Category: Genesis

Priceless Bags of Dirt

He doesn’t make the darkness disappear; He makes it bow to Him.

5-minute read

I hate that I have to start with this, but there’s a huge Avengers: Endgame spoiler in this so if you haven’t seen it….

You get the drill.

Someone very close to me posed a rather pertinent question this morning:

“I struggle believing that God could be good–like, why do so many bad things happen to good people? Why do my family members experience death and sickness at the absolute least opportune times? Why do they have to experience this? If He’s good, why wouldn’t He intervene?”

I don’t agree that people are inherently good (This article from last month highlights school shootings in the US alone. Not to mention the 27+ million slaves worldwide, the refugee crisis and what’s causing it, international poverty levels, pollution, and so much more. Left to roam free, humanity is destructive. Haven’t you seen Avengers: Age of Ultron?). And while that might be true, the question stands: If God honestly is good and is love, then why would He let so many bad things happen? Why are more than 95,000 children murdered each year (not including abortion), 56% of them by their own parents? Why do 9.1 million people globally die of starvation each year? Why was a 5-year-old boy thrown off the 3rd-floor balcony at the Mall of America? Why did my college pastor’s son get diagnosed with Trisomy-18 in-utero and only survive 15 days outside the womb?

If He’s good, where is He? Why such pain? Why such heartache? Stress? Why?

Honestly I don’t know. “Just trust that it’s part of God’s plan” is an answer I’m not fully satisfied with. I know that He allows some things to happen for reasons we can’t understand. The book of Job explains this much. Like, sin has broken the world, and this is how we experience it personally. I get that. But why would He allow those specifics? I don’t know.

But am I supposed to? I don’t know about that either. Would I really be satisfied if I got those answers? Probably not. I think if God told me everything I wanted to know, I’d never follow Him into the darkness. Kinda like Tony Stark and Dr. Strange’s “1 in 14,000,605”. Tony never would’ve snapped in Endgame if Stephen would’ve told him he’d have to in Infinity War.

What I do know is this: all God has ever done is take that dirt in my life and the peoples’ around me and has made beautiful, wonderful, jaw-dropping things out of it.

Think about it: God made so many things that are intricately beautiful: mountains, rivers, New Zealand, Texas sunsets, diamonds, gold, wildflowers, and the Grand Canyon. But out of all those amazing things, do you know what He chose to use when He made you and me?

Dirt.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. –Ephesians 2:10 NLT

Do you see that? His masterpiece. Of all the things God created, we are His crown jewel. In everything He created, He values not one thing higher than humanity. And He used the last part of His creation anybody wants to be a part of except sometimes 2-year-old boys (not exactly at the peak of their goodness if you know what I mean).

I’ve yet to encounter even the mention of a culture that sees dirtiness as a virtue. Even the Bible uses that symbolism to describe so many negative aspects in life. Yet God took that dirt and made the one and only object of His affection. You have worth. You have value. Yeah, you’re dirt. But you’re His dirt. And He says you’re priceless.

He’s taken my lustful thoughts and fantasies (dirt, by all accounts–they’ve hurt the woman who will be my wife in 22 days, my mother, my father, my roommates, my bosses and workplaces, the women around me, and so many others) and He is using them, right now, to free other men. He’s taken my drive for being right and succumbing to anger and directed them toward good, toward a drive to be a faithful husband, father, brother, and son.

He did it with Abel. He’s doing it with family members of mine who are dealing with chronic illness. He’s done it with Peter, Paul (ON PAUL, HOLY COW READ THIS OMG), Jim Elliott, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, AW Tozer, Augustine, and so many more.

In 1st Peter 4:12, Peter says “quit being surprised by the dirt. Instead, trust your Faithful Creator” (ATV-Abridged Ty Version). He’s not just the Creator because of Genesis 1 & 2. He never stopped. Trust Him; it will lead to absolute, unending, fully-satisfied, & complete joy. Let Him in.

He doesn’t make the darkness disappear; He makes it bow to Him.

Manasseh & Ephraim

It’s crazy how God brings to light the progress He’s made in our lives. I mean, what He shows us is intense enough but the way in which He does it deserves some serious screen time, too.

In Genesis 41:51-52, Joseph names his first two sons. He calls the older one Manasseh, which means “God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” Ouch. What a name: “Hey, God Made Me Forget My Family and Every Way They Wronged Me, take out the trash!” The younger one got Ephraim, or, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Significantly happier, that’s for sure.

Now, Joseph had a totally awful ending to an otherwise 100% perfect childhood, as far as I’m concerned. Like, he was literally his dad’s favorite. I know that’s not the healthiest parenting method, but it was what Jacob’s family was doing and it worked for them for quite a while.

But then it crashed and burned. 

Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Jacob loved Joseph so much more than his other boys that he had a coat made for Joseph that was super expensive. Do you know how much it probably cost to include that much colored dye in that fabric? Probably quite a few goats, I’d imagine. I mean, the whole reason purple was considered a royal color was because its dye was so dang expensive. Jacob definitely dropped a pretty penny on that coat, and I’m pretty sure that’s what set the other boys over the edge.

Jacob sent Joseph to go check on his brothers and when they saw him still coming from far away, they started planning to kill him. They probably had plenty of time considering how starkly the coat must have contrasted with everything else in the desert.

The end result of their plans was that Joseph’s brothers let him get all the way to him and then they beat the tar out of him, ripped his coat to shreds and threw him into a well. Except this well was dry, so it was pretty much just a hole. And as if that’s not enough, after a while, they came back for him, and they gave him a short moment of hope that they’d actually felt some remorse and were coming to make things right by dragging him out of the hole (which they did do–not feel remorse, but they did drag him out). But immediately they stabbed that hope right in the chest by selling him to slave drivers.

And I thought my family had issues.

BP1014LOCAL_Diegel_MtHunger

But in Genesis 41, when Joseph names his boys, he’s in a pretty awesome position. At this point, he’s come through slavery, risen through the ranks of Egypt and reached the point where Pharaoh literally told him “Nobody is going to do so much as take a single step without your say so” (41:44). There is literally no human being more powerful than him except Pharaoh himself and even then Pharaoh stays out of most everything. That’s huge. But it’s not all, either–Joseph is in a place in life where God is all that matters to him.

What kind of random pocket of air did I just pull that out of? No random one: it’s right in Manasseh’s own name. Think of it this way: Joseph went through all the trash that followed his brothers’ ridiculousness at that hole focused on the endgame that was God and His steadfast love. Because of that, the Lord blessed Joseph tremendously–so much that he’s the #2 (more like #1.5) guy in all of Egypt. And not only that, but God has blessed Joseph with the ability to not let crazy stuff like his insane brothers deter him from trusting God. So now, in the light of Joseph’s entire life, Manasseh means much more to him than simply forgetting about the evils of his past.

What does this mean for us? Simple: When my focus is on Jesus and nothing else, everything fades away, even the ridiculous trash of my past. He is the only important thing.

But wait! There’s more!

Once Joseph was sold into slavery, his life didn’t suddenly become peachy keen. He was a slave for years, and even though he escalated to work for the Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, he was still a slave, and after that, he was imprisoned for two years straight for something he never did, constantly hoping that the people he met at the beginning of his imprisonment would remember how he helped them and ask Pharaoh to free him, too. But that never happened. Not until two years later.

Sounds like Joseph was living the dream, right? (there’s a pun there if you look hard enough for it)

But even after all of that madness, despair, and downright scary stuff, he still served. God preserved him, and not only that, He elevated him to the highest position in existence at the time, and in that position, as well as every position before and after it, He made Joseph incredibly fruitful. Because Joseph let God use him fully, the entire nation of Egypt and the countries that surrounded it were able to be provided for during the seven years of drought. On top of that, Joseph had children, which was a big deal back then as well.

So, today, this is my prayer, and I hope it’s yours, too: “Jesus, lead me to constantly be living in a state of Manasseh; where Your love and Your glory are all I need. Let me focus on them so intently that everything else fades away. And lead me to Ephraim, Lord. Give me a fire and a desire to be used by You in such a way that I am marvelously fruitful. Use me to be an abundance for You.”