A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Where I come from meekness is just another word for weakness.  So why did Jesus say – blessed are the meek?  And is meekness a quality that you and I should search out, or shun?
Can I tell you one of the most exciting things that I've discovered in life? It's this, that when I just get on and do the good things that God's called me to do day after day, not perfectly mind you, not always brilliantly but just doing them quietly, I get this deep sense of satisfaction from just doing those things.
Now that doesn't sound like a particularly earth shattering insight until you understand that for most of my life, at least the first 36 or so years I was flat out chasing and achieving success and recognition and reward and I can truly say that not once during that time did I taste the sweet delight that I know today.
It's like night and day, once the world was kind of a murky monochrome, today I get to live life in a full vibrant technicolour. I can't begin to put words around the difference and in a sense it's taken me years to kind of reflect on that and figure out what was going on.
To tell you the truth I didn't like everything Jesus had to say right from the beginning. Like this one:
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Well meekness, from where I come from, is just another word for weakness buddy, I mean it's a "dog eat dog" business world and you have to claw your way to the top and tread on other people and make it and reap it and spend it. It's all about fame and fortune buddy, it's all about making it and I had those things. At least in the sphere in which I worked.
I travelled the world speaking at large IT conferences and I had a big car and a big salary and I could eat at any restaurant I wanted to and basically I could buy just about anything I wanted to and yet the sweet delight of fulfilment in life eluded me. I was getting it all, it just wasn't satisfying me and then I became a Christian and started reading some of what Jesus had to say and this saying:
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Well it was definitely not on my hit parade. Why? I didn't want to become some mealy mouthed meek little mouse, some sort of weakling. You know wearing boring clothes, smiling lamely, letting people use me as a door mat; you go to Church on Sunday morning with an ever greying congregation. Meekness was some kind of whimpishness and failure and capitulation and then one day I read the definition of the Greek word in the New Testament that we've translated to read "meek". Let me read it to you word for word because it's not very long:
Meekness is mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit. Meekness towards God is that disposition of the spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the Old Testament the meek are those who wholly relied on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice. So meekness towards evil people means knowing that God is permitting the injuries they inflict, that He's using them to purify us and that He'll deliver us in His good time.
Hmm … meekness. Meekness may not be about being a wimp but about accepting everything that happens to me as being from God and so not fighting it. Now that, that really fits with what we've been talking about this last week, flying under the radar, ditching this addiction to worldly success and recognition and having my way and reaping the reward and just quietly getting on with life and honouring God and doing the stuff He's called each one of us to do.
And when people come after us with a meat cleaver and you know, they inevitably do, just relying on God to keep us safe rather than retaliating in our own strength. Phew whee, man that is going to be hard, the more I thought about it the more I came to realise that meekness actually requires an enormous strength and self control, a meek person is someone who keeps their strength in check.
I constantly have people come against me in ministry and in life and it's amazing how many people don't understand what God's called me to do and I'm sure you have had the same from time to time.
My old way of handling was to saw them in half; I mean my tongue can make a grown man cry at 30 paces. I tell you, it's a scary thing. I can be a very scary person and I used to tear people apart limb by limb with words and with logic. Meekness … meekness is the exact opposite of that; meekness says 'I don't have to win' and that's so counter intuitive isn't it? Yet Jesus says:
Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed, happy, joyous because instead of winning the odd battle today they end up winning in the long run, they inherit the earth. You see an inheritance is not something you get now; it's something you get later. Jesus is saying, "Blessed are those who lose now for they will win later." Jesus put it another way too, we looked at it yesterday on the program, He said:
Truly I tell you unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies it produces many seeds. If you love your life you'll lose it but if you hate this life in this world you'll keep it for eternity.
See again, Jesus is talking about reaping a harvest of inheritance, we're not now, later and that takes such enormous faith. It takes such enormous courage to rest in God and let other people do things and behave badly and for us not to attack them back, for us not to get our way, for us not to say, "You know something, I have rights, I've got to win here." No, Jesus wants us to leave them alone and to reap the harvest later.
And so you know when I started to live my life that way, as I said I didn't do it perfectly, I still don't do it perfectly, we all have our days but just living like that with all my heart, deciding I don't have to win anymore. Just doing the best I could knowing that day by day God would bring me battles where I'd have to lay down my right to win and it would hurt and it would be hard.
Honestly each one was difficult at the beginning but little by little I've withdrawn from being Berni the bully. My name Bernard literally means, "to be as strong as a bear". And I am, one of the strongest people you'll ever meet, mentally tough, geared to success and God has called me to lay down the winning and just day by day follow Him.
And sometimes, you know, people do things and say things and they hurt so much and that's the time when I just go to God and just say, "Lord, I just believe in your word that you've called me to lay this down. It's not about my success, my lime light, my being seen by people to win. It's about dying to self, giving up the success and the recognition for me."
You know what I've found even though it's hard, this sweet delight of trusting in His protection, in what He brings day by day and His provision. Just quietly getting on with life without fanfare or drama is such a sweet thing. Well that's my story, what's yours?

We're all programmed to win – at school and at sport and at life.  But – well, what if winning is not what life's all about?  What if God has a plan that is so much deeper and richer than just "winning"?
You know something in this "dog eat dog" world that we live in it seems that there's plenty of dog to go around. It's as though winning is everything; plan, do, succeed and reap the recognition and the reward. There's a lot to be said for that lot, I mean money and possessions and fame and recognition, that's what life's all about.
If only I could buy a bigger house or a better car or a new outfit then I know I'll be happy, I know I will because then people will look at me and say, 'boy, he's made it' or 'she's made it', right? Yeah right (sarcastically). But sadly it's a treadmill that so many people seem to be on, clawing their way to the top, getting their own way, standing up for their rights. There's a whole bunch of different ways we can say it but the bottom line is we just want to be seen as winners, we're recognition junkies.
I mean, okay everybody likes to win and we all like to see out sports men and women win too, our tennis players or our swimmers or our football team. We live in a society that has a 'win at all cost' mentality because the winner takes all. Then God comes along with this crazy plan that, well it's basically completely the opposite of that. Have a listen to how James puts it in the New Testament, James chapter 3:
"Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbour bitter envy or selfish ambition in your hearts, don't boast about it or deny the truth because wisdom like that doesn't come from heaven, it's earthly, it's unspiritual, it's from the devil."
"For where you have envy and selfish ambition there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure then peace loving and considerate and submissive and full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."
"Peace makers who sow peace raise a harvest of righteousness. What causes the fights and the quarrels amongst you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you can't get it so you kill and you covet but you cannot have what you want; you quarrel, you fight, you don't have because you don't ask God. When you ask you don't receive because you ask with wrong motives or you may spend what you get on your own pleasures."
You see, that first kind of so called wisdom he's describing is the selfish kind of wisdom, the world's wisdom, we've all been on the receiving end of that. Ever been stabbed in the back? Ever been walked over and treated like a door mat? It really hurts doesn't it? You can truly say that it does come from the devil, this wisdom of the world, win at all costs. So much is done out of selfish ambition and greed.
You can see it in the Stock Market, a company declares a healthy profit and a dividend to shareholders and yet the share price drops because the market was expecting so much more, they wanted double digit growth. It's an economic model based on greed.
You see it in the work place; boardrooms are dominated by profit motives. Safety's sometimes compromised or the bosses vote themselves these huge bonuses and pay rises and the workers get nothing. And sometimes you see it on the shop floors, the shoes on the other foot, the workers are lazy, they don't put in the effort or a full days work. You see, where there is envy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and every evil practice.
We can all relate to that, some people succeed at the cost of the well being of others, it's a win-lose proposition, a win-lose mentality but then, then James talks about a different kind of wisdom:
.. The wisdom that comes from heaven" he said, "is first of all pure and peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peace makers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
They're interesting adjectives he uses here with this kind of wisdom; peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy. Now that's the sort of wisdom we all want to be on the receiving end of right? But giving out that sort of wisdom, handing out that sort of wisdom to others, that turns the tables. Peace, consideration, submission, mercy. You know something; when we hand out that sort of wisdom it costs us big time.
When someone deserves our retribution for what they've done and yet we show them consideration and mercy in order to have peace that costs us, we have to lay down our right of revenge and that's hard. It means not getting our own way, it means not winning, it means not getting the recognition, not having the satisfaction of revenge. It means sowing before we reap, that's a faith thing. In other words, when we have a quarrel, when we have a desire to win and instead we forgive and we make peace, we lay down our rights, it's sowing a seed. We won't get the benefit then, you see what it says:
Peace makers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.
You don't reap a harvest the moment you sow a seed, it comes later at due time in the season of harvest. It's so contrary to the world's ways, so counter intuitive.
This flying under the radar, giving up our right to public adulation and victory and success and the lime light and all the things that the world says we're entitled to, it feels almost like God's saying become a loser. To live it God's way, plant a seed and believe in faith that God will give you a harvest in due season. Now Jesus explained this paradox another way, He said:
I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies it produces many seeds. If you love your life you'll lose it but if you hate this life, in this world you'll keep it for eternal life.
Jesus is talking about dying to our selfish desires, dying to the right to have recognition and just quietly getting on and following Him. No matter where it takes us, no matter what the cost, no matter how hard it is, no matter that someone's hurt us and we just want to beat them back and Jesus says, "Be a peace maker, be loving, be considerate, be submissive, be full of mercy and good fruit. Sow peace now!"
It's such a sweet delight, in my experience, that dying to myself, to our own selfish ambitions and deceit and all that stuff. You see that's the problem, James goes on to write in chapter 4:
What is the cause of fights and quarrels? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something; you don't get it so you kill and covet but you still can't have what you want. You quarrel and you fight.
See, it's about getting your own way and when we don't get our own way we get really ugly. It's so difficult, it's so difficult to fly under the radar and give all that up and yet there is such a sweet delight in that.
There's such a wonder as we live our lives day after day just quietly following after Jesus, laying down our rights, sacrificing when He calls us to sacrifice. It's not about winning, it's about honouring God with a goodness inside that will stand and remain no matter what the cost.

While the rest of the world is off chasing recognition and success – one of the most wonderful things we can get involved in is –secret service – just flying under the radar into people's hearts.
Sometimes in a quiet moment over a cup of tea in that comfortable chair in my study I get to thinking about my life and the people along the way who've really mattered. You know the people who've had an input into my life and whom I hold dear and special and amongst all those people there are just a few, just a handful who are so incredibly special to me.
My wife of course, some close friends, my mentor of 20 years, Graham, the pastor of my first Church I ever attended, Phil. Less than a dozen of them, I'm sure you're the same, they're just a few really special people in your life whom you hold dear.
Anyhow I was sitting and thinking over my cuppa, 'what makes them so special?' I mean, what's the common thread that runs through each of those relationships? Why is it that those people are so special to me?
In a sense the answer to that question is not surprising but it is profound. You see the answer is that each one, in their own way, have served me so powerfully, they had an input into my life, a secret service hidden away that other people haven't seen. Jacqui is the most wonderful wife to me; she supports me in so many ways.
I have to tell you; you would never get her into the studio, you will never get her to speak on a mic, you'll never get her up on a stage to speak, it is just not her but every time I get behind the mic she's part of that. See, her service is a secret service, her support and her encouragement and all the hard work and all the organising she does. It's hidden, you don't get to see that, it's secret.
Pastor Phil, the pastor of the first Church I attended, served me so incredibly, so sacrificially. God used him to lay the foundations of my faith, not just through what he taught from the pulpit which was brilliant but just how the man lived his life, how he sacrificed, how humble he was to serve me and all the other members of the Church.
Michael Graham my mentor of twenty years who came into my life when I was a very bright and precocious twenty something and moulded me and shaped me and imparted his wisdom to me.
I could go on and over and over again it's the same with each of these really special people. They've done things to serve me in secret; they were instruments in Gods hand that God used to mould me and shape me and turn me into someone that was useful to Him.
It's a service they performed in secret, no public recognition, no trumpets, no fanfare, no lights, no lime light, they just did it and they keep on doing it. They're people who are prepared to pay the price to serve me and to support me and to be honest with me and you know something; there was a cost to that for them.
There's always a cost when we serve people in secret. See, let me tell you a little secret, I wouldn't share this with anyone else, just you, don't tell anyone. I am not always so easy to serve; you see I am a human just like you.
I have my good days and my not so good days and when those people just get on and quietly and faithfully support me and encourage me and have input into my life and give me frank advice and care for me as a person, they demonstrate something. A kind of faithful love and they don't do it for recognition.
See I really believe in our society, we are such recognition junkies. We're into success and reward and achievement. We set goals, we plan, we succeed, we reap the rewards. That is so at odds with this notion of, of secret service, flying under the radar of public recognition into the hearts and the lives of the people around us. One of the best known things that Jesus ever said was this:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Just about everyone has heard that:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
And it sounds simple enough but what an incredible cost there is to that. My mum for a couple of decades now has been caring for my sister who suffers from schizophrenia. Now my mum is well into her 70's, what a cost, or a parent who persists faithfully with an incredibly difficult teenager or a work colleague who stands quietly up for someone who can't defend themselves or compensates for someone's failure, quietly without anyone noticing.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is such an easy thing to say yet such a costly thing to do. Isn't it just easier to step over the top of someone or get your own way or get the recognition and success and reap the rewards? I mean after all 'to the victor go the spoils'. The apostle Paul put it like this, he said:
You my brothers and sisters were called to be free but don't use your freedom to indulge this sinful nature rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command, "Love your neighbour as yourself." If you keep on biting and devouring each other watch out for you will be destroyed by one another.
See, that's why I just don't think this whole recognition junkie thing works at all. I know it's on just about on every TV program and every TV advertisement and the movies we watch, they all scream at us, "be who you want to be, do what you want to do, achieve, succeed. Be beautiful and wealthy and …" all that stuff but if I have a "me at the centre of the universe" attitude and you have a "you at the centre of the universe" attitude, well you don't have to be Einstein to figure out its going to be a pretty ugly world and it is out there.
There are so many people who are into life for just for what they can get out of it, just for the success and the recognition and the reward and the fame. See my hunch is that this "zeit geist" (spirit of the times) of "me, me, me" just doesn't work, it's a con invented by human greed, it's insidious, it's something that grabs each one of us at times in our lives. My life was completely turned around by Jesus, the Son of God who said:
I didn't come to be served, I came to serve.
That was the most amazing revelation for me, when I became a servant, that all of a sudden my life was fulfilled, there was a richness and a meaning and all that time I'd been trying to fill myself up with stuff and success and recognition and I had all of those things, it just never filled me up, it always left me with that hungry empty feeling.
See, my service is doing exactly what I'm doing now, not chasing the big dollars at the top end of town in my consulting practice but using the gifts that God's given me to serve you, today and tomorrow and the next day and I tell you, there is such an incredible joy for me in doing that. In flying under the radar of the big fanfares and the big conferences, all that stuff, into the hearts and the lives of people that God's called me to touch with His love, this secret service.
It's so contrary to the fame and recognition that the world offers but you know something, it rings true doesn't it? It rings pure and true in our hearts, do unto others as you would have them do unto you no matter what the cost, it's exactly the kind of Jesus thing I think.

Isn't it funny how good we are at comparing our lot in life with the circumstances of the people around us?  The grass is always greener right?  But what if – what if we're exactly where God meant us to be?
I'll tell you something that we're all really good at; it's making comparisons between ourselves and other people. We look at our lot in life, our circumstances and we compare that with the next person and ours always looks so crummy and hopeless.
We look in the mirror and we see ourselves warts and all and then we look at our friends and we think, "Wow, I wish I looked like them." Or we compare our abilities with theirs or our marriage with theirs or our house or our car or our status with theirs, whatever it is and we think, "I would love to be doing as well as they are."
You know I think, I think this is a symptom of a deep sickness in our society, an addiction. An addiction to recognition. We've become a bunch of recognition junkies because that's what they feed us on TV and the celebrity magazines and the songs that make the hit parade.
It's all about clamouring for recognition and success, whatever that is, and being noticed and rewarded. At home and at work, on the sporting field and then someone else seems to be getting just a tad more of the lime light than we are, we feel so incredibly wounded, any, any of this sound even vaguely familiar?
I remember this routine so well; I used to hate it when someone else succeeded. School friends or work colleagues, I wanted the glory and the recognition for me, I didn't want them to have any of it.
It's really sad. I mean I can talk about it now quite dispassionately but back then, this would eat away at me like a cancer. See Berni was the quintessential recognition junkie, it's a sign of never growing up, it's a sign of not making the transition from being a child, and children rely on the recognition and approval of their parents, to being an adult.
Sure we all need encouragement but that's different, that's healthy, encouragement is affirming but when we need it to survive, when we hunger after it, when it motivates what we do, then we're getting it all wrong.
Let me give you an example. Numbers and statistics. Ministries like ours on the radio are reaching millions of people around the world each week, touching lives through the media. How do you measure the effectiveness of what we do? Well some people write or call to tell us the impact the programs have had on their lives and you know that's a real encouragement, just to hear someone's story how God used the program last week to unlock something in their hearts. Can I tell you? That gives me an incredible sense of satisfaction.
But last year, last year I was at this seminar and they suggested that we establish "performance based reporting". How many people are responding to your program, how many people are coming to Christ, how many people … ? Kind of reducing Gods work down to a bunch of statistics. You see success is based on the quantification of recognition, that's what they were saying.
See how easy it is to fall into this recognition trap. Can I tell you? If in His day, Jesus had done performance based reporting He would have flunked because in the end they all deserted Him and left Him to die on the cross. And you know something; I know that certain series that we produce will have a stronger response from people than others.
A "what's in it for me" kind of title like "Reaping God's Harvest in My Life" will always have a stronger response than something like 'Flying Under the Radar' which talks about sacrifice. And if I danced to the statistics of recognition I would just tickle your ears with stuff you'd like to hear rather than the stuff that God wants you to hear and that you need in your life. And you know it's the same in every part of our lives.
We can become recognition junkies, looking for recognition whether its in statistics or whether it's pats on the back, whatever it is but flying under the radar is not about recognition, its about being the person that God made us to be and doing the things He called us to do and just honouring Him and living our lives for Him.
The apostle Paul knew that, on death row in a Roman prison, in chains, have a listen to what he writes in his letter to the Church at Philippi:
Now I want you to know brothers and sisters, that what's happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains most of my brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.
Now it's true some of them preach Christ out of envy and rivalry but others out of good will. The latter do so in love knowing that I'm put in here for the defence of the gospel, the former though, preach Christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I'm in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached and because of this I rejoice.
Imagine, he's been ripped out of the lime light, he's staring down the barrel at death, people are taunting him, they're going out and doing what he used to do, preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and they're doing it to stir up trouble for him and to taunt him out of selfish ambition. And his response? His response is, "I don't care because it's not about me, as long as someone's out there telling people about Jesus Christ that's fantastic." There he is in a dungeon on death row.
You know, recently I was flying between Australia and New Zealand, I was up at 35.000 feet in a 747 and I pulled out my PDA, you know the phone and hand held computer and it has an electronic version of the Bible on it and I was reading this passage out of Paul's letter and I thought, "Here I am 2,000 years later, 35,000 feet above a part of the world that Paul didn't even know existed, reading what he wrote in that Roman dungeon. He could never have imagined how powerfully God was going to use him." And that's the point for me.
You see the flashy things that I can do in my own strength to get recognition, to get a laugh then nothing compared to what God can do when He gets a hold of me and uses me in His power. And you know it's the same with you. Sure, you've got some abilities that I don't have and sure, you could use them to get some flashes of recognition but when you place those abilities in Gods hands He multiplies them with a power and an impact that will take our breath away.
It's not about you and I comparing our lots with another, it wasn't about Paul sitting in that dungeon on death row comparing his lot with the people that were out there taunting him, it's not about that. God takes us through dungeons from time to time. Yours are going to be different to mine. And then He shapes us and moulds us and uses us for His glory and the way He uses you will be different to the way that He uses me. It's not about recognition. It should never be about recognition and numbers and statistics and, and, it shouldn't be.
People whom He uses powerfully are those that co-operated with Him in that dungeon, just kind of faithfully following Him, flying under the radar of public recognition, being there, standing there, doing what He's called you to do for His sake – under the radar.

God does some strange things sometimes.  He leads us into hidden places – lonely places, dark places and seems to leave us there.  What's He up to?  Why does He do that?
I love the term, "flying under the radar" and it's become incredibly special to me as I read a book of that same name written by one Douglas Webster. The whole notion is that sometimes, in combat, aircrafts fly so low, literally just feet above the ground or the sea that the enemy's radar can't detect them. They're invisible as they fly along until they reach their objective and that's the idea of "flying under the radar". It's an idea that's so important, it turns out, in life as well.
See we live in a world where people are clamouring for recognition, to be noticed, to be valued, to be rewarded, to be thanked. And in fact, it seems we're a generation of recognition junkies. I think that's what the whole celebrity things about. And yet you look around at the people that you and I really respect, I mean people of substance, people of real achievement and by and large those kinds of people, few and far between as they are, they want little to do with worldly success and recognition. It seems that they're prepared to fly under the radar.
Now I have to tell you, I am your quintessential recognition junkie. I mean most of my life, the first 36 years of my life, this manifested itself in so many different ways. In the cars that I drove: I always chose the most expensive flashy good looking car that I could possibly afford.
The houses that I lived in: it was always important that they were big and pretentious and they said something about who I was and what I'd achieved and the success that I had and the money that I had.
The way that I dressed: I always dressed, you heard of the term "power dressing"? You put on the really bold coloured tie and a dark suit and a white shirt and you know, to look like you're powerful.
The priorities I had in life: in being noticed, being seen, going to the right functions, mixing with the right people, mingling. Always making sure that at work the boss knew who was responsible for all that good stuff that came across his or her desk and taking every little opportunity, subtly, to undermine my work colleagues just so that people knew who was on top and who was the top dog.
You recognise any of those? It's a subtle thing this addiction to recognition but it's there in so many ways. I mean recognition is really important for children because that's how they build their self esteem. Parental approval is an important component of the emotional growth of a child, they need to be patted on the back often, that's how they grow. But like mothers milk, it's something we're supposed to be weaned off.
As we grow and mature we're supposed to become people who don't survive on recognition, who don't perform for the crowd. The problem is, for a long time at least, I never grew up and you know something; there are lots of people like that, they're still addicted to recognition. It's a sad addiction because its something you can never get enough of, it's like heroin; we're worried about what people think of us.
You know what weaned me off that? It was suffering in a hidden place. I look back on when I became a Christian fifteen years ago and it was at a time in my life of pain and distress. There were major things going on in my life, I still had the expensive flashy car and the high flying job and all that stuff but I was in a dark and lonely place. It was so black that words can't describe it. It was so lonely.
It was a pit so deep that there seemed to be no way out and at the time I was just starting to come to grips with who God might be, if He existed at all and like everyone who ends up in a place like that, I said, "God why? Why do I have to go through this? Why?" We all ask that question don't we? Why? And heres what I've noticed about God, He inevitably does His greatest miracles in our lives in those dark lonely places.
Joseph ... Joseph was Abraham's great grandson. Abraham has a son called Isaac. Isaac had a son called Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons one of whom was Joseph. You may have heard the story of Joseph and the Technicolour Dream Coat, Joseph had these dreams about how all his other brothers were going to bow down to him one day, he was dads favourite. I tell you, his brothers wanted to kill him, literally, but instead of killing him ultimately they double crossed him and sold him into slavery.
Can you imagine? Your own brothers trap you in a pit and they sell you as a slave, I mean that's incredibly unfair and so these slave traders took him down to Egypt and he was sold in a market to a man called Potiphar but Joseph was a class act and ultimately Potiphar put Joseph in charge of all of his affairs and obviously young Joseph wasn't bad looking either because Potiphar's wife wanted to drag him into bed. And when he refused she accused him of rape and Joseph, who did the right thing, ends up in prison.
See, life is so unfair sometimes. Now Joseph went on to become the prime minister of Egypt, second only to pharaoh but that time in that dungeon was so important, it was the place where he grew up, it was the place where he learned wisdom.
He was the youngest son, he was dads favourite, he had delusions of grandeur, he was this little recognition junkie. And God had to deal with that and He did, by putting Joseph into slavery and then into that dungeon. See this didn't last for hours or days or even weeks, this went on for years that God had Joseph in those incredibly unfair dark and lonely places. See, it seems that so often this is Gods way, to take us, to mould us and to shape us in those hidden places.
Have you ever noticed, in Gods creation, that new life always seems to happen in hidden places? A child is conceived and grows hidden in its mother's womb. This little green grub crawling around on the leaves becomes a beautiful butterfly hidden away in its cocoon. You know what?
Those hidden places are where God takes us and where we suffer alone, they are the exact opposite of the limelight of recognition. They are exactly the places He needs to take us to change us, hidden away from the worlds gaze and recognition, adulation and praise and rewards, like a heroin addict going through withdrawal but the end of it we have a new freedom.
Jesus said:
I have come to set the captives free.
And again He said:
If I set you free you will really be free.
When we don't live our lives for recognition and reward anymore we are finally free, we're finally at rest, we finally feel safe.
I look back on my life and I know that in that dark place God did His greatest work in me. He set me free from me, from being my own "little tin pot god", from the fear and the insecurity of always needing the next fix of recognition. He works in mighty and mysterious ways, not always obvious, not always pleasant but always, always with one goal in mind – to set us free.