His Life Was Basically A Telenovela | Quarantine Quiet Times
By Keila Mingo
Perhaps you’re like me and you’ve had the unfortunate experience of feeling your stomach drop to the bottom of your feet while simultaneously feeling like the metaphorical rug has been yanked from right under you. Your top is bottom and your bottom is… well, it’s on the bottom, too, because you’re, “MAN DOWN!” Maybe you’ve heard the well-meant, “You’ll get ‘em next time, champ!” or “It just wasn’t meant to be.” While there is truth to those statements, they don’t necessarily bring comfort or obliterate the disheartenment you might be feeling. Let’s be real and let’s be honest — sometimes things don’t go our way and it just plain ol’ sucks.
I think it’s safe to say we’ve all been affected in one way or another by COVID-19 and the Quarantine it brought along with it. I’m sure we’re all experiencing so many different emotions: fear, anger, annoyance, anxiety, loneliness, etc. I’m positive we could spend hours and hours talking about all of these emotions, but today I just want to address something we’re maybe all feeling: disappointment.
I don’t know about you, but I had some major plans and expectations for the upcoming year. And just like that, - finger snap - CANCELLED. Right now, it basically feels like 2020 got cancelled. There are a lot of “Whys” and “Hows” being asked, and frankly, not a lot of answers. It’s enough to send someone spiraling.
But we’re not going to spiral. We’re going to take a deep breath, and we’re going to deal with the disappointment we’ve been handed. Now, before we go any further, you might be saying, “Yo, chill. We’re Christians — God has a plan, and we can’t go out there saying it’s a disappointment.” To that I will say the following, “You are absolutely correct. God has a plan, and while His plan won’t end in disappointment, it is okay to be disappointed in the current circumstance, and I’ll tell you why.”
There are a lot of Godly men and women in the Bible who went through disappointment. Men and women who were, to any unknowing bystander, dealt a fairly sad hand. Hannah, Elizabeth, Rachel, are just a few women that come to mind who had many years filled with unmet expectations and hopes while they waited for a baby to love on. Job was a man of God, but a man eagerly awaiting God’s deliverance from the worst of the worst, only to wake up to the horrifying reality that the worst of the worst was just getting worse and worse every day. Poor Moses went through so much leading the Israelites to the promised land, only to die right before they even got there! JUST IMAGINE — the dude’s whole adult life’s work, and he didn’t even get to see the fruits of his labour.
There are many more we could examine, but I really want to focus on one who I think is incredibly relatable.
Joseph — the kid with the coloured robe.
If you’ve never read the story of Joseph, oh boy, you’re missing out! I aggressively encourage you to give it a read before diving into this because it is a story that will blow your mind. You can find his entire story in the book of Genesis, starting at chapter 37.
When we meet Joseph for the first time, he’s a 17 year old boy who likes to hang out with sheep, wear colourful Gucci robes, and tattle on his older brothers to his dad, Jacob AKA Israel. We get a little backstory and quickly find out he’s his dad’s favourite kid and is pretty much disliked by the rest of his brothers. He also has some psychedelic dreams where he sees himself being “bowed down to” by the rest of his family, like he’s royalty or something. He decides to tell his brothers about these dreams (which, side note: I don’t think he really thought through very well) and they just end up hating him more for them. Turns out his brothers hated him so much, they come up with a Plan B to sell him into slavery. Plan A was to kill him and blame it on a wild beast, which was quickly vetoed by Older Bro, Reuben — “That’s just excessive, guys.”
The poor kid gets sold into slavery and is dragged down to Egypt. So much for the psychedelic, royalty-infused dreams, right? The guy went from colourful robes to tattered rags. I think it’s safe to say he was probably very disappointed that life was just not going the way he originally envisioned it going. Putting aside his dreams and expectations of being worshipped, even the most basic, “that’s-a-given” expectation wasn’t being met: Being loved by family. He was literally sold by his own siblings and sent to the worst place he could’ve gone to. I mean, Egypt was at that point a Godless, scary place. But the Bible says God was with Joseph and He helped him succeed in everything he did. An officer of Pharaoh’s, Potiphar, noticed him and brought him into his house. He liked the way Joseph did things and could see God had blessed him, so he made him Little Big Honcho in his own house! Things seemed to be looking up for Joseph!
Just kidding… it gets bad again.
Now, if you want all the details and you want to see just how real things got for him, I once again encourage you to read his story. It’s only a few chapters long but it’s heavily layered with drama, angst, lust, fear, PRISON, more psychedelic dreams, more betrayal, death… It’s a rollercoaster of emotions. Things keep happening to him even though he loves God and he obeys God. You can’t help but feel sorry for Joseph because it seems like he can’t catch a break! He’s even stuck in prison for TWO WHOLE YEARS, forgotten by those he helped and served, before someone gave him another thought.
Yeah, I know… talk about plans and years getting cancelled. The dude got quarantined for years!
But even though all of these things happened, he wasn’t actually forgotten. He wasn’t actually alone while “quarantined.” He wasn’t an after-thought. Although he’d actually been “dealt a terrible hand” and he didn’t know the answers to the “Whys” and “Hows,” God was working. The Bible says God showed Joseph “steadfast love” during his time in prison.
SPOILER ALERT: If you don’t want the entire story spoiled, I suggest you do a U-turn and head straight for your Bible right now!
His story ends with God using Joseph’s psychedelic dreams and dream-interpreting abilities to not only save the country of Egypt from a terrible famine, but also to make him Big Shot #2, Pharaoh’s right hand man.
Fast forward a couple years from that moment, and his brothers travel all the way down to Egypt to buy food because the famine had spread throughout. They arrive and they DON’T. EVEN. RECOGNIZE. HIM. And, yo… side note: Joseph’s dream came true because they all bowed down to him! I am telling y’all… it’s a wild story from beginning to end, but it doesn’t even end there.
What does Joseph do? He basically crafts this big master plan and scares the living daylights out of his brothers by testing them. You definitely have to read the entire encounter because it’s straight out of a telenovela. In the end, though, Joseph reveals his identity and of course, Bros. & Co. are shocked to the core and scared because they know what they did all those years ago was wrong. Joseph forgives them for everything and says,
“And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life… And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” (Gen. 45:5, 7-8)
Mic drop.
Despite everything that happened, despite the disappointments, despite the hurts and the hurdles, Joseph recognizes God’s hand in his life. He knows just because those terrible things happened, it didn’t mean God didn’t have control or wasn’t orchestrating something greater for his life. Although he might not have known what God’s plan or purpose was during the disappointments, his faith didn’t waiver and he knew God would come through.
Looking at Joseph’s life, I can’t help but think about that steady faith of his and how it stayed firm during all of the disappointments, ups and downs, he experienced. Joseph knew his expectations, hopes, dreams, plans needed to be dependent on God’s purpose and plan for his life.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Relying on our expectations of people or circumstances for satisfaction, security or purpose will always lead us to disappointment, and God allows us to experience these disappointments so we can understand this absolute truth: “Sometimes He lets us hit rock bottom so we can discover He is the Rock at the bottom.” (Tony Evans) He is unshakeable, unmovable, He is solid, He is steady, and He is still good.
We all have expectations and it’s hard not to have them. Like I said at the beginning, being disappointed is okay. Disappointment in this world is inevitable, but it is not a sin, it’s just an emotion. How we handle our disappointments can turn into sin. Disappointment often leads to doubting God’s goodness, and once the seed of doubt is planted into our hearts, it’s hard not to look to other things to place our hopes and expectations on. Those lead to more disappointments, which in turn lead to more doubt. It becomes a terrible cycle.
Blaise Pascal said, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
St. Augustine said, “You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is unquiet until it rests in you.”
C.S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
A practical way to combat disappointment and its potential threat to our relationship with Christ is THANKSGIVING. Give thanks. Turn your eyes again to God!
1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
And Habakkuk 3:17-18 says, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread on my high places.”
Replace that “THOUGH” for whatever you’re going through, whatever your heart is hurting about, whatever disappointment you’re experiencing… “Though… I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength!”
Sometimes we won’t get an answer to the “Whys” and disappointments, but that’s not always the point. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion (Phil. 1:6). Trust that although you may never fully understand everything God is doing, it is much greater than any of your expectations, hopes or dreams, and it is to draw you and those around you closer to Him.
BONUS: If you made it this far, I would suggest this AWESOME article, very much pertaining to this time in our lives and how to deal with the unanswered “Whys”.