08.03.19 - week 14
on patterns.
traffic. the tide. real estate prices. that thing where babies stop sleeping for a while at 4 months old. a crowded gym the first week of january. the lakers stumbling into a superstar every decade.
life is built around patterns. the creator created the world with patterns. they allow us to take a chaotic world and make sense of it. winter in chicago becomes (semi) tolerable because we know it isn’t forever. it’s easier to shake off a politicians broken promise when we see they all do it.
the story of joseph in genesis 39 shows a remarkable pattern.
this is the one where joseph goes from slave - to head of potiphar’s house - to propositioned by potiphar’s wife - to thrown in prison - to head of the prison.
ill treatment – was joseph brash and a little tone deaf in the way he communicated about his dreams? sure, but he didn’t deserve to be thrown in a pit and sold into slavery. with potiphar’s wife, he was exemplary. and yet, he was treated unfairly. it’s part of the pattern. if you love jesus and follow him, you will be treated unfairly. but only by the heathen, never by church folks.
heavy sigh.
presence – genesis 39:2 + 21. the lord was WITH joseph. god shows up in a special way when his children are hurting (psalm 34.18 + psalm 46.1). people keep their distance when we are struggling, the lord pulls in close.
blessing – when god’s presence is with someone, blessing will follow. it’s not usually in the way or the timing we want but that makes it no less real. everything joseph touched turned to gold because god was with him.
temptation – temptation chases and tries to choke blessing. potiphar’s wife throwing herself at joseph was a naked (no pun intended :) attempt of the enemy. when we are tempted, we can compromise or refuse. when we compromise, we break the pattern and we lose both god’s presence and blessing. when we refuse, sometimes the cycle of blessing just continues. sometimes our refusal produces increased ill-treatment.
when you see the pattern, it makes it just a bit easier to stay on the proper path.
if you are enduring ill-treatment, that doesn’t mean god is mad at you.
if you are hurting, god’s comforting presence is more available to you than ever.
if you are being tempted, recognize/refuse/run to avoid losing god’s blessing.
Cup of Leadership
it isn’t real until you have sacrificed for it. (aka … why the bachelor doesn’t really work).
you don’t believe in a cause until you have written a check (awareness isn’t really helpful).
you aren’t really generous until you don’t have something you wanted because you gave.
you aren’t genuine friends until being with that person cost you something (time/hassle/reputation etc).
you aren’t lovers until you have completely closed yourself to all others (god bless you jedd wyatt).
Book Review
this is the best of the 4 books i have read in a growing neighborhood of scholarship on habit formation. the insights on the pages in the swipes ahead say it all. if you work to get a little better everyday, you will find that you get somewhere pretty fantastic. the all or nothing, binge/purge way of thinking that my personality type finds all too easy simply doesn’t work. james clear’s simple framework is so memorable as to feel almost too obvious, but that’s its genius. if you want to start a good one, make it obvious/attractive/easy/satisfying. if you want to stop a bad one, make it invisible/unattractive/difficult/unsatisfying.
i can’t recommend this one more highly. it’s an all-timer.
Favorite Paragraph This Week
3 Things I Really Liked This Week
1. this song was beautifully says what i’m feeling this summer … more on the nose than i could have believed was possible.
2. my brother is doing some stellar things on youtube. watch this 2 minute summation of the biblical story.
3. i love girl bands. and i love sexy saxophone. so, this song was created by my spotify algorithm. SO GOOD.