What About Today?

   My first thought on waking up this morning was "I have nothing on my calendar for today...what will I do?"

   I knew the first thing I wanted to do was to get up, see what the Scripture passage was for this day, take a walk,  think on it and see if God hit me with any profound (or maybe not-so-profound) thoughts, words that I could use to begin this day, words that would help me live in His will today.

   So what came out of that early exercise (walking and thinking) this morning? In the Psalm reading, Psalm 105, there was a mention of Joseph, and how God used him in his plan for the children of Abraham, in that time of their early history.

   So, I thought about Joseph. Of course the Bible does not tell the day by day narrative of his life, only the parts that we need to know to understand the story. But I have to wonder about his other days, those days, months and years that Joseph spent not having a clue about how his life would unfold. Sure, he had had those early dreams when God let him know about his future as someone even his family would  bow down to, but then came those series of events that led him into slavery and into prison. Each time things would begin to look up, he was shot down again, until that day that Pharaoh made him second in command over the whole land of Egypt.

   How did Joseph fill his mind during all those days of waiting? The only hint of discouragement that I see in his life was when he asked the chief butler of Pharaoh to please remember him when he was released back to his former position. Surely he had found a way out of an unjust prison sentence with that avenue. But even then he gets two more years before the butler remembers and tells the ruler about the man in prison who could interpret dreams.

   God had given him these abilities, but were they only to be used in historically insignificant ways, although not insignificantly for the butler and baker in prison?

   Joseph did not see the end of the story, but he persevered. Is there a lesson in that for me? Who or what might God bring into my life today? Will I take some action that He has for me? Could that action be just waiting patiently for some word from Him, or could it be a helping hand for someone He puts in my path? Can I even know the significance of either type of action on my part? Do I need to know all of this as the day begins or just be open to His leading?

   Questions abound, but I think the answers can be found in actively listening and obeying.

   It is my belief that I have begun this day correctly, now to live the rest of it in the same way.