Last week, I wrote about my friend who was having a double mastectomy.   Her surgery was complicated because she had zero body fat needed to reconstruct her breasts.  When I told Dave, his response did not surprise me.  “Did you tell her that you—I mean we—could donate some of ours?”  After sharing that with my friend, we both cracked up (she more than I).

My friend is now home from the hospital.  We spoke yesterday.  The evening before, it hit her: part of her womanhood was permanently gone. Sitting on the edge of her bed, she teared up but then felt a nudge to turn on her television.  There was Nick Vujicic, the evangelist born with no legs or arms, speaking about how God had used his disability to give people encouragement.  She knew that God had offered her that nudging so she would refuse to feel sorry for herself.

The pity pot can be such a cushy place to stay, can’t it?  When life is all about me, it can become my frequent resting spot.  But what would life look like if I chose, instead, to find my comfort in Jesus’ loving arms? I would no longer dwell on how my troubles seem to outweigh God’s ability to make things better and would focus on Romans 8:28 which reminds us that all things work together for good “for those that love the Lord” and are called according to His purpose.

“For those that love the Lord.”  What does that kind of love entail?

The Bible gives us a great example of Joseph who, though experiencing serious injustices, loved the Lord and refused to live with a victim mentality.  Genesis 37:12-28 tells us that his jealous brothers threw him into a pit and then sold him to Egyptian slave traders who sold him to Potiphar, Pharoah’s captain of the guard.

Potiphar favored Joseph and put him in charge of his household…until, that is, Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of assaulting her and he was thrown in prison.  Once released (over a decade later), Pharoah put Joseph in charge of the whole land of Egypt.  From the pit to the palace.

You see, Joseph never suffered from self-pity.  He always trusted that God would make something good out of something bad, and he was right.  God wants to do the same for us.  We never should get comfortable on the pity pot, an oppressive trap of the enemy. Matthew 5:14-16 tells us why.  You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.                                                                                                                               

Staying on the pity pot will keep us immobile.  Joyless.  Stuck on our wants.  Unable to forgive and move on.  Bitter.  Selfish.  And in a very, very dark place.  If we want our light seen by others, we, like Joseph, must decide where it can shine best.