Life is like a cake, and God is the baker

What a weird title for a sermon about Genesis. It was a metaphor of sorts to supplement the sermon that was preached the week before. The sermon the week before dealt with a serious question, why bad things happened to good people. It was based on the story about Joseph (Genesis 37-50). A heavy topic with no pat answers. But with some observations. Obedience to God does not guarantee a life free of suffering. God is in control even when life seems unfair, unjust and beyond our ability to manage it. And God is able to accomplish far greater than we could ever imagine through our faithful obedience in the midst of suffering. 

This sermon was way different, it wasn’t scholarly, it wasn’t deep. But man, for me anyways, it hit the nail square on the head. The service was an outreach event with lots of new people. It was to wrap up the day camp we had this summer. It included a BBQ lunch (and some cake) and lots of big blown up toys sitting in the lawn. 

After our pastor gives some context to the sermon he begins with the ingredients that are needed to bake a cake. Starting with flour, so he dons a baker’s hat and eats a scoop of flour, he spits it up. While the white flour dust was hanging in the air, he says, that doesn’t taste good. Well, I’ll say this, It was funny and it made a tone. It was a fun service, and he was able to share how God can make something good with ingredients that often don’t taste good on their own. Plus, one man of the young adult group volunteered to gulp down a raw egg. Maybe it’s a guy thing, but how cool is that?

The story about Joseph

Let’s backtrack almost to the beginning. Although Joseph lived 4000 years ago, we still know the story. And more than that, we know the ending of the story, but Joseph didn’t. I’m wondering what went through his mind when the bad things started to happen? 

The bad things started while he was just visiting his brothers and they decided to kill him, but they noticed a group passing by and they decided to sell him to them. Eventually he ended up on the auction block at a slave auction where he was purchased by a man called Potiphar. After a while he became the top servant at Potiphar house but as he was tending to his master’s needs, he was falsely accused and was sentenced to prison. 

While he was in prison he was promoted to be the top prisoner in the prison. Top dog in the dungeon? I wonder if Joseph knew why that happened. Maybe he did, one of his gifts was to interpret dreams. Maybe God revealed his purpose in a dream. Maybe. More likely, Joseph was clueless about why it was happening. 

While Joseph was in prison he befriended two inmates both who had dreams.  And Joseph was able to interpret them. He told one of them he was to be released to be a servant to the king, and told the other he was going to die. And he asked the one who was soon to be freed to mention him to the king. Unfortunately he didn’t, Joseph was forgotten. He was forgotten in a dungeon.

Beginning with being the favorite son of a wealthy dad, then being a slave in another country, with a different language, a different culture, with no friends, and no family, and ending up a forgotten prisoner in a dungeon. The trajectory is going the wrong way.

Lots of bad things happened to Joseph. Why did that happen? To make it more personal, why did that happen to me (my stroke).  Why did that happen to you, fill in the blank. 

While we are living through it, we often don’t get the answers. We don’t know the end of our story. We are living our lives with basically no explanation about why bad things happen.

Sometimes hindsight is where the meaning of our trials become apparent. Unfortunately, the question of “why did this happen” sometimes isn’t answered. Sort of like Job, who questioned God about his trials, and God actually showed up and talked with Job, the jist of it was, who are you to question me? Job never knew the why. 

Although we are told the reasons in the bible, Job and Joseph didn’t. Because of that, we can ponder the meaning in our comfy seats while eating ice cream. But living through calamities is different than thinking about it. Way different.  Sometimes it takes a lifetime to figure things out. Joseph evenfully figured it out. The end of the story about how Joseph overcame the adversities ends with this: You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.  (Gen 50.20)

How Joseph responded to the bad things that were happening sort of blows me away.  He just kept living his life, doing the best he could, given the circumstances that were there. And though he didn’t know the “why” he knew that God was with him.  He was there while Joseph was a slave, he was there while Joseph  was in prison.

…because the Lord was with Joseph he gave him success in whatever he did. (Gen. 39.21-23)

How do we respond to the adversities around us?

How important is it to realize that God is with us as we respond to the adversities around us,  and more than that, that God is making something good with the bad things that are there?

I have been thinking about how I am responding to my stroke. I wonder if how we respond to the adversities we encounter is maybe more important than the adversities themself. Hmm, I’m not sure about that. But I’m sure about this, how I respond starts with me. The bad things generally start somewhere else. Somewhere else is somewhere I am not. But how I respond starts with where I am now. 

How we respond to the adversities we encounter is also more important than figuring out why the bad things happened. “Why it happened” is often what we dwell on. I have talked to many doctors about how and why my stroke happened, and no one could say. My blood pressure was good, my heart was good, my cholesterol was good. Why it happened is often unknowable.

“Why it happened” often leads to blame. The victim mentality is rampant in our nation. Trump did this, maybe Fauci was to blame, (strokes are a side effect of the Covid vaccine)(and strokes are a side effect of having Covid). Well, I wasn’t vaccinated and I didn’t get Covid but I had a stroke. Thankfully, I didn’t blame anyone. Is it human nature to play the blame game and it leaves us living in the past. However it happened, it happened, past tense. How I respond starts now, present tense. 

And the purposes that God has for my adversities are more important than my meager attempts to find meaning in my trials. I realize that is what I’m doing, trying to find meaning in my life, I’m trying to bake my own cake. That is why I helped build a bridge through the trees. That is why I’m trying to write a book.  I guess I’m human, and figuring out the purposes of the bad tasting things in my life is something I’m thinking about. 

But there is something freeing when I let go and let God bake my cake. Maybe like Joseph, who eventually realized the purposes God had for his life, I can look back and say, I get it now. Or maybe like Job, I won’t. Either way, God is the baker of my cake. I guess the best thing I can do now, is do the best that I can, in the circumstances that are there, and let the baking of my cake happen, in God’s timing and for his purposes.