In Genesis 46 Joseph oversees everything. He has favor with and access to Pharoah. He is able to send money and resources back to his father to make his journey to Egypt pleasant because he has the ability to do so, the power to accomplish these things. He has given the best of the land to his family because, yep, he can! He is doing all of this because it is within his power to do it, not because he knows that time might be short or that things will not always be this way in the future. He is doing this because he is a faithful man of integrity. We know what he would have done if he knew disaster was coming in the way he handled the seven years of plenty and famine. But here, he is just executing as a faithful can and does.
We know that the joy and excitement of this season does not represent how it will always be for Joseph, his family, or the nation. Clearly Joseph and his family are unaware of this, but we know. We know that things will go from bad, to worse, to unimaginable terror. Here is what I think the Spirit of God would have us to see: we maximize your seasons of growth because the time will come when you cannot. By this I do not mean merely maximizing those intermittent seasons of frustrations that we will experience along the path to our greatness. I mean maximizing the time when we are mentally, physically, and able to do; that time before the time when we cannot do anything anymore! What should we maximize?
Our Days
We all have defined and prescribed days (See Psalm 90:12 and James 4:13-14). Time is not endless, and time does not wait for us to figure out what we want and or are called to do. As that old song says, "time keeps ticking, ticking, ticking into the future." Joseph dd not wait to bring his family. He acted in that moment. He did not procrastinate and ponder all the details about how they would fit in the land and fit in with the people before he acted. No, he acted, and they would figure out some details later. He built the plane while he was flying it.
The worse thing we can do and the biggest lie the devil sells that keeps selling is that I have time. Perhaps I do. Maybe I will live until I am 80 or 90. Maybe I will live another 80 minutes, or seconds. The truth is that I do not know how long I have but I do know that I have an expiration date so, like food, I better use it before I can't.
Our Relationships
How did Joseph do anything? How did he achieve such extraordinary things in Egypt? Was it because he was faithful? Yes, but it also because he maximized the abilities of others around him. Nothing is ever achieved by one individual that is worthy of note or influential. Sure, Joseph gets the credit, but the seven years of plenty required the help of the people so that the seven years of famine could benefit the people. If I will achieve what God has for me, I must invest in others for His glory and He, in return for such stewardship will allow those people as well as others to be catalyst for achieving my purpose. I cannot do it alone but those who will be my help must be those to whom I help. This is why isolation is damaging to the one who chooses isolation. You cannot be helped because you have helped (See 2 Corinthians 1:2-3; 2:1-3).
Part of this will include forgiving people before they even ask, like Joseph did with his brothers. Maximizing my relationships will mean that they will be tested in many ways, but the test is necessary for the relationship so that, when forgiveness and reconciliation occurs, it can be a vehicle for continued growth towards greatness. When we act in this way and it comes time for us to depart this world, our influence will continue to speak (See Hebrews 11:4c). What the Lord accomplishes through your life will not die if you maximize this season of ability. What you accomplish in your generation can span decades, even centuries. Let me offer a brief final analogy/illustration.
We know of king David because, of course, he is a major character in the Bible. Luke, however, in Acts 13:36b tells us something else, quite extraordinary, as to why we know David. He said,
"For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep
and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption..."
Luke says David died "after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation." Every human being is created in the image of God and endowed with a purpose. We know David in our current century because David served God's purpose in his century. That's a long time! But David achieved greatness in his life because he maximized his days, his resources, and his devotion to the Lord.
What will our lives say when you die? You can answer to that question only by answering another question: "What am I doing now?"