God has blessed him and placed him in a position second only to the Pharaoh in Egypt!  It's a remarkable rise to power and is attributable solely to the creator of the universe divinely blessing Joseph.

When his brothers journey to Egypt seeking relief from the famine and realize that it is their punk little brother running the country, they are aghast!  And yet by the end of the "chapter" Joseph has demonstrated such amazing forgiveness.  How could Joseph have such a view of things?  This Sunday we will discuss what it was that enabled Joseph to forgive his brothers and reunite with them.  How can we deal so well with the difficulties life throws our way?

Jennifer?  Her story ends well.  One Sunday in worship she made the decision to let it go and to forgive her brother.  She dropped her last remaining $20 in the collection plate and wrote a note to the preacher telling him of her decision.  When he tracked her down he asked for permission to tell her story, which he did the following Sunday.  After services a couple along with a few others approached him and committed to paying for Jennifer to attend school... not just one semester... but all of it!  Today she is an oncology nurse, a devoted wife and a loving mother.  God does have a way of working things out.

"And we know that in all things God works together for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose."  -Romans 8:28

--Jim

(story told by Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story.  Chapter 3- "I Dreamed a Dream.")