Looking Forward with Hope
Should our wealth or success be defined according to what we have, our social status, power, or the size of our bank account? I mean if I own a house or a car am I more prosperous than someone who doesn’t? At work having a healthy definition of prosperity is very important if you want to truly rock it.
If we look at the ancient examples I’m often confused about this concept of prosperity. Take for example, the Biblical story of Joseph. For whatever reason, he was deemed very successful and prosperous.
“And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.” - Genesis 39:2-3 KJV
What is confusing is I’ve read this guy’s story, and I would say he was anything but prosperous. If you haven’t read this story - I think it’s an important one to do so as it’s packed full of lessons that will keep you in the game and focused on rocking your work. However, let’s think, (off the top of my head) what his life was like.
Joseph’s prosperity looked like this:
Betrayed by those closest to him. (Jealous Brothers)
Sold into slavery. (Oh my)
Left for dead. (Hopeless)
Falsely accused of hitting on his boss’s wife. (Found guilty without trial)
Imprisoned. (Over nothing)
Finally, he rescued a nation from famine and eventually forgave his brothers who started his mess of a life. If that’s what success or prosperity should look like, are we jamming for the right things at work?
Betrayed, sold, left, accused, imprisoned…Sometimes I wonder.
This is when I ran into a better definition of prosperity that helps me make sense of things.
According to the online dictionary prosper and prospectus come from the same Latin root words: pro (which means “forward” and specere which is “to look”.) So, if we truly want to understand what it means to be prosperous at work we need to look forward with hope.
That rocks!
Doesn’t Joseph’s story make more sense? He always looked forward with hope. His hope was a dream and an abiding trust in God. This allowed him, no matter his circumstances, to continually look forward with hope.
As we continually refine what it means to be prosperous in life, I think it’s important to understand what prosperity really looks like. It means to look forward with hope in all things and in every situation.
I just love that.