More Than a Dream Coatනියැදිය

BORN THAT WAY

We’re back to the perfect little stone cottage next to the deep blue lake. It’s easy to see that the cottage was built on a farm that belonged to the same family for many generations. There is a family cemetery nearby. And the entrance from the main road bears a well-worn sign with names and dates from more than a hundred years ago. How lucky to be born into a life like that!

Joseph had also been lucky that way. “Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age” (Genesis 37:3, NLT). Joseph had nothing to do with being his father’s favorite child. He had no control over the baggage that came with his father’s past hurts. But it didn’t stop his brothers from hating him for it (v. 4).

Is that not the root of so many social problems of our day? We hate people from other races for the land they inherited from their forefathers. And we hate the next race for fighting over it. We hate the brat-like behavior of the rich who have everything handed to them on a platter. And we hate the poor who steal and kill someone for their cell phone.

In our personal lives, it may be more subtle. The friend whose family members are all tall and skinny, regardless of how many hamburgers they eat per week. The pastor, who had a fully established ministry handed over to him by his father. The brother who gets all the family’s time and attention because he excels at anything that involves a ball. Or all the other people whose lives seem to work out great because of the love they knew in their childhood homes.

Do you know someone who seems to have been born with an unfair advantage? What would your life have looked like if you had the same opportunities? Do you sometimes have feelings of resentment toward them?

Let us be honest about our struggles with circumstances we cannot control. And let us see our lives change for the better as we allow the Lord to heal us. “But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom... For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind” (James 3:14-16, NLT).