Article July 16, 2007 Issue

LESSONS LEARNED FROM JOSEPH

BY RON BRAULT

I've always appreciated the story of Joseph in the Bible, and how his reliance on God enabled him to experience incredible progress, even when he seemed to be at the mercy of others' choices and actions. And there was a time when his experiences helped me personally.

I'd been working in the financial area of a nonprofit organization for a number of years. One day, it was announced that there would be a change in management. Although I was able to diplomatically congratulate our division's new manager, I began ruminating about why I wasn't the one who'd been chosen for the position. Wondering if my efforts and abilities had been adequately recognized, I began to speculate about where I should be in my career at that time. Feeling overlooked and underappreciated, I began to feel self-pity and disappointment.

But soon I was able to counter these depressing thoughts with the realization that progress is actually spiritual and is not subject to the actions and decisions of others. As a relatively new student of Christian Science, I'd been learning the value of addressing challenging situations through prayer. I saw that my negative outlook was coming from the incorrect view that I was just a limited mortal in competition with other mortals of varying abilities and skills, some superior and some inferior to my own. The logical extension of this premise was that luck and chance governed my experience. But I knew there was a spiritual viewpoint that would help turn my thinking around.