The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. – Genesis 39:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 8, 2012): Genesis 39

I love Hawaii. Now, in an attempt to be totally open, I have only been there once. And it is probably a little misleading to like a place over a single visit – especially a visit that was made during a vacation. I mean, what places do we go to on vacation that we don’t like? I can think of a couple of places I haven’t liked on vacation and both were weather related reasons. I like the sun and the heat, so anyplace I can go where those two things are present, I am going to be happy. I have even enjoyed my trips to Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario. But part of what I like about Toronto (and Hawaii and Arizona and California and a few other places), besides the weather is that when I am there I don’t have any responsibilities. I can relax, take it easy and do anything that I want to do.

Sometimes I even believe that the quality of my life would change if I could just have a change of location. In this place I could accomplish all of those things on my bucket list that I want to accomplish. And it feels right, but I also know that I am living in a delusion. If I did follow my dreams and move, well, when I arrived I would no longer be on vacation and all of life’s struggles would be back – as well as the struggle to get things accomplished.

I think it would have been easy for Joseph to sit back and simply wish that he was someplace else. If he was back at the homestead with dad and had all of the advantages that money can buy, then he could be successful. But exactly what was it that he could achieve as a slave in a foreign land? God, maybe I could succeed at some other time and in some other place.

But God’s intention has always been for us to “bloom where we are planted.” God’s blessing on us is not dependent on place. Wherever it is that we are, that is where God wants us to be successful. The truth of the story of Joseph is that he was never going to be what God had designed him to be in the place where he was comfortable. But when God made him a slave, then Joseph really began to taste prosperity that God had for him.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 40