I talked last week in this post about the lost and found at LIFE Conference. The number of items that started showing up in our office within a couple of hours after groups started arriving. Many things once lost were found. Some within minutes of their being lost. Others sat in the lost and found all five days, never to be claimed. How many of those water bottles, sweatshirts, Bibles?, pieces of jewelry were not only lost but forgotten. The owner didn’t give it a thought, never missed it. Maybe once they got home and a parent asked them where the polaroid camera was that they took with them and probably promised to take care of. Maybe then they thought about it. 

Have you ever felt that way? Lost or forgotten? Sadly it is an all too common emotion in these days of isolation, fake social connection, and digital relationships. People can go through life with a feeling that nobody really knows them or sees them, leading to feelings of nobody cares about me. Rejection from other humans can often lead to feelings of rejection, abandonment from God.  Have you ever felt that God has forgotten you?

Prayers not being answered – for years! Seems like God is too distant to hear. Or worse truly has forgotten you or just doesn’t care. As I have been preparing for the sermon this Sunday, I have been sitting on a part of Joseph’s story that God has used to grab me. Joseph is unjustly thrown in prison and sees no way out. He can’t prove his innocence. The future looks bleak. Until two others share a cell with him and they have dreams that God gives Joseph the interpretation. He shares the meaning of the dreams and asks the one fellow prisoner to remember him when he gets out (getting out of prison was a part of the dream).

Genesis 40:23, “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.”
And the next verse says, “When two full years had passed.”

Seemingly all hope gone – forgotten to rot in a jail cell. Where is God? Why is this happening? Why are my prayers not being answered? I can only imagine that these questions and more were on Joseph’s mind. And maybe you have had or are in one of those seasons right now. Feeling forgotten. Feeling lonely. Feeling like life as placed you in a pit or a prison and God doesn’t seem to be doing anything about it. 

If you are in that place – the pit or prison, feeling forgotten and alone – I have good news for you. Joseph didn’t die in prison.

“Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace…”

Hang in there! God knows what awaits you in on the other side of the hurt and loneliness?