The Self-Understanding of Joseph

We are afraid to let people loose; we are afraid that the worst will happen as soon as the single individual feels like behaving as the single individual. Furthermore, existing as the single individual is considered to be the easiest thing in the world, and thus people must be coerced into becoming the universal. I can share neither that fear nor that opinion, and for the same reason. Anyone who has learned that to exist as the single individual is the most terrible of all will not be afraid to say that it is the greatest of all...
Johannes de Silento

Time and time again I find modern writers telling us repeatedly that the path to heaven requires us to forget who we are. They define love as "others-centered" and generally require people to forget who they are.

And then there is that noble Hebrew, Joseph. He was great in a very different way.

Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

He said to them, "Please listen to this dream which I have had; for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf."

Then his brothers said to him, "Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

Now he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, "Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me."

He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?"

His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
Genesis 37:6-11

Sometimes at work I think about how Rick Warren would comment on this passage. Clearly, Joseph wasn't forgetting about himself or his dreams - which is the central thing Warren is commanding us to do.

If C.S. Lewis were among Joseph's brothers I can imagine him saying something like, "You ego-maniac! Stop thinking so much about yourself! Think about your family!" To some extent that's what Jacob told Joseph.

But were the dreams not from God?

And consider this, if Joseph had not had those dreams (and had not discussed the dreams with his family) he would have not been sold into slavery and would not have saved his brothers (which the dreams alluded to).

So I say, know your dreams and don't forget who you are, because God sees your faith and wants to give you good things.