Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. (Genesis 45:1)

Put yourself in Joseph’s moccasins. You’ve finally got your brothers where you want them. Yes, the very same guys who nicknamed you “Dreamer” in the derogatory sense of the word and loved to make fun of your dreams.

“Aha, so you actually think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” (Genesis 37:8) The same crew that hated him and was jealous of him.

Joseph’s mind flashed back to the day they threw him in the pit. And the disgusting discussion they had over killing him. How could he forget the moment they sold him as a slave for 20 shekels? How could he ignore that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach when he was bought by Potiphar? He felt more like a slab of meat than a normal human being.

The memories flooded his mind as he recalled all the trouble he had experienced in Egypt since then. Falsely accused of rape by his boss’s wife. In prison with the most unsavoury characters imaginable. Forgotten by the cupbearer who had promised to “remember” him when Pharaoh released him, exactly as Joseph had interpreted his dream.

All that trouble was all because of these guys. They were at his mercy. He had the perfect opportunity to let all his Egyptian courtiers and friends know what dirty rotten scoundrels they were. Perhaps they would want to administer a shot of Egyptian justice to them. He could sit back and watch with a smirk on his face while clapping his hands with glee. Oh, that would be so sweet J

To embarrass or not…that was the choice. What would Joseph do?

He commands all the Egyptians to leave the room. He would keep his brother’s dastardly deeds to himself. He would not publicize them to the whole wide world.

Then comes the Reveal. “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt.”

Dear DWOD friend, on the road to your destiny, you too could very well run into opportunities such as the one Joseph had to embarrass your enemies. To expose the sins of your ex-es. To shame those who besmirched your good name. To stick it to those who failed to stick with you. To go on the offensive to those who offended you.

It is a great temptation that is very difficult to resist. Sad to say, I’ve been at gatherings where someone has stood up and destroyed another’s reputation by bringing up information that we did not need to know at all. I’ve even had the misfortune of being at meetings where someone has raised in public issues that should’ve been discussed in private with me. It is doubly difficult to resist when you have enough dirt on them to smear their name and enough ammo to smash it to smithereens. What would you do?

Joseph chose not to embarrass his brothers, unlike his ancestor Ham, who rather than cover his father Noah’s shame and not say ‘boo’ about it to anyone, exposed his drunkenness to his brothers. Thankfully they covered his nakedness with dignity (Genesis 9:22-23).

Do you suppose Joseph’s brothers were pleased about not being embarrassed by him? Is there a Pope named Francis? We go on to read in Genesis 9: 26 & 27 that Noah blessed his sons Shem and Japheth for covering him up. Ham’s descendants on the other hand were cursed.

So, the next time an opportunity arises for you to rub your nemesis’ noggin in the dirt, I hope that you too will follow the example of Joseph and others and choose not to embarrass your enemy.

As we are reminded in Proverbs 19:11: “It is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.”

“Houston, we have a problem!”

OK, that’s not what I said.

“Sulojana, we have a problem!”

“What is it?”

“I can’t open the drawer at the base of the stove to get out the skillet that I need to make the omelette.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Onions sliced? Check.

Mushrooms ready? Check.

Spinach cut? Check.

Eggs beaten? Check.

Olive Oil handy? Check.

Skillet? Nyet.

So I did what any man would do under the circumstances. I applied the most brutish force I could muster and tried to pull the drawer open. No cigar. I even mimicked the feminine touch and jiggled it gently in between manly pulls. Still no change.

Enter Sulojana.

“Just move over.” (The tone said: Get out of my way RIGHT NOW!)

“OK.”

I stood back to observe what would surely be an ancient Indian technique for opening jammed drawers at the base of an electrical stove that had been handed down through the generations in her family. What kind of finesse would it take? Perhaps jiggling sideways was not the answer. She’ll probably move it up and down and get it open. Or she might simply lay hands on it and pray. Maybe her breakthrough anointing will kick in.  

Well, it did in a way…but not with the laying on of hands. As a matter of fact, she did not even bend down an inch or make any attempt to use her hands.

Instead, she drew near to the stove and gave the drawer a swift kick with her right foot. Bingo! The drawer opened. She handed me the skillet with a smug look on her face. I let out the weakest hallelujah I’ve ever whimpered.

What was so readily obvious to her became apparent to me at that moment. Somehow the pots had been positioned in such a way that they prevented the drawer from being opened. Once she gave the boot, there was a realignment in the drawer that pushed the offending vessel out of the way. With no obstacle to impede its movement, the drawer opened meekly with the simple tug of a lady’s fingers.

All I could do was shake my head in puzzled amazement.

In Daniel 4, we see how God had to apply a swift kick in the pots to a boastful king named Nebuchadnezzar. In verses 29 and 30 we read: As the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, he said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

What happened right afterwards? He was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. (v. 33)

It was only as he raised his eyes toward heaven that his sanity was restored (v. 34). The swift kick caused a re-alignment in his thought process and turned him around.

Dear DWOD friend, this may sound harsh, but there are times when you could be so caught up in your misguided priorities that the only way God can open closed doors is by giving you a swift kick in the pots.

I must admit that I’ve experienced the right foot of God more than once in my life. Although it was not what I wanted at the moment, it was exactly what I needed.

Perhaps it has happened to you already. Would you share your experience(s) with the rest of your DWOD family?

It was in May 1976 that I first set foot on Canadian soil along with my mother, sister and brother. Dad had already been here for 10 months by then.

Even before we arrived, he had sent in applications to several universities in Ontario where I could begin my undergraduate studies. Without exception, every one of them sent back the same standard reply: “Students from India need to have completed a B.Sc with first class standing before they can be admitted into the B.Sc Degree program at our university. Admission denied.”

Needless to say this response was discouraging. I had already completed 13 years of schooling in India. Why would Ontario universities not consider that to be the equivalent of completing Grade 13 and grant me admission?

Dad came up with a strategy. Let’s show the universities that threw the book at us the syllabus of the courses I had taken. This way they can see that my Indian education was comparable to that of a typical Canadian Grade 13 graduate.  Perhaps that would sway the decision in my favour. I vividly recall paying a typist to put it all together and then air-mailing the papers to Canada. Still most of the universities had refused to budge.

When we arrived on May 19, Dad gave me the good news that the University of Waterloo had granted me admission, provided I passed the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). I did…and received the offer of admission.

That summer, we decided to visit the University of Waterloo campus to see where I would be spending the next few years of my life. We stopped in at the Faculty of Science office to thank them for granting me admission when others would not.

The receptionist led us to the office of the Associate Dean, Dr. Brisbin, who was in charge of admissions. It was then that we discovered the reason behind the University of Waterloo’s decision to bend the rules and let me in.

The letterhead on which Dad had composed the cover letter was that of the United Church of Canada congregation in Englehart where he was serving at the time. This caught Dr. Brisbin’s attention because her brother-in-law was working at the denominational headquarters in Toronto. She decided to take a look at the enclosures.

When she started perusing the syllabus, she suspected that it could be close to what was being taught in Grade 13. To confirm her suspicion, she simply walked down the hallway to the office of a Professor of Physics who had been educated in India. He took one look at the documents and my transcript and assured her that she could safely grant me admission.

I am reasonably sure that every university to which I applied had on its Faculty of Science at least one professor of Indian origin in those days. But it was only one Associate Dean that took the time to consult a colleague.

In my second year, I was privileged to be taught Chemistry by Dr. Brisbin She was a great professor who was able to communicate the basics of Chemistry in an exceptionally simple manner. She did such a good job that I finished with a 100% mark on that introductory course!

Sad to say I have forgotten a lot of what I learned in CHEM 101, mainly because Chemistry and Theology do not exactly mix well in the course of practising ministry, unless we are talking about spontaneous combustions at certain church meetings, ha, ha!

However, I have never forgotten the extra effort that Dr. Brisbin took to walk down the hallway. It is that which makes her extraordinary in my books.

Dear DWOD friend, do you realize that all it takes for you to move from ordinary to extraordinary is an “extra” step? Ask Holy Spirit to show you what extra step you need to take today to help someone else to get an opportunity or to make progress on the road to their destiny. You too will be viewed as extraordinary by others in due course.

P.S: The picture accompanying this post is the only one of Dr. Brisbin I could find on the web. It was taken at a university reception in 2011, 35 years after our first meeting.

But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (I Corinthians 12:31-13:2)

Last Saturday, a group of us gathered at Forks Road East United Church in Wainfleet, Ontario to prepare for a “Treasure Hunt.” For those of you who may not be familiar with the terminology, let’s demystify it with this definition from Kevin Dedmon, widely acknowledged as a pioneer in this form of outreach:

“A group of people (three to five per team) asks God for words of knowledge about people’s names, clothing, appearance and prayer need(s). They also get words of knowledge about locations and other unusual things. They write these down on a paper called their Treasure Map and go to the locations on their Map to find “treasures”…people who correspond in some way to the clues that the team has written down. When they find someone, they show him or her their map and ask if they can pray for him/her.”

When we first started doing Treasure Hunts last summer, we had two Bethel School of Ministry graduates, Taylor Woodburn & Melissa Egerter leading us through some Activation exercises before we broke up into teams and headed out on the hunt. This year, the responsibility fell on my shoulders. I vaguely recalled what we had done last summer, but, to be on the safe side, messaged Taylor and Melissa on Facebook to provide guidance.

Here is the first part of Taylor’s instructions: Talk about how the main idea is love, then do a “Love Activation.” Have them get into groups of two, and one person focuses on receiving and person two focuses on giving love. Then break the love connection. Repeat by switching roles.

 

That is exactly how we began our Activation exercises. If it is true that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5), then we simply needed to release that love from one heart to another.

It was exactly the right way to begin preparing for an Outreach. Since we had done Treasure Hunts before, we knew that once we got out there and started identifying our “treasures”, accurate prophetic words would flow, healings would be the order of the day and commitments to Jesus would follow.

However, if we were to embark on a Treasure Hunt focusing only on the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit flowing through us and getting people saved, we could be missing the boat! As Paul reminds us in the passage quoted above from I Corinthians, without love, the gifts don’t mean a blessed thing.

The starting point is love. The force that carries us through the outreach is love. The ministry that happens and the decisions that follow are all undergirded by love. That is why we started out with the Love Activation.

Dear DWOD friend, please bear in mind that as you advance toward your destiny, demonstrating the supernatural in your daily life with signs, wonders and miracles following…you too will come against attempts by the enemy to offer resistance and make you respond out of your flesh. You could be tempted to retaliate, take offense, spew venom, hurl insults, act out of spite…you get the idea.

The greatest proof of the supernatural active in you in moments such as these is how you resist the temptation to respond according to the flesh and choose instead to live by the Spirit.

That response will always be one of pure, unadulterated love, the kind of love that Jesus showed everywhere He went. And that is as supernatural as it gets!

“Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or to the left; keep your foot from evil.” (Proverbs 4:25-27)

Last week in our city of St. Catharines, police officers were setting up shop at various intersections with one goal in mind: Catch those who were committing the offense known as “distracted driving.” Needless to say it was a very “successful” campaign!

The most flagrant violation under this category is, of course, drivers using their cell phones to text, talk, check e-mail, etc. However, distracted driving is not limited to cell phone use. You could also be ticketed for eating a sandwich with one hand while driving with the other or applying lipstick while looking into the mirror on your visor…in short, anything that takes your attention away from focusing on the main task at hand, i.e. driving in a safe manner.

For the record, I have been using a Bluetooth headset for taking and making calls since the day that our province enacted legislation to this effect. However, I cannot say the same for text messages and e-mails.

The hefty fine of $280 and the possibility of a careless driving charge (6 demerit points and up to a $2000 fine and/or 6 months in jail), should be a deterrent in itself. What is even worse is the prospect of driving off the road and putting one’s life and the lives of others in the vehicle in jeopardy. Or even worse, driving into another vehicle and destroying more innocent lives in the process.  

Dear DWOD friend, distractions abound on the road to your destiny also. Over the years, I have seen many who were tracking well toward their destiny get completely derailed by distractions. Frankly, I have given in to distractions myself and prevented myself from progressing as I ought to.

There have been times when I have committed myself to a training program that will help me move forward. But before I master it, I get interested in something else that also looks good. Before I know it, I have mastered neither. It was nothing but a self-inflicted distraction that delayed my destiny.

Or sometimes it can be something as simple as starting to write a DWOD, only to see the notification of an e-mail’s arrival in my inbox or hear the ‘ding’ of a Facebook message. The e-mail has a link that I absolutely need to click on right away, of course! And the Fb message demands an immediate response, amen? Then I’m reminded that I need to change my stale-dated profile picture. Ah, might as well use one of those recent pics I took for the cover, while I’m at it.

In the meantime, another e-mail arrives. I must read the article that my good friend recommends. Oh, what’s this, 32 likes and 19 comments for my profile picture and double digits in both categories for the cover pic as well? Wow! Gotta check them out first and like every comment…courtesy demands it, right?

Before you know it, the original inspiration for the DWOD has taken wings and flown away into the nether regions of the brain. Launch search and rescue. Brilliant Idea, where art thou?  

No wonder Solomon, the wisest king of them all, counsels us: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you…Do not turn to the right or to the left…”  

In other words, he is telling us to avoid distractions. They carry a hefty penalty. Sometimes you pay with hard-earned cash. Sometimes the price tag is a precious life.

One thing is for sure. Distractions can delay your destiny and destroy you in the process.

How about you, dear friend? What are some distractions that you battle? Have you been derailed by any in the past? How do you avoid destructive distractions now?

Would you kindly share your experiences with the rest of us? Thanks in advance.