In 1913 film audiences are introduced to the pie-in-the-face routine, recorded in the silent film A Noise from the Deep. Mabel Normand hit Fatty Arbuckle in the face with a pie. Later, in 1913 James Cagney smashes a grapefruit into the face of Mae Clark in the movie Public Enemy. One scene was to be funny and the other shocking.

We watch the silver screen for entertainment all the while knowing what we are seeing is not real. Life, however, is real and at times we would rather what was happening to us was just a movie. I remember wrecking my bike on a steep hill and a rock tearing into my elbow. My sister stood nearby laughing. It wasn’t funny, it was painful.

Joseph put on a little drama for his brothers when they came to Egypt for food. The brothers weren’t laughing. They remembered how they had put Joseph down the well and later sold him into slavery. The well and slavery had to have made profound changes in Joseph’s character. Those events prepared him for what God would do through him in later years.

We are each scared from our experiences. Yes, as we get older we can look back and laugh but we should get more out of it than just a laugh. Life is learning from mistakes and mishaps. Those things shape us and change us. So often the question is "why" and the answer is that God can minister to us and prepare us for other events in life.

God is always present and He is always preparing us and equipping us to meet larger challenges. Rather than looking back and being angry, we need to look forward with understanding and knowledge of what the experience taught us. Some things are funny and will teach us to laugh at ourselves while others aren’t funny and equip us for service.

Read the account of Joseph in Genesis 37.

God’s Wisdom: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans" 8:28

Worldly wisdom: "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Friedrich Nietzsche