WHAT MIGHT JOSEPH WANT TO TELL US?

[PLEASE READ FIRST:  The following is a piece of fiction.  I know that some Christians become very upset if people write or perform fictional pieces about Biblical characters.  They feel such pieces or performances are blasphemous, sacrilegious, or inappropriate.  If you're one of those Christians, you can feel free to stop reading now.  If, however, you can appreciate the value of a creative piece about a Biblical character or a Biblical story, please continue on!]

"And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live?..." (from Genesis 45:3)

I feel extremely blessed to be writing this piece.  I'm Joseph - not the husband of Mary and foster father of Jesus Christ; not that Joseph!  I'm the man many would refer to as "Joseph of the Old Testament".  It would take thousands of paragraphs to explain how I was given permission to write this essay on Bob Baril's blog; how I was enabled to speak and understand twenty-first century American English; how I was enabled to understand your technology; your geography, your history, your sports and entertainment, and even your idioms.  That's been all miraculously taken care of!  In this piece I'm giving you a rare treat and privilege.  I'm letting you hear from me and know me.  I'm sharing some thoughts with you that I learned in my ancient life which can greatly help you as you live your modern American lives - and this especially applies to those of you who are evangelical Christians!

Listen, my life in many respects was crazy!  I know that countless modern American Christians love to complain!  They really expect life to just be one happy barrel of laughs, and they really expect life to be decades of happiness, success, and euphoria!  I guess that's the first thing I want you to know:  Such thinking is very wrong and very misguided.  A Christian who expects life to be that way will be doomed to failure and spiritual catastrophe.  How would most of these American Christians handle being sold into slavery at age seventeen, and then spending the next thirteen years as a slave and later as a prison inmate?

I understand Mark Twain said, "Youth is wasted on the young!"  He was right!  Do you have hopes and plans and dreams?  That's fine!  That's good!  But you don't have to broadcast this to everybody!  That was a huge mistake on my part.  I know.  I guess I can blame my father for it.  And that's another thing a lot of people are good at - blaming their parents for their shortcomings.  I will say Jacob's tendency toward favoritism was a big mistake!  He did favor me!  He treated me like Little Lord Fauntleroy!  But my horrific experiences were mostly my fault.  I loved the dreams I had.  I bragged to my brothers about them.  I dreamed and fantasized about my family bowing down to me!  My brothers hated me.  Why didn't I have enough brains to keep that stuff to myself?  When my brothers threw me into a cistern and then sold me to some Midianite traders, I couldn't have been more shocked!  I screamed!  I yelled, "You can't do this to me!"  But they did.  

I loved God.  I believed in God.  I trusted God.  I had no Bible, mind you.  There were no Bibles then!  But I knew the stories of Adam and Eve, of Cain and Abel, of Noah, and of my great-grandfather Abraham.  I believed in miracles.  But I was terrified!  Once my ordeal began, I was constantly harassed by the devil who told me God had let me down and I needed to hate God.  Somehow I just couldn't do that.  Imagine having to learn a new language.  There were no special language classes.  You just had to listen and pick it up.  At first, my life in Egypt was absolutely terrible.  I was scared all the time.  But my owner, Potiphar, who was a really high level guy in the Egyptian military and government, amazingly liked me!  Some of the other slaves weren't happy about that.  In time, I became a slave inside his household doing what your culture would call "White collar work".  This may sound really weird.  But slavery in the ancient world could be much different from what you'd imagine!  Did you know in the days of the Roman Empire some physicians were slaves to wealthy people and families, for instance?

Then there was Mrs. Potiphar!  You've heard of a "cougar"?  I don't mean an animal.  I mean an older woman who preys sexually on boys and young men.  That's what she was.  She was always after me!  Some of my fellow slaves were jealous of that!  As bad as things were for me, I knew having sex with her would not make anything better.  This may sound unbelievable, but most of all, I didn't want to upset God!  Many of you know the story.  She accused me of trying to rape her!  Do you know what would normally be done to a slave who tried to rape (or did rape) an Egyptian official's wife?  He'd be executed!  

I thought I might be executed.  But it was obvious Potiphar didn't believe her accusations.  However, like Pontius Pilate, Potiphar was in a quandary!  He didn't want to have me executed, but he couldn't have me remain as his slave.  His solution was to put me in prison.  It was a small prison, and actually it was what your culture would call a "minimal security prison for white collar criminals".  So, you're disappointed in God, you hate your life, and you think God is cruel and unfair?  How'd you have handled this situation?  Well, again, this may sound crazy but in a lot of ways being in that prison was better than being a slave.  I just did the best I could.  However, remember all those dreams I'd had?  Nobody was bowing down to me!  I wasn't successful!  My prospects for the future were pretty much poor!

If you've seen Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, you know what ultimately happens in my story.  I interpret dreams for Pharaoh, and as some folks have said, "One day Joseph woke up as a prisoner and went to bed as a prince!"  I wasn't exactly a prince, but I became the second most important person in Egypt.  I married Asenath, daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On.  I had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.  And as many of you know, after over twenty years, I met my long lost brothers, put them through some serious testing, they and my father came to live in Egypt, and we all lived happily ever after.  Sort of!

Again, why am I writing all this?  Because ninety-eight percent of today's American Christians would never make it through what I endured!  I want you to think about that!  And I want to give you Five Rules for Living which I sincerely hope you'll put into practice!  Here they are:

1.  PUT GOD FRONT AND CENTER IN YOUR LIFE!   Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

2.  BE BOTH TOUGH AND TENDER, USING MUCH WISDOM!  Matthew 10:16 says, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves:  be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

3.  FORGIVE, FORGIVE, FORGIVE!  Matthew 18:21-22 says, "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  till seven times?  Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times:  but, Until seventy times seven."

4.  KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE LORD WHEN NOTHING MAKES SENSE!  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

5.  NO MATTER HOW BAD SOMETHING IS, REMEMBER THAT GOD WILL BRING GOOD OUT OF IT!  Romans 8:28 says, "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."

Canton, MA - Where the "Soap Opera" is REAL!

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  (John 8:32)

If I'm ever asked to play one of those parlor games where you have to disclose something about yourself nobody would ever guess or suspect, I usually write, "I was hooked on a soap opera".  Indeed I was.  It was "All My Children" on ABC back in the early 1970s.  (That's the show on which Susan Lucci played Erica Kane.)  One summer day in 1972 my mother asked me to watch that particular day's episode and let her know what happened.  I did.  And the next thing you know, any weekday I was free at 1 in the afternoon it was time for "All My Children".  I went to Stonehill College.  1 p.m. was not a time in which a lot of classes were typically scheduled, so I caught AMC two or three times a week.  And that went on till sometime in 1974 when (as we evangelicals sometimes admit) "I got convicted by the Holy Spirit".  I knew watching AMC was a stupid waste of time.  But it was sort of a guilty pleasure.  However, shortly after "getting convicted" I gave the show up cold turkey!  And I'm glad I did!

At least "All My Children" wasn't real.  I mean, nobody was ever going to run into Dr. Tyler, or Paul Martin, or Nick Davis, or (perish the thought) Erica Kane at a supermarket or a fast food restaurant or while pumping gas at a self serve filling station!  But the "soap opera" currently happening in Canton, Massachusetts, and which has been "on the air" (so to speak) for over three years is the "Karen Reed Case", and it's a reality.  I remember when radio and television news reports in late January and early February of 2022 began speaking about the body of Boston Police Office John O'Keefe being found in the snow during a blizzard on a front lawn at 34 Fairview Road, Canton.  And, several days later, reports were given stating he'd been fighting with his girlfriend Karen Read and that it was believed she'd hit him with her SUV and left him to die.  I didn't know Officer O'Keefe, nor did I know Karen Read.  It sounded like whatever happened on Fairview Road between O'Keefe and Read was both bizarre and horrific!

During the next couple of years, rumors and reports about John O'Keefe's death became more frequent and more amazing.  A controversial blogger and a couple of popular talk radio hosts began frequently reporting that Karen Read did not hit John O'Keefe at all.  Rather, it was rumored that he'd been murdered inside the 34 Fairview Road house and that Karen Read, a victim of an elaborate conspiracy and cover-up, was being framed.  In Canton, a Boston suburb of about 24,000, two camps formed:  There was the "Karen Read was Framed" camp, and there was the "We Support the Men and Women of the Canton Police Department" camp.  If you think the divisions between people who love Donald Trump and people who hate Donald Trump are scary and extreme, that's nothing compared to the divisions over the Karen Read case in Canton, Massachusetts!

It's not unusual that over the years some people have switched sides once or even twice.  I will admit, I was once on one side and now I'm on the other side!  I'm not going to tell you which side I'm on.  Last year Karen Read was tried for Second Degree Murder (among other charges).  The trial resulted in a "hung jury".  Several days ago, the "re-trying" of Karen Read began at Dedham Superior Court.  I've been praying about this case for a long time, and it's my sincere prayer that if she is truly Guilty she'll be found Guilty, and if she is truly Not Guilty she'll be found Not Guilty.

Whatever the results of the trial, I suspect Karen Read will never set foot in Canton, Mass. again! But many of the other "players" (or maybe it's "personalities") are still around and about in the community.  It is freaky to see one of them when you are just going about your business in Canton.  I try to not stare at the person and to not act weird, but it's difficult!  I frequently take a long walk around Canton.  On my walk, I pass 1 Meadows Avenue, where John O'Keefe lived and where his parents now live.  I pass the Waterfall Bar, and C.F. McCarthy's, where John and Karen and many of the "players" were on that fateful January 2022 night.  I also pass Chris Albert's pizza shop.  His brother was the owner of the Fairview Road residence.  I don't pass 34 Fairview Road.  It's a couple miles away.  But I suppose one day if I get ambitious, I'll take a walk past there, too.

Who would have thought this case would make Canton famous and that "true crime junkies" from all over the world would be studying and discussing these "players" and locations?   Yeah, it's like people and events from a soap opera have come to life!  It's kind of eerie!

Almost ten years ago now, my son Jon and I were on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  Well, Jon was the contestant and I was his "Plus One".  That show was produced in several different locations through the years.  At that time, the show was done in Stamford, Connecticut.  His episode aired several times.  The first time was on Columbus Day 2015.  Jon had "banked" $30,000 and was going for $50,000.  As his "Plus One" I gave him a wrong answer!  His "winnings" dropped to $5,000 and that was that!  Being on the show was what being in Canton, MA feels like right now.  It was so weird to be in studio and to be talking to Chris Harrison.  In the "green room" I'd also talked to other contestants and a producer.  I know the word is overused but it was surreal.  And, I felt the same way when I told a story at a MOTH Mainstage Event in Boston which was broadcast on their national radio program on public radio a couple of times.  When you're there and it's real it's what I call "a trip"!

I know this will sound crazy to some readers and that some will laugh at me or mock me.  But at Millionaire as I was experiencing everything remember thinking, "When I get to Heaven, I think it's going to feel something like this.  I read the Bible and I pray.  And I know God has done some powerful and significant things in my life.  But at some point I'll pass from this life into the next life - and I'll actually experience what Mercy Me sings about in their song I Can Only Imagine."  

I've experienced it before.  I'm experiencing it now.  And for sure, I'm going to experience it in Heaven someday - that Truth is not only stranger than Fiction - Truth is Reality!

Why I Identify With THE HURTING And With THE HELPER

 "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."  (2 Corinthians 1:4)

Last week there was a rarity on television!  Something was "hyped to the inth degree" by CBS as something very important that must be watched.  In the past, a number of items have been similarly proclaimed by a television network.  The publicity may be "off the charts".  It's all you hear about!  It's all over social media.  You tune in.  You watch it.  And you think "Huh?  That was boring, stupid, and not worth watching at all!"  Last week was different.  Last week was surprising.  CBS proclaimed the Thursday, March 27 episode of Survivor as extraordinary - an episode which would feature one of the most powerful and important happenings on Survivor ever!  I did not watch on Thursday night, and I hadn't seen Survivor in over a decade, although at one time I watched the show regularly.  I watch a lot less television than I did at one time.  Frankly, I consider much of what's currently on network television to be garbage!  Saturday evening, I happened to be flipping through the channels.  I was surprised that Survivor was coming on, and as far as I could tell, it would be a repeat of the regular Thursday night episode.  I decided to watch and see what this great thing was which the network was proclaiming.  I wasn't disappointed!

It's still quite early in this season's Survivor.  There are still plenty of contestants.  There was (in my opinion) a pretty tough "physical challenge" in which they were all competing.  I want to focus on two competitors who were each on two different teams:  Eva Erickson, a 24-year-old Ph.D. student who is also on a female hockey team; and Joe Hunter, a 45-year-old Fire Dept. Captain.  Eva was giving her all to the challenge.  She succeeded, but it obviously was taxing for her, physically, mentally, and emotionally.  The only way I can describe it is she had what I call "a melt down".  She was crying, and trembling, and obviously distraught.  She was definitely "not okay".  The viewers could see that Joe was very compassionate and concerned for Eva.  Jeff Probst the host did something he pretty much never does.  He broke protocol.  He asked Joe if he wanted to go over and comfort Eva, and Joe responded in the affirmative.  He went to Eva. hugged her, tightly held both of her hands, and calmly instructed her to breathe as he gave her words of reassurance and told her it would be okay.

It didn't take long for Eva to become calm.  She then addressed everyone present.  She told them she is autistic and that she was diagnosed with autism as a young child.  Her parents were told all the things that Eva would never be able to do because she "was not normal".  Her parents chose to believe despite Eva's autism she could live a normal life and that there was not something deficient about her.  Eva was mainstreamed in school.  Things were not always easy for her.  She referred to what happened during the Survivor physical challenge as an "episode".  She explained that all her life she's had to deal with these "episodes" but that she has never allowed them to stop her.  As an amateur hockey player and a Ph.D. candidate, obviously she hasn't allowed autism to prevent her from success in life.  As for Joe, he commented that what he did for Eva is what he'd expect someone to do for his own daughter were she in a similar situation.

I cannot properly express how deeply moved and affected I was by watching this very powerful situation on Survivor.  In doing so, I realized that I definitely identified with Eva, who had been deeply hurting and that I also identified with Joe, who was the helper.

Many years ago, I used to describe myself as "eccentric".  I will say my wife never liked that!  It's true that when people think of an "eccentric" person, they tend to think of "a nut", of someone that just makes everybody uncomfortable and will never fit in.  That's really not what it means to be "eccentric".  Rather, the word simply means "outside the circle".  An eccentric person is one who marches to the beat of a different drummer.  I've always been that person.  But in more recent years, I've described myself as "unconventional" which for some reason is less off-putting to people.  I don't have the space here to write about the "eccentric" and "unconventional" things I've done in life.  It would probably take forty-seven paragraphs for me to do that!  I will tell you just one.  Most of you know I'm an Assemblies of God minister.  At our 1998 District Council which is a business meeting and conference of the AG ministers and church leaders in Southern New England, I brought forth a proposal to change the annual financial giving requirements for ministers.  As I stood there before a couple hundred people discussing my proposal (which I really thought was a great idea) I could just feel the negativity and disapproval in the room.  I was confident on the outside but began to feel pretty scared on the inside.  There was a "voice vote" taken regarding my proposal.  Suffice it to say, it lost.  I'd say maybe 4% voted For it and 96% voted Against it.  During the remainder of the conference, I wondered if people were looking at me and thinking, "There's that weirdo".  So, yeah, I've had plenty of my Eva Erickson moments.  And I believe that's made me more compassionate.

But I've got to tell you about Stephen Weber here.  Who is he?  He was another minister in the District.  Honestly, I hardly knew him.  A few days later he contacted me.  He told me he'd voted For the proposal and that he appreciated what I'd tried to do.  He gave me some good counsel which I never forgot.  He said, "You never bring a proposal like that by yourself.  You've got to have at least two other people with you.  And one of them has to be somebody who has some clout in the District."  Rev. Weber told me if I wanted to try again, and set up a committee of folks who'd like to work on bringing a future proposal about changing the policy regarding financial giving requirements for ministers, he'd be happy to work on it with me.

I never did.  And I'm not close to Stephen Weber.  He now lives in another part of the country.  But he did a lot to make me feel not like a jerk but rather like a valuable and thoughtful and important human being.  I think just his reaching out to me made a tremendous impact.  I relate to Joe Hunter.  When somebody's "out there" having "an episode" I want to be the guy who jumps in and helps and encourages and affirms that person.  And I really try to do that!

There's a lot more I want to say.  But I think I've made my point.  I can't believe I'm writing this but, Thank you CBS and Jeff Probst for that powerful episode of Survivor.  And Thank you Stephen Weber for what you did for me back in 1998.  And Thank you to all the eccentric and unconventional people out there, including but certainly not limited to people with autism.  You bring some important stuff to the table and teach all of us some valuable lessons.  And Thank you to all the Joe Hunters who don't care what anybody else thinks but don't hesitate to jump in and comfort and help folks who desperately need that comfort and help.

I know the cliche "W.W.J.D. - What Would Jesus Do?" got way overused back in the 1990s.  But in this Easter season, I hope you won't just follow the crowd and just do what everybody else is doing - good or bad.  I hope you'll remember that powerful scene from Survivor.  It's all over social media.  If you haven't seen it, you should be able to find it and view it pretty easily.  And I do hope you really will ask yourself in every situation, "What Would Jesus Do?"

Identify with The Hurting!  And when you are able to do so, Be The Helper!

LEAVING A LAUDABLE LEGACY

"Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:  Who have for my life laid down their own necks:  unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles."  (Romans 16:3-4)

Priscilla and Aquila were personal friends and ministry associates of the Apostle Paul in the first century.  You can read all about them in the Biblical Book of Acts.  It's been almost two thousand years, but they're still remembered.  They left a laudable legacy.  I'm age seventy.  When you're a teenager, you usually don't think much about death, funerals, where you're going to be buried, and what kind of a legacy you'll leave.  And unless there's some kind of a terrible tragedy like a fatal car accident, you don't usually find yourself going to friend's funerals.  At age seventy, it's a completely different ballgame!  As Jimmy Swaggart has said, that's a big part of the reason he sings that old song "Heaven's Sounding Sweeter All the Time".  At this age you frequently are facing the passing of friends and acquaintances.  Yesterday a dear woman named Sandra, from the church where Mary Ann and I attend, passed into Heaven.  It's a medium-sized church and Mary Ann and I live over fifty miles from it, so I can't say I have a lot of close friends there.  But there are people there who've made an impact on my life and Sandra and her husband Scott are among those people.  Scott's the church's Missions person.  He usually shares a Missionary Highlight during one service each month.  Since my daughter's a missionary, and one of those the church supports, that's important to me.  Sandra had a lot of health problems, especially during the past few years.  She was in a wheelchair.  I knew she faced a lot of physical challenges.  That's why I was surprised when several times over the past year, she'd signal for me to come over and talk to her, she'd give me a big smile, and she'd tell me how much she enjoyed reading what I post online.  I honestly don't receive much positive feedback about what I post online.  For Sandra to make a point of telling me that - well, it was pretty special.  I greatly appreciated it. 

A few months ago a woman from our church named Trisha also passed away.  She also had been a fan of my online writings.  (I know, that may sound awful... like my online writings make people die... I trust that's not the case!)  And then I think of my ministry friend Billy Meek in Tennessee.  He died during the Spring of 2023.  I can't tell you how many times Billy showed me love and encouragement.  He had very serious health problems.  Yet he used to say, "I still gots my joy!".  When he passed, I actually recorded a memorial piece about him on YouTube.

Legacy is so important!  What kind of a legacy will I leave when I pass?  My Dad was seventy-seven when he died, and my Mom was seventy-six.  I may not live more than a few more years.  The legacy I will leave is something I think about.  Billy, Trisha, and Sandra showed the great importance of being an encourager.  As a pastor I preached a lot of "Get your act together!" kind of sermons.  There is a place for sermons like that, but I think were I pastoring now, there'd be more encouraging sermons.  Honestly, I've gone through some serious depression and self-doubt over the past fifteen years.  People like Billy, Trisha, and Sandra (and there are others who are still alive!) have come to mean so much to me!  

I don't preach all that much anymore.  But I try whenever I can to be an encourager.  If one person at my memorial service someday says, "Bob Baril was an encourager" and I know about that in Heaven, there will actually be "tears in Heaven" from me.  They won't be tears of sadness; they'll be tears of great joy.

I hope this doesn't come across as morbid.  That's not my intention.  But as I'm typing, I'm thinking of the words of someone else I've known who is now in Heaven:  Opal Reddin who taught at Central Bible College.  She used to say, "There's a Heaven to gain, and a Hell to shun!".  Yeah, that's "old school".  It's what all the old southern evangelists used to say fifty-plus years ago.  And it's true. 

I have a bunch of handwritten notes in front of me.  There are other stories and other things I want to add to this.  But preachers have a habit of going on too long!  If I were actually preaching this from a pulpit, would it be better for me to continue on for fifteen more minutes?  Or would it be better for me to wrap it up and give an altar call?

You guessed it!  Maybe you're not in a place to get on your knees right now.  But spend some time with God sometime soon.  Allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart.  I know I don't want to be an overbearing jerk - and sometimes in life that's exactly what I've been!  No!  I want to be an encourager like Billy, and Trisha, and Sandra!  I hope you also want to Leave a Laudable Legacy!