Productive Ups and Downs

A friend of ours is currently hiking the Appalachian Trail. He recently passed the 1,200-mile mark, and while sharing about the journey, he mentioned something hikers call PUDs.

It stands for Pointless Ups and Downs.

They're the climbs that seem unnecessary. You spend all that energy making your way uphill only to immediately descend again. Hikers often find themselves wondering, What was the point of that climb?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much the Christian life can feel like that.

There are seasons when God seems to be opening doors, answering prayers, and reminding us of His goodness. Then, almost without warning, we're walking through disappointment, grief, unanswered questions, or long stretches of waiting.

In those moments, it's easy to wonder if any of it has a purpose.

Living the Story Before the Ending

The challenge is that we're living our stories in real time.

We don't have the benefit of seeing where the trail is leading.

One of God's greatest gifts in Scripture is that He allows us to look back at the completed stories of people who walked difficult roads before us. We get to see what they couldn't see while they were living it.

Joseph is one of those stories.

The Chapters We Would Have Skipped

Joseph's life was anything but a steady climb upward.

He was deeply loved by his father but hated by his brothers. God gave him dreams about his future, but before those dreams were fulfilled, he found himself at the bottom of a pit. He was sold into slavery, falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit, and forgotten in prison after helping someone who promised to remember him.

If Joseph had been writing his own story, I doubt he would have chosen any of those chapters.

Honestly, neither would I.

Yet when we read his story from beginning to end, something remarkable becomes clear.

The pit wasn't pointless.

Slavery wasn't pointless.

Prison wasn't pointless.

Even the waiting wasn't pointless.

God was using every high and every low to shape Joseph into the man He needed him to become. Each difficult season prepared him for the next one until, in God's perfect timing, Joseph was elevated to second in command over Egypt.

More importantly, God had done something even greater than changing Joseph's circumstances—He had transformed Joseph's heart.

When God Is Writing the Story

When Joseph's brothers eventually stood before him, he had the power to repay evil with evil.

Instead, he chose forgiveness.

Years after the pit, Joseph was finally able to see what had been hidden from him all along. He told his brothers:

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good..."
— Genesis 50:20

Joseph wasn't saying that what happened to him was good.

Being betrayed by your family isn't good.

Being falsely accused isn't good.

Being forgotten isn't good.

But God is so sovereign that He can take what others intend for evil and weave it into His redemptive purposes.

There Are No Pointless Chapters

Maybe that's the reminder some of us need today.

Perhaps you're walking through a season that feels like one long pointless up and down.

You're waiting for answers.

Wondering why the road has taken another unexpected turn.

Questioning whether God is accomplishing anything at all.

Friend, don't confuse a difficult chapter with a meaningless one.

You may not be able to see where the trail is leading, but the God who guided Joseph through every twist and turn is faithfully guiding you too.

One day, you may look back and discover that the very chapters you begged God to remove became the chapters He used most.

Because for those who love Him, there are no pointless ups and downs.

Only productive ones.