Read Genesis 47:1-26

Then Joseph said to the people, “Look, today I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. I will provide you with seed so you can plant the fields. Then when you harvest it, one-fifth of your crop will belong to Pharaoh. You may keep the remaining four-fifths as seed for your fields and as food for you, your households, and your little ones.”

“You have saved our lives!” they exclaimed. “May it please you, my lord, to let us be Pharaoh’s servants.” Joseph then issued a decree still in effect in the land of Egypt, that Pharaoh should receive one-fifth of all the crops grown on his land. Only the land belonging to the priests was not given to Pharaoh. (Genesis 47:23–26)

Joseph had an innovative plan, something that had never been done before. “In order for the land to produce, we must spread out over this land,” he said. Prior to this they had been settled in only a few well-populated regions. Those places represented their homes, their work, their farms, their neighbourhoods. They were asked to relinquish all that. That took some selling—an awful lot of convincing. But Joseph managed it, and he spread the people out across the land of Egypt.

Leadership calls for the stretching of creativity. If you are a leader, you will occasionally find yourself up against a blank wall. It’s big and intimidating and usually tall and slick. You can’t push through it, climb over it, or see your way around it. That’s when it gets exciting! That’s when innovative juices start to flow and you begin to think about possible ways to get beyond that wall. Innovation and creativity (not to mention courage) team up, determined to find an answer and a way.

Jesus Christ carried out the most innovative, creative plan this world will ever know. From the virgin birth to the death and the resurrection to the soon-coming of Christ, the plan of Almighty God is packed with innovation and creativity. It had never been done before. It will never be done again. It was a once and for all Master Plan only the Creator could envision.

As He did with Joseph, the Father does with us. In His great arrangement of life, He does not discount man’s sin; He deals with it. He deals with the hard questions of life. Not questions like how do I make a living, but how do I make a life? Not how do I spend my time, but how will I spend eternity? And not so much how do I get along with the person who sits next to me, but ultimately how do I get along with God? When we answer the hard questions correctly, all the others fall into place.

May we be models of diligence, honesty, compassion, creativity. May our work be an extension of our integrity. And may each one of us who names the name of Christ as our Lord be a positive influence on those around us and a faithful representative and ambassador for Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson.