What do we do with the phrase “God has a plan” when life is painful, unfair, or downright messy?

This week’s Sunday Spark wrestles with the story of Joseph—not by smoothing over everything that happened to him, but by looking honestly at the betrayal, injustice, abandonment, and suffering along the way.

Joseph tells his brothers, “God sent me before you to save lives.” But that raises a harder question: does God cause the painful things that happen, or does God work within what happens to bring life from it?

Rather than settling for easy answers, this message makes room to wrestle. It challenges the idea that every tragedy, injustice, or hardship should simply be labeled “God’s plan,” and instead looks at human freedom, human choices, and the way God continues to meet us within a world that does not always unfold as it should. ...