Joseph in Egypt . . . Still

JOSEPH: OK, so I might have been a little arrogant.

INMATE: A little?

JOSEPH: OK, so maybe a lot. But then you wouldn’t believe what happened next.

INMATE: Probably not, but let me guess, you’re going to tell me, anyway.

JOSEPH: (unfazed by this last comment) Here, I was thinking that God was going to deliver me from the well.

INMATE: You’re here aren’t you? You must not be in the well anymore.

JOSEPH: He did but not the way that I thought that he would. My brothers pulled me out of the well only to sell me into slavery to a bunch of hairy Ishmaelites. Then I thought God had let me down again. But then when I got to Egypt, I was sold to Potiphar and it was all good. I had the run of Potiphar’s house. I wasn’t ruler over my brothers or anything like that, but I didn’t care. Everything was going smooth but then this dude’s wife tries to offer me household privileges.

INMATE: Household privileges?

JOSEPH: You know? Household privileges. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean, know what I mean?

INMATE: Oh. (gets it) OH! His wife? That’s pretty tricky business. Did you? You know…

JOSEPH: Land of the dead, no! I would not sleep with another man’s wife and so disgrace the name of my God. I shunned her advances and being scorned she said that I approached her! So I was thrown into prison just like that! I wasn’t even guilty.

INMATE: Oh. Well it doesn’t sound like your god is on the ball. You are still in jail.

JOSEPH: My God is still with me! I’m treated well here. Did you see what God has allowed me to do while I’ve been here? The Pharoah’s baker and wine steward came to me and God gave me the interpretations for their dreams. Was not the baker hung? Was not the wine steward restored to his position? I might be still waiting for God’s promise to be fulfilled, but in the meantime, He will still allow me to do good where I am at.

INMATE: OK, that was a pretty nifty trick with interpreting those guys’ dreams, but soothsayers come at a shekel a dozen around here and besides, so what. What’s important is that you be able to interpret your own dreams. Here’s the name of my god (hands JOSEPH a business card). I usually bow down before his statue at sunset, burn a little incense and…

Excerpt from Any Day Now by Eric Stapleton. Copyright 2006, all rights reserved.