The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. – Genesis 40:23

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 9, 2012): Genesis 40

Stress makes us think differently. It focuses our attention on just the one problem that is in front of us. Absolutely nothing else matters. It is a different sort of life. Normally we don’t exist in that space. Every day there are so many things that needs our attention, so much that is important. But when stress attacks, our attention narrows. In the middle of the stress situation it is hard to imagine why the things that once occupied our imagination ever held any importance for us.

And then a mysterious thing happens. The stress disappears and all of those things that seemed important, but were wildly unimportant during the time of stress, become important again. And the events that happened during the time of extreme anxiety fade into our distant memory. It is the phenomenon of those late night prayers. God, if you will deliver me from this pain, then I will do whatever it is that you need me to do. But we don’t usually follow through, not because we are evil, but just because the stressor has been removed.

When he was in prison, the only thing that mattered in the life of the cupbearer was surviving and hopefully getting out of the jail. The idea of prison in the ancient world was different than our contemporary idea of justice would allow. In the ancient world, people could be put in prison without a trial, and often could be just forgotten there. It was a living death.

So the cupbearer has a dream, and Joseph interprets the dream. The cupbearer is released and he promises Joseph that he will remember him. But the stress that occupied his being while he was in jail quickly becomes a distant memory. Now so many other things take precedence over what happened there – including making sure that the king is kept happy so that he never had to return to prison again.

He wasn’t evil, but that doesn’t quite remove the guilt. He should have remembered. And so should we. We aren’t evil because we forget, but we should take care to follow through with the commitments we make – our yes needs to be yes even in times of stress. Or maybe we need to be careful about the commitments that we make even when the walls are falling down around us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 41