Getting fired sucks. It is demoralizing physically, emotionally and socially. It happens to the best people and the worst people. It happens when you are making your very best effort and when you absolutely could care less. I remember one job I had: I was in three weeks of training. I showed up early. I never left early. I studied hard. I scored a 92 on the test they gave. During the training sessions I was focused on the speaker’s words and instructions. At the end of the first week, when I was the last person at the office (due to being on the last shift), my recruiter called me and told me they were letting me go. I did everything right and it made no difference!  And that is not the worst story I have.

Getting fired is always a blow to your personal self-esteem (why don’t they like me?) and your belief in yourself as someone who can contribute something to society. This is especially true when it happens because of something you cannot control like a disability or your ethnicity or your religious beliefs or your sexual orientation. But no one actually gets fired for these things today, right? Maybe not officially, but often the employer will give you unfair scrutiny or put you in impossible situations!

Lets examine one man’s unfair, “employment” story in the Bible and how he dealt with it. He was not actually an employee, he was a slave, which is something that many employees might identify with anyway. I am talking of course, about Joseph from Genesis. The same Joseph from the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors. I am not going to explain the entire story but just use parts to show how Joseph reacted in some situations, and how you should too! If you are not familiar with it, you can read it here.

1. It was clear that he was considered a “model employee” in all his jobs . He started out on the lowest run of the house of Potiphar and worked his way up to supervisor of the entire house. This is despite being sold into slavery by those who he thought cared about him. Maybe he harbored some bitterness, maybe he did not. Either way, he did not let his past disappointments effect his current job.

Genesis 39:6: “…So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate…”

Now comes the temptation to do something behind the boss’ back. Here comes Potiphar’s wife. Joseph would not kiss the right ass (literally) and gets gets fired again.

Now he has to go to prison. This happened despite his reputation and despite the fact that there was no evidence from the accuser. So again, he is in prison, which might equate today to doing telemarking or something similar. Even so, once again he does not become disgruntled about his past unfair situations. Again, he does his best job and is a, “model employee” or inmate in this case.

…the chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.…

2. Another thing that he did right (and that you can too in your situations) was that he stood up for himself and showed appreciation for his position and the responsibility given him. When confronted by the woman he considered it worth more than the chance to cheat.

Genesis 39:6-8: “Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. (7)It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” (8)But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge.…”

3. The third thing that he did right is that wherever he was, he continued to network, even in his prison job!

After they had been in custody for some time, (5) each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. (6) When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. (7) So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”

So then the cupbearer got his old job back and he promised to write Joseph a recommendation for a higher position. However, once he was free, he forgot about his promise and the Lord had Joseph spend several more years in that dead-end (literally) job. But eventually the cupbearer did remember Joseph. At that time, Joseph’s experiences were such that he was promoted above the cupbearer and even above Potiphar!

4. The most important thing that Joseph did throughout his ordeal was that he trusted the Lord. He knew in his own heart that the Lord knew that he did not do anything with the wife of his boss. He knew that the Lord was watching when no one else was. He knew that he could trust the Lord to see the unfair situations and reward him in the Lord’s time. And that He did!

Colossians 3:25  For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

———————————————————–W.