Tuesday Read: When God's Plan Looks Like Failure

Joseph was seventeen when his brothers sold him into slavery (Genesis 37:28). He spent the next thirteen years as a slave and then a prisoner, falsely accused and forgotten. By the time he was thirty, he'd spent more than half his life suffering for crimes he didn't commit and betrayals he didn't deserve. If God had a plan for Joseph, it looked a lot like failure for thirteen years.

We love Joseph's story because eventually he becomes second-in-command of Egypt and saves his family from famine. The end justifies the means; the suffering had purpose; it all worked out. But what about the thirteen years between the pit and the palace? What about when he was a slave in Potiphar's house with no indication rescue was coming? What about when he was rotting in prison, correctly interpreting dreams but incorrectly assuming that would lead to freedom?

The problem with "God has a plan" theology is we tend to use it retrospectively. After things work out, we declare it was all part of God's plan. But when you're in the middle of suffering with no end in sight, "God has a plan" can feel like cruel optimism. Joseph didn't know he'd end up in the palace. From his perspective in the prison, God's "plan" looked like abandonment.

Jeremiah wrote to exiles in Babylon: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11). This verse gets printed on graduation cards and coffee mugs as if it's a general promise of prosperity. But read the context - God was speaking to people forcibly exiled from their homeland, living in a foreign country, facing seventy years of captivity before the promise would be fulfilled. Most of the exiles who heard this promise would die before seeing it come true.

God absolutely has plans for you. But his plans might include suffering you didn't choose, waiting you didn't expect, and processes you wouldn't design. His plans might look like failure for years before they look like purpose. His plans might not be fulfilled in your lifetime. And his definition of "welfare" and "hope" might differ significantly from yours.

This matters in February when your January plans have already failed, when the year you hoped would be different looks disappointingly familiar, when God's "plan" for your life seems to involve a lot of waiting and not much action. It matters when you're in the prison with no indication the palace is coming, when you're in the exile with decades left before the return, when you're in the pit wondering if anyone's coming back for you.

Here's what we know: God's plans are good, but good doesn't always mean comfortable. God's plans include your future, but that future might be beyond your lifetime. God's plans give hope, but hope is confidence in what you can't yet see, not guarantee of what you want to experience. God's plans for Joseph included thirteen years of suffering before vindication. God's plans for the exiles included seventy years of captivity before return. God's plan for Jesus included crucifixion before resurrection.

So when people tell you "God has a plan" as if that should immediately comfort you, remember - God's plans often include suffering, waiting, and what looks like failure. But they also include his presence through all of it, his purpose in all of it, and his faithfulness to complete what he starts. Joseph didn't see the palace from the prison, but God was with him in both places. The exiles didn't see the return from Babylon, but God hadn't abandoned them there. Jesus didn't see resurrection from the cross, but it was coming nonetheless.