{"id":236,"date":"2025-02-26T22:11:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T22:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2025\/02\/25\/everything-happens-for-a-reason-or-does-it\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T20:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:18:10","slug":"everything-happens-for-a-reason-or-does-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/everything-happens-for-a-reason-or-does-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything Happens for a Reason or Does It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cEverything happens for a reason.\u201d Perhaps you\u2019ve heard someone saying that to you, or maybe you\u2019ve said it to someone else. Frequently, this declaration is shared to comfort someone who has suffered a terrible loss or setback. The idea is that if we can frame the loss as part of God\u2019s plan for our lives, we can start looking for the blessings that are supposed to come our way out of the experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But is this true? Is this the way God works in the world, or does God work love and life amid our messes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past Sunday, the dramatic conclusion of Joseph\u2019s story was read from the Book of Genesis in many churches. This is Joseph, the favored son of Jacob\/Israel and one of twelve brothers (not Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus). Joseph\u2019s story covers over one-quarter of the chapters in Genesis. It concludes with his dramatic reunion with his brothers and father after decades of estrangement brought about through unspeakable betrayal. Joseph\u2019s ten older brothers were envious of Joseph\u2019s privileged status with their father, and Joseph\u2019s precocious self-promotion only strengthened their resentment. Joseph has dreams that portend his supremacy over them, and he freely shares accounts of his dreams. They resolve to kill him, but then, at the advice of Judah, one of the brothers, they sell him to a group of traders who are passing through their territory. Why not make a little money and shift the killing of their teenage brother off to someone else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph ends up in Egypt, where, through a remarkable turn of events (I encourage you to read it for yourself<\/a>), he becomes the Pharaoh\u2019s right-hand man in charge of the royal food stores by the time he\u2019s 30. Joseph\u2019s management of the royal granary makes Egypt a destination for people nearby during a prolonged famine. Consequently, one day, Joseph finds himself unwittingly granting an audience to his brothers who have come to trade for grain. He recognizes them, but they do not recognize him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There they are, standing in front of him, seeking his favor. They\u2019re all there except for his younger brother, Benjamin. Joseph makes judicious inquiries; \u201cHave you any other brothers?\u201d \u201cHow is your father? Is he still alive?\u201d The brothers answer his questions without a thought. They are there to try to make a deal with a rich and powerful man. Joseph sends them on their way with the grain they sought and the directive that should they need to return for more, he won\u2019t see them unless they bring their little brother with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They do need to return, so they bring Benjamin along against their aging father\u2019s wishes. There\u2019s a meeting, money, and grain are exchanged, and the caravan of brothers is on their way back home again, still unaware that they\u2019ve been trading with Joseph. Unknown to them, they are also carrying a silver cup from Joseph\u2019s house that was planted in Benjamin\u2019s sack. The cup give\u2019s Joseph\u2019s men the excuse to apprehend the brothers and bring them back to Joseph with a charge of theft. An \u201coutraged\u201d Joseph demands restitution. Benjamin must remain behind as Joseph\u2019s slave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is where the story takes an important turn. Judah, the one who talked his brothers into selling Joseph into slavery, pleads to be enslaved in his younger brother\u2019s place. His reason for this offer of self-sacrifice isn\u2019t fraternal love. Benjamin is the youngest and the only full brother of Joseph, the son of Jacob\u2019s favored wife, Rachel, who died in childbirth. Judah knows that with Joseph gone all these years, his father Jacob hangs on to Benjamin as the only living legacy of his beloved late wife. He tells Joseph, \u201cIf the boy doesn\u2019t return home, our father will die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judah has taken responsibility for selling Joseph all those years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph, moved by his half-brother\u2019s confession, reveals his true identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine their shock. One minute Judah is begging for Benjamin\u2019s life, and the next minute they\u2019re all confronted with the awful reality that they are in the presence of someone powerful whom they brutally wronged years ago. This can\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Joseph is not speaking in anger. He is not seeking revenge. He says to his brothers, \u201cDo not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On first read, it appears that Joseph is sweeping all that they\u2019ve done against him because \u201ceverything happens for a reason.\u201d But Joseph isn\u2019t minimizing what they\u2019d done. When he revealed himself to them, he said, \u201cI am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.\u201d That is telling it like it is. And then, after he has forgiven them, this one who made his brothers angry with stories of his dreams of superiority commissions them to return to their father with the news that it\u2019s all come true. He says to them, tell him \u201cGod has made me lord of all Egypt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody is a pawn in a divine plan. Everyone is accountable for their actions. Forgiveness is given as a gift of grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is Joseph able to do this? It is through the spiritual gift of hindsight. As Joseph looks back on his life, he sees with the suffering, one example of divine grace after another. Such understanding only comes with hindsight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the sixth chapter of Luke, Jesus is recorded telling his hearers to \u201cLove their enemies.\u201d We have no idea what his hearers thought of his teaching in the moment. Luke doesn\u2019t tell us. What we do know is that Luke compiles this record after Jesus\u2019 resurrection when the whole community of Jesus\u2019 followers, including those who heard him teaching about loving ones enemies, could look back on all that had happened with the spiritual gift of hindsight and see how powerful Jesus\u2019 life of love was for them and for everyone. They know that love and mercy define their lives, not an enemy\u2019s hatred. May it be so among us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr. Jim <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev. Katherine Museu<\/a>s<\/em> and Rev. James A. Wetzstein<\/a> serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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