Nobody Appreciates Me
Have you ever felt forgotten, neglected, unappreciated, or unloved? Haven’t
we all?
Joseph, a prophet of God, was mistreated by his jealous brothers and just
about everybody else he encountered. His brothers sold him as a slave and
told their dad he'd been killed by a wild animal. With relatives like that,
who needs enemies? But that was only the beginning of Joseph’s trials.
He worked as a slave for a powerful man whose conniving wife tried
repeatedly to seduce him. Though he refused her advances, she didn’t give
up. One day when she and Joseph were alone in the house, she pulled off his
robe and he escaped in his underwear! The woman was so angry, she lied to
her husband, saying Joseph had raped her. This, of course, did not go over
well with Joseph’s master. He threw Joseph into prison with the ex-cupbearer
of the king.
Thanks to Joseph's efforts, the cupbearer was released. When the cupbearer
returned to his job in the palace, instead of showing his gratitude to
Joseph by putting in a good word for him with the King, the cupbearer
totally forgot about his pal in prison. Joseph spent two more years locked
up. I can only imagine what he was feeling and thinking about his former
cell mate and disloyal friend. If you were in his shoes, (or should I say
chains?) How would you feel? Would you think that perhaps doing good was a
waste of time and maybe you should never help anyone ever again?
Have you ever done favors for ungrateful people? It hurts when kindness is
not appreciated or even acknowledged. Jesus knew that pain too. While
walking through a town one day, he came upon ten men suffering from Leprosy.
These men were outcasts. Nobody wanted to come near them for fear of
catching the horrible disease. Lepers had to leave their families to live in
quarantined colonies. Once diagnosed with leprosy, they could never touch
another human being or be touched by anyone. Can you imagine how lonely they
must have felt? And when they accidentally came close to someone, they were
required to yell out "unclean!" So the person could get away from them. Talk
about feeling rejected and unloved!
But there was someone who did care about these men. Jesus had compassion and
healed them. Predictably, when the men were healed, they immediately ran to
see their friends and families. In their excitement, nine of the ten forgot
to even say thank you to Jesus. Only one returned to show his gratitude for
receiving his life back. If even Jesus was unappreciated for the good He
did, we can’t expect to receive any better treatment. People are thoughtless
sometimes. It's easy to become angry and bitter when that happens, but
neither Joseph the prophet nor Jesus the son of God reacted that way. They
are examples for us to follow.
When we remember why we do good for others, it helps us forget about being
forgotten. If we're doing good simply for the sake of doing good, our
satisfaction won't depend upon the recipient's response.We know that our
acts of kindness are seen by God, so it doesn't really matter if anyone here
on earth acknowledges what we've done. Our reward comes from the one we are
seeking to imitate. His opinion is the one that counts.
And speaking of being forgotten and unappreciated, consider how much God has
done for us that we don't remember to thank Him for!
Marsha Jordan
Email: hugsandhope@gmail.com