“And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”
—Genesis 45:5 ESV

If we study the life of Joseph in Genesis, we will begin to notice that everything that happened to him served a purpose.

As a slave in Egypt he served as the steward of the house of Potiphar, a position in which he learned and developed skills he would eventually need as the governor of the entire nation.

As a prisoner in the jail of the Captain of the Guard he further developed his gifts of administration and dream interpretation, and even more importantly he met an official from the royal court who would get him the appointment with Pharaoh that resulted in his promotion to second-in-command in all of Egypt.

And of course, without the tragic decision of his brothers to sell him into slavery, Joseph would not have been in Egypt during those critical seven years of prosperity when he was able to store up grain and save entire nations from starvation during the seven years of drought which followed.

Many events simply don’t make sense at the moment, but years later we discover that even the bad things that happened to us were an essential part of making us who we are today.

Trust the process.

Or better said, trust God in the process.

Here is a simple prayer to carry with you today:

Breathe in: I don’t understand;
Breathe out: Even so I trust you.