COAT OF MANY TRIALS: From Joseph to YOU
Twitter: @Talktolia
“…God sometimes requires us to be in isolation so nothing would distract Him from communing with us in private…”
Imagine a situation in which you are born and given a beautiful coat with many colours that expands in size as you grow bigger and older. A coat that reminds you of the family you were born in and unites you with God your creator. A beautiful coat of many colours that your mama or dada made just for you like Dolly Parton’s. Imagine too that your coat of many colours was one made by God and tattooed over your body from the day you were born.
Your coat of unique colors
How many colours are on your coat? Have you ever taken the time to identity them? What if we called this a coat of many trials? Your trials could be as many as the colours weaved into the fabric of your coat and these colours could be as many as the colours of the rainbow and even more, each tiny colour representing troubles great and small, and also elegantly showcasing blessings.
If everyone could start counting all the trials they’ve faced in one lifetime they would realize that they too 
have been wearing a coat of a kind all along – A coat of few trials and/or a coat of many colourful trials. Sometimes some colours are stronger than others, more pronounced than others and attract more trials than others.
What is it about us that brings us the most trials? What would we like to erase or modify and what colors do we simply accept as is? Is it the fact that we have audacity to talk when everyone else expects us to be silent? Is it the fact that we gossip, tell lies, steal, cheat, or are honest? Are we disabled, poor, rich, famous, attractive, or friendly? Wicked? Generous? Selfish? Greedy? Dynamic? Hardhearted? Unforgiving? Forgiving? Naïve? Shortsighted? Gullible? Adventurous? Ambitious? Lazy? Persistent? Easily swayed by public opinion? Easily favoured? What could it be? Is it because your brothers believe daddy loves you more than he does his 10 other children? Is it because daddy can’t help showing off his affection for you to the rest of the world in many colourful ways?
My late Daddy, Rev. Joseph Asanji used to call me his “old age walking stick” and he never stopped looking up to me as the daughter of great expectations of the family. He so much wanted me to be a preacher and even when I declined the proposal in favour of my passion for the media, he never pushed me. His silent desire together with my destiny were both shaped by the will of God and today I am using the media for Jesus. I wonder what colours that love and affection my Dada had for me reflects on my coat today.
The price paid by Joseph the charming 17 year old son of Jacob and his wife Zilpah (Genesis 37) could not be seen or understood neither by the shepherd boy himself nor his wicked brothers. It took him years to realize that his coat was given to him as a sign of a deep love, a sign depicting favour to attract blessings that could never be achieved without trials. Even Jacob himself had no control over the colours of that coat as much as the God who had other plans for Joseph and the entire tribe of Egypt, and why not the rest of the world even today?
Personally, I am learning from Joseph that trials do not always come our way to make us feel cursed or think of rejection as our permanent portions. TRIALS could be defined as: Testing Resilience Inside Anointed Life Situations. Joseph was in line with a miracle fixed in God’s mind. Like Adam, Joseph was arbitrarily chosen for a purpose. Joseph had to be hated to be blessed. God reversed authority of hatred to authority of blessing.
Be careful who you share your vision with
Joseph innocently shared his visions and dreams with the people he loved. Unknown to him they were his enemies all along. And the more he dreamt, and shared his dreams, the more he was hated and marked for destruction. “Do you think you are going to be a King and rule over us? His brothers asked. So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of what he said about them”. (Genesis 37:8)
People will hate you tomorrow even more than they hated you yesterday because they can tell that you are blessed just by being who you are. It’s so much easier being yourself than being someone else, and if you are destined to wear a coat like Joseph’s, there is little or nothing you can do about it. To be a blessed person we must accept to be a hated person. We must accept to descend from a high-rise apartment, a house in the city and down into a pit-like basement (just like my two babies and I).
I am appreciating the love and light of God even in the darkness of my current world and nothing prevents me from sharing my light with the world as I write every day. God sometimes requires us to be in isolation so nothing would distract Him from communing with us in private.
When Joseph was in that pit, he had no idea he still had a long journey ahead of him. He knew nothing of the plans and plots that were being concocted behind his back. His brother Reuben who mitigated the original plan to have him eliminated (killed) so that his dreams would die, said this to his brothers: “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him” (Genesis 37:21-22). His plan was to come and save Joseph later on. But the spirit prompted Judah to change plans and So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt. (Genesis 37:26-28).
It sometimes gets worse before it gets better
Things appeared to be getting better for Joseph but turned out to be getting worse instead. Going far away from his hometown to a strange land Egypt, Joseph was at the mercy of none but God’s grace. Like Joseph, many of us have travelled far away from home, experienced the challenges that come with immigration, relationship and career woes, but somehow things always work themselves out.
When he finally arrived in Egypt, another journey had just begun. Potiphar’s wife could not resist his handsomeness. Hated for who he was and the irresistible beauty he ignorantly displayed, he was upgraded from dreamer, coat wearer to framed-prisoner. (Genesis 39:5-23) But Joseph was only taking more steps towards his breakthrough, his miracle could not be prevented by any human being. Even when he blundered by ranting about his dreams, God allowed the rantings to work in his favour because someone needed to hear them. His coat of trials became even more colourful as they attracted the unknown reward lying waiting for him. Here are a few lessons to learn from Joseph’s story:
There are certain things you can’t help saying no matter how secretive or discreet you are expected to be. Let’s learn the following lessons about Joseph:
- Like Joseph, being naïve, weak, loved and even hated has nothing to do with who God made you to be.
- Forgiveness is a lesson of choice: an expensive gift for the people who trespass against us, its rewards however more precious than silver and gold. A forgiving heart leads both the giver of forgiveness and the receiver of forgiveness from famine into years of abundance. Joseph’s career (like someone’s career today) may have ended as a shepherd, while someone else with a forgiving heart would have ascended the throne and become Governor of Egypt. But God decided to invested in Joseph’s forgiving heart and brought blessings to a foreign nation, including the family that rejected him.
- When people tell you and show you how much they hate you, believe them but also believe God loves you forever.
- There’s no pit below a pit, no matter how low we find ourselves in life, God can lift us higher again even more than we used to be.
- Sometimes our dreams may not make sense to us, but make sense to those who try to kill them.
- Sometimes building castles in the air with our dreams are necessary for God expects us to go high into the skies so we might become closer enough for Him to make our dreams come true.
- The colours of our coats and the trials they bring must both be equally appreciated if we hope to appreciate the blessings they come with.
- Sometimes you don’t have to be wealthy, sophisticated or dressed in an expensive coat to attract hatred. Naked as you are and wretched as you could ever be, if God favours you, oh boy, trials will still rain on you!
So dear friends, enjoy your coat of many colours and look at your endless trials with a different eye today! Count yourself blessed if you are a believer and still facing trials (James 1:2). If there is something you must do about your coat and its trials, it is to do nothing at all but be yourself and trust in God!
Lord Is Able – LIA!
***
Irine Lum Asanji (aka LIA) is a freelance writer and journalist based in Brampton, Canada. Born and raised in Cameroon the daughter and sister of Pastors, LIA immigrated to Canada in 2006. She holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism (University of Buea, Cameroon) and a postgraduate degree in Visual Anthropology (University of Tromso, Norway). She has worked as a journalist and Communication Officer with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). LIA recently designed and launched a website talktolia.com geared towards Marriage and Family enrichment services, which serves as her ministry and her private business. She is an employee with Broan-Nutone Canada and became born-again in 2011 making her more evangelistic in her approach to writing. She speaks English, French, German and Norwegian. She is a mother of two and enjoys singing, cooking, dancing and a good laugh. She writes under her name and her pen name LIA which also means Lord Is Able.