The Promise and the Pit

     One of the questions in our Bible study of Genesis 37 was, "Why do you think God gave these dreams to Joseph?" They certainly did not help his relationship with his family. They even precipitated his brothers' betrayal. And the contrast between the dreams of exaltation and the reality of the pit must have been bitter to bear. I believe God gave Joseph the dreams so he would have something to cling to in the dark times to come. The dreams strengthened the hatred his brothers already felt toward Joseph, but Jacob had been fueling that fire for a long time. When circumstance took everything from Joseph, the dream remained.
     I, too, have had those pinnacle to pit experiences, times when the Spirit has directed me, not through the soft illumination of his word or the subtle nudging of circumstance, but a personal message, just for me, impressed into my mind, foreign and unflinching. The first of these came after a women's Bible study I attended as a young mom. The message was that God had something new in store for me. I was excited and afraid. I thought maybe God would call us to the mission field. Instead He called me to three and a half years of depression. During that time I got a lot of bad information both secular and Christian, doubted and was doubted by others, but I knew one thing. I did not fall into that pit by my own deficiencies. Depression was the something new that God had promised me. It resulted, among other things, in a deeper walk with Christ, but I learned that walk during years spent in a dark, lonely pit.
     Another incident happened five years ago when our spare son Lance was still with us. He had violated his parole, but was released on bond to stay with us until time to serve his sentence. When Lance had come to us two years earlier, God's guidance for me to help him was as clear as if He had pried the roof off the house and dropped Lance into my arms. Still I wondered how I would know when I had accomplished my part of what would be a lifelong reclamation project. When I came home from my first week of BSF of the year, I got my answer. God thundered into my heart for several hours, the knowledge that I had finished the part God wanted me to play in Lance's life. God would take it from here. Lance would be okay. I did not know at the time, that when Lance left that Thanksgiving I would not hear from him again. That was five years ago. God gave His promise to sustain me in the years to come. By then I recognized the pattern of the promise and the pit.
     A personal promise from God is too obvious to ignore and too precious to dread, but when there is a promise, it will be followed by a pit. By God's grace, He gives us the promise first. By grace also, He gives the pit.