I see hope in the "pits" of life.

Thought of the day: fasting hopelessness 

I see hope in the "pits" of life.

"So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it." 

Genesis 37:23-24

I have been studying the story of Joseph, on and off, for the past 2 years. 

During this time I have also been running into a reoccurring theme of :"love God, love others."

Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 22:37-39

I was not sure why these two themes kept presenting themselves to me ... until this past week.

 In the beginning of the story of Joseph, we see his brothers ,who hated him, throw him into a pit. They wanted him dead because he was a dreamer and he was his father's favorite. God had given him a dream that one day he would reign over his father and brothers. When he shared this dream with his family, he ended up on a path that led to pits of slavery and prison. 

Lets just say this did not look very promising. He spent the next 13 years in captivity wondering if his God dream would ever come true. He suffered greatly in the pit, but he also must have hoped greatly too. I believe the pit was a place where God prepared him for his dream. 

His pit was his school. 

In the pit he learned all the skills he would need to reign. I think he also learned in the pit to love God so he could love others. Which by the way is the greatest of all the commandments. 

He made the pit a place where he learned to lean on God. It was a place where God filled his hollow broken heart with love so he could some day love "the others" who tried to kill him.

Could our pits be a place where we learn to do what Jesus said was most important? A place where we learn to love God with all our heart, soul and mind so that we can love our neighbor as our self.

While we lean on God in our pit, His perfect love restores our hearts. It is a journey where the heart goes from hollow to whole. When your heart is whole with Gods love it will overflow to others. 

The pit restored Josephs heart to be able to say to the brothers  who hated him, "do not fear , I will take care of you".

  "Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid. Do I act for God? Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good, as you see all around you right now—life for many people. Easy now, you have nothing to fear; I’ll take care of you and your children.” He reassured them, speaking with them heart-to-heart." 

Genesis 50:19-21