Third and Final Installment on Joseph and Living the Dream

Just like Joseph, God knows our name. When God speaks it to us, it is full of revelation that is available to explore. When God names us, there are meanings in that name, to discover and walk in, that will cause us to experience God in a much greater and more intimate way. Every time we stumble upon or receive a hint of the creativity encompassed in our name, it causes a greater dependency on God to fulfill the call. It enlarges us so God can come and fill the new space. It’s just like breathing. Inhale understanding, exhale application.
Think of what may have happened to Joseph when the angel called to him by name. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”. It all happened so beautifully in the dream, but what about his emotions and thoughts when he woke up?
Can you see Joseph’s mind on over drive? What did that angel just say? Son of David? Of course I know I am a descendant of David, but me??? I didn’t know it meant THAT! I mean me? And all the scriptures he’s ever been taught about the history of the Jewish people and the promised Messiah come flooding in. What? Wait a minute! Slow down. Yes, there are scriptures that it is going to be a virgin birth, but c’mon.....Mary? And I am supposed to suspend logic and rush headlong into something I am not prepared for?
God is the author of creativity. You can’t make this stuff up. A virgin birth. A miracle baby. A couple of unknown nobodies partnering in one of the most creative ideas God ever had. And the Bible is full of them! It is crazy how we read some of the astounding accounts and it becomes a fable, when if you think about it, we hang all of our faith on a creative idea that makes no sense to the natural mind. A virgin birth?
Creative ideas bypass logic and common sense to unlock a heart response. In Joseph’s case, God was telling him, “You were made for this day. I have placed you in this location at this specific time because I am about to turn the page of history and open the door to the future and when I do, NOTHING is going to be the same. You are the hinge on which I am hanging the door.” WOW!
And it is the same for us when we step into ownership of the creative. We co-partner with the Holy Spirit to be the hinge on which He hangs a door to more. Our partnership opens up something even we don’t understand fully, but there is quiet awe and a humility that happens inside when we begin to understand that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.
And may I submit to you, that in order to fully enter the more God wants to open up through our lives, we have to accept that WE are a many chambered temple. There are rooms inside of us that have yet to be explored. I thought I was a one room cottage until God broke in totally uninvited and unexpected and abruptly shoved a mirror in my face and said, “Look at you for a change. See what I see. You are creative and I am about to prove it to you in the most blatant way. I am going to offend you with the beginnings of a gift you were not even aware of and never even wanted.”
When He wants to communicate a message urgently, God is not necessarily a gentleman. He will confront you with the “more” you never expected or thought of, and it might scare the living daylights out of you. You just might have an experience like Joseph that says…I always knew my name was Joseph, but I had no clue that I would be the one. You might even want to run away because the unveiling is too overwhelming and scary, and all the objections of being too old, of knowing what you are already called to do, of time it will take to invest in and develop that hidden and budding creativity come rushing at you. You might even feel anger. For me, it was an identity crisis. How could I not know I could draw or paint all my life?
God’s dream of creativity for us upsets the status quo. What you thought was going to happen, what you thought was going to be comfortable, becomes an all-encompassing life journey. Like Joseph, we are giving up what is a somewhat predictable existence, to be part of some untold, yet marvelous story. Most of the time, the dream is two-fold. It stretches us past the membrane of our present notion of ourselves, while also impacting those around us. Joseph changed, but his change provided the platform for his son to become all God had called Him to be.
When you embrace the dream, you are agreeing to cooperate with God to design something new, whether it is an object, a thought or insight or a solution. We just call that creativity. We co-create with God.
Creativity is expressed in art or music or dance and poetry. Those are major culture changers and influencers that God wants to use today, but creativity is not limited to the arts. God wants us to take creative thought into the business world with the inventiveness we need today. He wants us to take it into the community with a creative solution that the mind of man cannot think of. He wants to take it into government, education and every one of the spheres of influence. Creativity is thinking like God thinks, to bring an expression of Himself into the world, and awaken people to how much they mean to Him and Who He wants to be for them.
So, reading the Christmas story for me this year has become an invitation to be “all in” in my own story; the story God is writing through my life, whether or not I am seeing the big picture. I have enough assurances that I am on the right track by now to allow me to just keep following the “breadcrumbs” of the hints of direction confident He will bring it all together. Along the way it is an adventure of discovering the sufficiency of God in every situation.

Second Part of Joseph and Living the Dream

Joseph and Living the Dream Continued...
...after the angel spoke to Joseph in a dream (Matt. 20-23)...
Joseph woke up and began to carry out what he was directed to do. Five quick directives; profound implications, just like the names we have been given have unfolding layers, or the prophetic words many of us have been fortunate enough to receive. We think we understand when we hear them, but they are multi-layered with deeper meaning and unexpected pathways. In the case of Joseph, as is with each of us, there is a watershed moment of decision. Joseph has to contemplate giving up what is a predictable existence, to be part of some untold, yet marvelous story. The angel was inviting Joseph to be “all in” in his own story.
God had a dream for Joseph bigger than anything he could conceive. Even walking it out day by day probably didn’t bring a whole lot of
revelation or clarity. But wondrous things happened at critical times, to give him the knowledge or the affirmation that he was “living the dream”.
Did he always feel it or know it? Did he always see the big picture? Our response is the same as Joseph’s: just hear and do. Listen and follow. Choices matter. One life matters. Just say yes.
Every once in a while Joseph was dumbstruck with wonder. Like the time he had to travel to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife to fulfill a legal obligation, which apparently had no exceptions for women in the late stages of pregnancy. Who knows how worried and frustrated Joseph became, trying to find shelter for his laboring wife, in a town bursting at the seams with inconvenienced and weary travelers, most of whom were there by forced decree.
And in the midst of all the worry, in perhaps one of the lowest moments of his life, when as a husband he can’t provide what is needed, the baby is born in a shelter for animals. How can this be part of “living the dream”?
However, shortly thereafter, shepherds appear and reinforce the fact that Joseph is still moving in the center of something larger than life. He needed the miracle of that visitation, and so did Mary. And isn’t it just like that with us? God comes swooping in unexpectedly and unbidden with a taste of the eternal so that the unbearable transforms with wonder? The veil between realities is rent, and glory superimposes itself on our mundane perspective, leaving us to marvel at the wonder of His presence and giving us enough affirmation to continue on in awe.
Four times, at life defining junctures, an angel appeared to give Joseph direction; four times in a dream. It’s like the angel is saying, “Just live the dream, Joseph. Be willing to go beyond your understanding.”
The second time the angel appeared was when Herod wanted to find and kill the baby, which by now was Joseph’s beloved son. When I merely read the passage in the Bible, it seems so sanitized. If I put myself in the story however, I can imagine the tension and fear. What insecure and power hungry madman orders soldiers, who are trained warriors and fighting men, to hunt down and slaughter children? What happens inside men who have no choice but to comply with orders or be executed themselves? How do you deal with the psychological horror of knowing the king has issued an edict for your child’s death and other children, dear to other fathers, are dying in his place?
But the angelic dream instructs Joseph on the next course of the journey. Go to Egypt until. Until can be a long road, but if you have an “until” word, you have the assurance that further instruction will come at the next critical juncture. Once again, you just carry on in the direction, using the provision and wisdom gleaned in the last place as you process life each and every day.
“Until” speaks of the more that is coming; you just don’t know when. “Until” means this phase will end sometime, and something new will open up, so you settle patiently in the now, keep hope alive and order life accordingly. It’s not just a waiting phase, though. It’s a growing phase. Everything is growing.
In this case, Joseph was growing, his skills were growing. His business was growing. His family was growing. His relationships were growing. His character was growing. And he was going to be able to take all that learning and development with him into the next phase of life, when the season of “until” was fulfilled.
Sure enough, when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared again. He directed Joseph back to the land of his heritage and inheritance. Joseph’s strategic placement was reinstated for the day that was dawning. Another dream confirmed his suspicions that it was still dangerous to go to Judea, so he settled in Nazareth, fulfilling the scripture that his son would be called a Nazarene.
I am encouraged by this story of a seemingly ordinary man who was living the dream; protecting the seed of a new day. I love it that the Amplified Bible says that Joseph’s son would prevent people “from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God.”
I’m encouraged that an angel kept Joseph from failing and missing the true end and scope of his own life, four times. I’m encouraged that when I hear and follow, I am living the dream and I really don’t have to worry that I will miss it. God’s dream is so important to Him that He breaks into my life along the way to confirm it with wonder. He assures me time and time again, that what I am engaged in is larger than anything I ever thought possible, because I evaluated myself and my gifting from a myopic point of view.
In this story I see many parallels for creativity. (Which will be continued tomorrow)....

Joseph and Living the Dream

I have been pondering the story of Joseph off and on for a number of months.  Not the Joseph with the coat of many colors, who lived an amazing life of trial and triumph, but the one with the plain, brown coat; the husband of Mary.  That Joseph.  The Joseph who is so easy to overlook.  Yeah, maybe we appreciate that he took Mary as his wife, even though he knew he wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying.  Maybe we admire the fact that he was willing to live with the gossip and criticism associated with her condition, and maybe we consider him a role model as a good father and husband, but if we look a bit closer, I think we will find there are some subtleties to be gleaned that have parallels for broader thoughts.

Perhaps the marriage of Joseph and Mary was one of opportunity for Joseph.  Perhaps he was attracted to her.  Perhaps he was going along with the wishes of his family, because this was a good match.  Whatever the background, we are not told.  All we know is Joseph happened to have the proper background, as a descendant of David, to be father to the king.

As the story goes, Joseph was betrothed to Mary, but when he found out she was pregnant, he planned to divorce her quietly.  Divorce seems the logical thing to do, if one wanted to maintain reputation.  And Joseph, to his credit, was going to do so quietly.  I can see how Joseph might not even think there was any other option.  When things got a little complicated and embarrassing, Joseph wanted out.  Divorce was the out. 

That is, UNTIL an angel appeared to him in a dream and gave him another thought.  The angel opened up a scenario and told Joseph not to be afraid to go there.  He invited Joseph to be “all in” in a happening he didn’t understand.  The fact that God used a dream and an angel to communicate with Joseph, speaks to me of God’s dream within a dream. 

God spoke because He had a dream for Joseph bigger than his own dream of having a family, a trade and a normal life.  God was setting something in motion that was monumental. He wanted to make sure Joseph had enough clarity to go there.  God is good like that; always inviting us further into our own story with dreams that are so big, they are hidden in His benevolence.  That’s why we have trouble discerning.  The pixels that make up the picture are spread out so far, they are undecipherable up close.  Some of us may have had an experience like that. 

I had a History teacher in ninth grade, Mr. McHugh, who asked our class some questions pertaining to a chapter we had read.  Kids were answering his questions, but not hitting the mark.  I could see where he was going, but being a very, very shy kid, I was always happy for someone else to answer the question, as long as I did not have to be the one.  But this time, no one did.

Finally, I could sense his frustration and I raised my hand.  I tied in the chapter we had been assigned with some insight that went beyond what he was anticipating.  In that moment, he was stunned.  He said, “You do not belong in this class.” He took me by the hand and led me down the hall to Mr. Wu’s class.  Mr. Wu taught the brainiacs.

He opened the door, interrupted the class and said, “She belongs in your class.”  However, because I was such a self-conscious kid, I was absolutely humiliated at the public display and never lived up to Mr. McHugh’s belief in my potential, because I did not believe it about myself.  The picture was too big.  I couldn’t see myself in that scenario. But, God has brought that memory up time and again, at critical junctures in my life to say, “This is what I believe about you”.

In Joseph’s  dream, the angel introduced him to a huge panoramic scenario with just enough information to keep him headed in the direction of his calling.  It was a five part word.  It all happens in a paragraph, so you have to pay attention. He called him: “Joseph, descendant of David”.  In other words:

1.       I am naming you.  No other name has significance now.  I know who you are, and I know your bloodline.  I’m calling you to awaken to who you are. That is what my teacher was trying to do for me.

2.       Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  Don’t be afraid is the same directive an angel has said to countless men before Joseph with a call on their lives: Joshua, Abraham, Gideon just to mention a few.

3.       Carry on in the direction you were headed. Don’t let this current situation dissuade you. Go ahead and get married. Proceed as planned.  I’m here to tell you, nothing’s changed.

4.       Something you can’t understand and do not have a grid for has just happened.  I know you have no way to process what I am telling you, but I’m going to say it anyway.  That which is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit.  Isn’t it like that when you know God has spoken to you?  You understand the words, but it makes no sense to the natural mind.

5.       This is what will happen as a result.  (He will save his people from their sins.) This is the culmination of history encompassing all that your people have been promised and have been waiting for.  And YOU are right smack dab in the middle of the story!  You are a central figure and you probably still won’t understand.......to be continued....