Roller coasters can be such a pain the neck. Early in our marriage Melanie and I rode an “old-fashioned” wooden roller coaster in San Antonio. For some reason I tried to keep my head down and not look. Going around a turn at high speed, I felt a pop in my neck. To this day, I feel that pain periodically. So I no longer ride roller coasters, at least intentionally. Is it just me or does it feel like we have collectively ridden on a roller coaster for the better part of two years now?
Joseph’s life story reads like a roller coaster. His father Jacob elevated him above his brothers and gave him a beautiful coat to prove it. His brothers threw him down into a pit. Midianite traders took him further down into Egypt. Joseph rose to the position of head of the house of Potiphar. Things were looking up. But Potiphar’s wife pursued him and when he resisted temptation, he was thrown into prison. Eventually, Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams would land him a spot as the functioning Prime Minister of Egypt. I wonder, when he awakened in the morning if he ever felt a little pain from the roller coaster of his life.
Some of our pain is self-inflicted, to be sure. At other times, the decisions of others cause us harm. Joseph’s resistance to temptation as a young single man landed him in jail. This is counterintuitive to be sure. But his life would have been much worse if he had succumbed. Joseph could have lost his life. This might have cost his family their lives, too as they were starving. A good choice may cause us some pain, but not nearly as much as a bad choice will. Better to have a pain in the neck than a pain in our hearts. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Flee from immorality . . .” Today if you are tempted to sin, run away. Run like your spiritual life depended on it. Because, it does.
