The story of Joseph is an example of a sibling rivalry gone toxic. Joseph was a teenager whose brothers faked his death and sold him into slavery. That traumatic turn of events would institutionalize many people.

     For the next thirteen years, life for Joseph didn’t get much better. He was wrongly convicted of a crime he never committed. A friend failed to keep a promise, which wound up keeping Joseph in jail even longer.

     Joseph could have come up with a number of explanations for his bad experiences. Such as, “God has forsaken me. God is angry with me. God has forgotten me.”

     Instead, Joseph gave a different explanation to his brothers as to why he had experienced all these bad things: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20, NRSV). Psychologist, Martin Seligman, has coined this kind of interpretation as what he calls an “Explanatory Style.” An explanatory story is away of describing to yourself why things happen as they do.

     So, based on the difficult experiences Joseph faced, I wish to offer a God-sized explanation for the present societal mess we find ourselves in. While many political and economic pundits call this present time a season of abject despair, I view it instead as an opportunity for great hope.

     As Americans, we need to be honest with ourselves. We have been exceedingly blessed by God for some time now. For the greater part of the past century, we have enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and health. The United States continues to boast the world’s largest Gross Domestic Product in the world. And the life expectancy for Americans has increased as much as sixty percent over the last 110 years.

     Yet, we have succumbed to a danger that should truly frighten us. We have become more reliant upon our blessings as a nation than the One who has blessed us. Moreover, the way we explain these current challenges will determine either how helpless or how energized we become as we face these challenges.

     If we continue to look at our nation’s dwindling prosperity and conclude, “I don’t see how we are going to manage in the future,” hope will most certainly fade. If, on the other hand, we say, “This is our chance to restructure our priorities, recalibrate our values, and reset dependence upon the One True God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, our hope will, once again, flourish”.

     Personally, I believe God is calling us to buy into this latter explanation. I believe God is challenging His church to lead the way in returning to a lifestyle that is entirely dependent upon Him. I believe the healing of our nation, our communities, and our churches is contingent upon our willingness to seek the Giver of every good and perfect gift rather than the gift itself.

     I am convinced that most of life is shaped not by what happens to us, but rather by how we interpret what happens to us. The story we tell ourselves will go a long way in determining what the next chapter of our collective lives will look like.