Years of Plenty, Years of Famine

‘..gather all the food of these good years that are coming...that food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine...’ (Genesis 41: 35-36)

In the story of Joseph in Egypt and his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams and his execution of his plan, the seven years of good crops allowed for the storage of sufficient grain to provide for the population during the seven subsequent years of famine.

It is a story that has come to me again and again during this past difficult year, and at different times various aspects of the whole story have spoken to me. I recently preached on the reconciliation of Joseph with his brothers and father – the denouement of a tale that begins with a dysfunctional family, favouritism, arrogance, jealousy and violence.

But it this concept of storing in times of plenty to provide in times of need that especially resonates with me.

Speaking with a wise friend some months ago I commented on how, in the midst of our hard times, I was finding it difficult to spend time in prayer or maintain my usual pattern of spiritual discipline. I had lost the rhythm, as it were.

He encouraged me not to be anxious about that. He offered this thought, that over the years I had dug the wells of spiritual discipline sufficiently deeply for there to be reservoirs of spiritual resource sufficient to sustain me through the dark and dry times.

To be honest, I am not sure that he did not have a rather idealised view of my previous spiritual patterns, but nonetheless, what he said struck me.

Now that I am feeling somewhat better and the darkest times are possibly passing, I am using this season of Lent to gradually re-establish the rhythm and pattern of spiritual discipline. And as I look back over these past months I realise that indeed, what I had stored in the ‘years of plenty’ seems to have sustained me during the ‘years of famine’.