Who do you think was our greatest president? I think it’s a tie between George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. They both faced overwhelming circumstances and overcame unbelievable odds to birth America and to hold it together. The two men kept their focus. They shared a common virtue: confident humility. Washington resisted the voices requesting him to become a king. Lincoln assembled a team. As Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book explained, Lincoln ended up with a “Team of Rivals.” Washington had his Benedict Arnold and Lincoln had a group of malcontents in his cabinet. Both presidents showed confident humility during seismic shifts throughout the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. The improbable outcomes make me believe Ben Franklin was right when he told the Constitutional Congress in 1787: “I have lived, sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of the truth – that God governs in the affairs of men.” We see the governance of God in the Bible. Joseph, like Washington and Lincoln, had a team of rivals, saboteurs and would-be assassins. He had to deal with his treacherous brothers who sold him into slavery. Joseph was falsely accused, was forgotten and left to rot in an Egyptian prison. Yet, through all the shifts he endured. Joseph never lost his belief that God was with him and had called him to a unique time and place. Life is an unpredictable struggle, but maybe some of our “bad luck” is a great opportunity for God to show off His glory. - Pastor Tom Harrison