Joseph and How God Works in Our Lives

Bad things happen to people. Even to those who believe in God. Yet God is supposed to be loving. When bad things happen where is God? If God loves us, how could God allow such to happen to us? This eternal puzzle has often pushed people away from God, even to disbelief. Human beings experiencing pain, experiencing loss, experiencing tragedy, find it terribly difficult to reconcile what they are experiencing with believing in a loving God. Attempting to explain how God might work through such experiences without sounding trite or naive almost impossible. Into this hurricane of feelings and confused thinking steps an experienced pastor who has gone through his own lonely road of suffering and tragedy, and has wrestled for many years with these questions and his own faith. James Young accepts the fact that such questions are normal whenever we experience suffering in our lives. In this book he explores and responds to these questions not with a theological or philosophical discourse, but by looking closely at one of the familiar stories found in the Bible, the story of Joseph and his brothers. The brothers sell Joseph into slavery because he got on their nerves, just like all little brothers do to the older siblings. Joseph tried to be faithful to what he believed to be right even in slavery and this only made things worse. Where was God in all this? Taking seriously the biblical text, Young explores in depth and breadth this old story, yielding classic insights into how God works in our lives. Each chapter offers much food for thought, not just about this story but how it illuminates our lives today and, especially when we are hurting, gives us much needed wisdom and practical suggestions that can lead us to enjoying life far more than we thought we could.