Transformed – teen devotion – February 23, 2025

One key truth: Because Christ is the redeemer of our stories, we can overcome evil with good.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Genesis 45:4-7

Love Your Enemies, Overcoming Evil With Good

When it comes to the stories of our lives, there are chapters that read like Joseph’s life. Past and present events leave us wondering, “What good could come from this?” We ask this when we don’t get into the school of our dreams. We ask this when our families move out of state in the middle of our high school career—and we have to say goodbye to familiar rhythms and our friends. We ask this after a break-in, when our belongings are stolen. And we also ask this after someone inconveniences us, disappoints us, or seriously wrongs us. We look at our past or present suffering at the hands of others—and the hurt—and may justify in our heads, “We need to repay them for what they did to us.”

But that would only be true if we sat in the seat of the divine storyteller—God himself. You see, we not only want to be the central character of our story, but we want to be the narrator of our story, too.

And we’re neither.

How can we recover the sleep that we’ve lost to our restlessness and anxiety? How can we reclaim all the tears shed over hurts we’ve received? How can we heal ourselves from the pain of our guilt and the weight of our shame? And yes, how can we pay back the injustices we’ve experienced?

If it was up to us to redeem our past, we couldn’t do it. No matter how many “good” things we might try to do, before a holy, righteous God, our guilt would remain. If it was up to us to undo the damage our sins had done, we couldn’t do it. If it was up to us to salvage some greater, prevailing storyline from our suffering, the storylines we come up with shortchange us on comfort in the long run.

But that’s exactly what happens when we want to sit in the seat of “storyteller.” We feel like it’s on us to write ourselves out of the mess we’re in. We fixate on the present or ruminate on the past—and all the while we miss the forest for the trees.

Thankfully, Joseph’s comfort is your comfort, too. And what comfort is that? You don’t hold the pen that writes the pages of your life. God does. When he writes, grace spills from his pen. And if you doubt that to be true, look to the cross of Christ—and see our God reinvent what was intended for evil for good—immense, infinite, eternal good. Jesus is the better, greater, truer Joseph. Jesus wasn’t just rejected by his family; he endured rejection by his heavenly Father. Jesus was sold for pieces of silver—not into slavery—but into death. Jesus, on the cross, debunks the storyline that “what goes around comes around,” because he—unlike Joseph—was perfect and blameless, and yet died as the worst of criminals. Why? So that we would not. So that we could go free! The chains of sin and death have been shattered! Jesus’ empty tomb continues to sing songs of liberation for the weary and broken. God used Joseph to deliver an entire region. God, in Christ, would save the entire world.

You are set free from the burden of redeeming your life’s story; that weight has already been worn by Christ. The gospel shows us that no evil we inflict or experience is irredeemable. The gospel not only gives us reason to reconcile with those who’ve wronged us, but the gospel gives us the resources to reconcile with them, too. Such grace means you can never irrevocably, irredeemably screw up your life. God takes our mistakes and reinvents them into demonstrations of his goodness, his steadfast love, his abiding care, and unwavering faithfulness. God’s prominence persists in spite of our problems; God’s providence prevails over our pain.

Because Christ is the redeemer of our stories, we can overcome evil with good.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you are both the author and perfecter of our faith. You knew us before we were born and knit us together in the wombs of our mothers. We thank you for being our redeemer from sin and death. Thank you for redeeming not only our lives, but also the story of our lives. Help us to be reconciled with those who wrong us. In your name we pray. Amen.