It must have been an awful shock to the brothers when Joseph finally revealed who he was.  Talk about being caught with your hands in the cookie jar!  Joseph would have been within his rights to have severely punished them, and after all, he had the power to do so.  He could have thought "serves them right if they all.  starve to death, that's what they had planned for me" or he could have said "well boys, the boot's on the other foot now and it's my time to dish it out".  He could have, but he didn't.

When you read through Joseph's story he doesn't even seem to blame anyone for his situation, and especially not God.  The question he's always asking is "where do we go from here?" and "how can God's work be done in this place?". Joseph knew that it wasn't all about him, that he played a part in a bigger picture.

As Christians we should be able to relate well with Joseph.  It's not always about us, in fact most of the time it isn't.  It's about  God. It's about Jesus. It's about the work of the Holy Spirit.  It's about those less fortunate than ourselves. It's about the disenfranchised, it's about the hungry, the ill, the dying. 

35 million of the world's population test HIV+, and in sub saharah Africa over 14 million children are orphans. I believe that if we truly understand that it's not all about us then it's our obligation to make our presence felt in the world.  Whether it's HIV here or abroad, or our youth dying from drug related crime, or in a war that still seems to be more about oil and politics than people, we need to look for the presence of God and reach for it.  "What is my part in this story?"