How We Go Through What We Can’t Change

This powerful message takes us into the heart-wrenching story of Jacob and Joseph from Genesis 37 and 46, revealing a profound truth about how we navigate life's unavoidable difficulties. We discover Jacob mourning for 22 years over a son he believed was dead—a conclusion he drew himself from incomplete information. His brothers never said Joseph was dead; they simply presented a bloodied coat and let their father's mind complete the story. This teaches us something critical: deception doesn't always require outright lies. Sometimes it simply presents partial truth and allows our minds to create the worst possible ending. For 22 years, Jacob lived in mourning, refusing comfort, declaring he would go to the grave in sorrow. Yet when truth finally arrived—when Joseph stood before him alive—everything reframed instantly. The same grave Jacob couldn't outrun became something he could approach with joy instead of despair. The central revelation here is transformative: while we cannot change certain realities or escape every difficulty, we absolutely can determine how we go through them. Will we allow deception and negative conclusions to define our journey, or will we seek truth and let God's word reframe our perspective? This isn't about denying problems or pretending pain doesn't exist—it's about choosing whether mourning becomes our identity or whether we hold onto God's hand through the valley. We're challenged to engage fully—body, soul, and spirit—in surrendering our circumstances to God, being honest about our pain while simultaneously declaring our trust in His faithfulness.