There’s No Such Thing As Insignificance
One of my goals for this year is to read the Bible through – it’s something I started back in October. The last few days I’ve been in Exodus and it’s been awesome reading about the lives of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob again. Their stories have been ingrained in my head since I was a little kid, but reading it now via The Message has allowed me to see it all from a fresh perspective.
Over the past week I’ve been reading about the life of Joseph–we all know his story, how his brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt and how he eventually became second, only to Pharaoh. There’s so many lessons that can be learned from Joseph’s life, but one thing that struck me this week was his faithfulness and how his actions and decisions altered the course of history for Israel. This passage in Genesis 47 is one I’ve never really thought about before. It talks about the famine that was in the land and how Joseph was put in charge of rationing the food…
18 -19 When that year was over, the next year rolled around and they [people from the surrounding regions] were back, saying, “Master, it’s no secret to you that we’re broke: our money’s gone and we’ve traded you all our livestock. We’ve nothing left to barter with but our bodies and our farms. What use are our bodies and our land if we stand here and starve to death right in front of you? Trade us food for our bodies and our land. We’ll be slaves to Pharaoh and give up our land—all we ask is seed for survival, just enough to live on and keep the farms alive.”
20 -21 So Joseph bought up all the farms in Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sold his land—the famine was that bad. That’s how Pharaoh ended up owning all the land and the people ended up slaves; Joseph reduced the people to slavery from one end of Egypt to the other.
This may or may not interest you, but it amazes me how ‘seemingly’ insignificant actions or decisions Joseph made, completely altered the course of an entire nation. And you know the rest of the story–how God led the children of Israel out of Egypt by a faithful descendant of Joseph, named Moses. I believe God is in complete control of everything and that nothing happens by accident, but think about all the seemingly insignificant things that led up to this…
What if Joseph’s brothers hadn’t sold him into slavery?
What if the cupbearer never mentioned Joseph’s name when Pharoah had his dream?
What if Joseph had held a grudge against his brothers? Or just not invited them to move to Egypt?
See the significance now?
I’ve been getting a little tired of the daily grind lately. It feels as though I do the same thing day after day and that what I’m doing really has no value or significance–but that couldn’t be further from the truth. After reading the story of Joseph, I am reminded that the choices and decisions I make are never insignificant… they can, and often do, have far reaching implications.
Take a look at your life. What seemingly insignificant decisions or choices have you made that changed your life and/or the lives around you?
But, to answer your original question, the wife and I made a decision not long ago (that I'm not gonna go into too much detail about right now) that, although quite serious, seemed to have clear cut consequences.
Those consequences did settle in, but things – good, unexpected things – ended up coming from it that we never saw coming.
I know, that's vague. Soryy I couldn't do better.
I am at the same exact place. I enjoy my job and I am so thankful that I have a good stable position..but what "good" does me being in Product Adminstration do?
Our pastors sermon last week was on Joseph, and his story. Even in the midst of the junk he went through he kept making good Godly decisions…and he was rewarded for that. Like you said no matter what our daily grind is like our choices are never insignificant.
great words…