Bad things happen, God uses them to help us GROW

“The Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.“

Genesis 39:20-21

As we continue the story of Joseph today when is start with how bad things happen God uses them to help us grow.

When Joseph refused to sleep with Potiphar’s wife God “rewarded” him by putting him in prison.  Doesn’t seem like much of a reward, does it?  If you do what’s right I’m going to put you in jail.

Did Joseph lose heart when God put them in prison?  No, Joseph continues to strive to do what was right by God, and before long; he was placed over all the prisoners.

Sometimes when bad things happen, God uses them to teach us.  He teaches us patience, he teaches us to love, teaches us how to trust him even more.  God uses those hard times to help us grow even though we can’t see it when we’re in the middle of them.

Do you think when Joseph was thrown into the prison that he thought, “wow what a great experience is going to be I’m so glad God put me here?”  Probably not.  We can learn a lot from Joseph.  One of the things that we can learn is the trust God with all of our hearts.  We can learn to know that he always is looking out for what’s best for us.

You see Joseph didn’t know what was coming next.  He couldn’t see what God had planned.  He had no clue that God was going to place him second in command over all of Egypt, and then he would be responsible for saving so many lives.  The same way we don’t see what God has planned for us next.

We don’t know where God is going to take us.  Therefore, we have to trust that whatever he is putting us through he is grooming us for our next step.  We have to be willing to walk that path, to walk where God needs us.  

God is leading joseph on a path to his ultimate success and Joseph doesn’t have a clue.  Just as if we don’t have a clue where God is guiding us.  

Remember that he never said that the path would be paved and downhill all the time.  Besides, that it will be a nice cool day with clouds for shade to cools a gentle breeze and we down that pushes us along the path.  No, the path is going to be rocky, rough, and sometimes might seem like we cannot go another step.  I’m sure that joseph felt the same way more than once.  

The key is to trust the God is there to help you up.  He is there to encourage you when you feel like you can’t go another step.  Remember that you can do ANYTHING with God! 

Prayer

God or the last couple of weeks we’ve come to you to ask for different types of Courage.  First, we ask for the courage not to be scared when we don’t know how things will work out.  Next, we ask for the courage to never be afraid to be righteous.  This week God would like to ask for courage to know that you are in control of every situation.  Lord, we understand that you put us in difficult circumstances so we can grow.  If Joseph had sold into slavery then he would have never risen to the top of Potiphar’s household, and thrown back into a prison you know that he wouldn’t have had the courage to do what was coming next.  So today God you thank you, we thank you for looking out for us in our needs so we can be prepared for what you have next for us.

Amen

Will you pray with us?

Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation

All law enforcement and emergency response personnel

For all military personal serving our country and their families

Those in Leadership positions throughout the world

Prayer

Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts.  We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us.  We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us.  And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.

We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name

Amen

A Little More

 The other day I got a call from one of our clients.

I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.

“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”

My smile immediately vanished.

I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.

So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?” 

To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.

They gave me the details.

My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.

But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.

My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.

I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.

so……

I made sure not to smile when I made the call.  I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!

That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.

Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!

Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal.  I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad. 

Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.

The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.

No problem.  Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.

Well……..

After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.

Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.

I told him that I would NOT make any promises.

But my team went to work!

Guess what????

We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.

My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.

Here’s the point of all this.

When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.

That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.

Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol

Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!

Dan Greer