Place yourself in Joseph’s shoes

 Whenever I hear of someone who had committed suicide I become sad and wonder if those close to him or her could have done something to have prevented the incident.

Most of the time, when the reason behind the suicide is revealed, one wonders if such an issue should cause somebody to take his own life. There is one particular incident that grieves my heart anytime it comes to mind.

A young lady in one of our public universities, who hap­pened to be the daughter of an MP, committed suicide and the reason attributed to that unfortunate incident was that her boyfriend broke up with her.

I am sure that if people who committed suicide had placed themselves in the shoes of Joseph in the Bible, they would have realised that their challenges had a solutions and that they could be resolved.

Frankly, not to remind the family of their tragic loss, a young lady who is in first year at the university definitely has the chance of getting anoth­er boyfriend down the line if having a boyfriend is such a big deal for her.

Imagine a young man or a young lady who has completed her university education and is struggling to find a job for a year, two years, three years and still no job. The situation becomes worse when you find yourself in such a situation and you hear of your mates getting employed and it is like something is on your case trying to prevent you from landing a job.

The pressure on you can cause you to engage in some­thing terrible. If care is not taken, it can lead to mental breakdown and this is where parents must be very alert and give a lot of encourage­ment to their children to forestall suicidal tendencies taking over their children’s minds.

This is where as a Christian parent, you need to draw their attention to the chal­lenges Joseph went through and how he kept his faith in God and God finally came through for him.

Given the current economic conditions prevailing in the country, the mental pressure it can bring to bear on individ­uals is immense. The religious leaders especially pastors have a huge responsibility in reducing the stress imposed on their church members by the prevailing economic pressure.

At the individual level, Christians ought to take responsibility by trying to address the need to reduce stress. In this regard, the attitude of Joseph can be of immense help.

In the Bible, Joseph had a revelation concerning his future. He knew that one day, he will be a great man but sharing his dream to his sib­lings generated a lot of envy and hatred towards him.

This resulted in him be­ing kidnapped and sold into slavery by his siblings. He was fortunate to be sold in turn to the army commander who recognised his commitment to duty and subsequently made him the overseer.

When he thought that fate has finally smiled on him, the commander’s wife wanted to sleep with him and his refus­al led to his being framed as an attempted rapist. He was therefore sentenced into life prison.

How bad can it get than this, but he did not give up because sometimes in life, giving up is not an option. Situations life dishes out to us can at times be like that of Joseph’s and when that hap­pens, let us remember to put ourselves in Joseph’s shoes.

Betrayed by his siblings and wrongly imprisoned for life in a foreign country and the per­son who filed the case against you was the number 2 man of the land. How are you ever going to gain your freedom?

Sometimes the experienc­es we go through are part of God’s plan of toughening us up for a future assignment and so we need to trust God when it appears everybody and everything is against us.

The intriguing aspect in life is that people you have once helped one way or the other can disappoint you when you expect them to reciprocate the gesture. This happened to Joseph but in all this he maintained his trust in God and God honoured his trust in him and brought freedom and promotion to Joseph

By Laud Kissi-Mensah