questions
- Read Genesis 45:1-15. What is your initial reaction to this text and/or to the sermon?
- Before seeing his brothers again, Joseph spends years trying to forget the pain and trauma they caused by selling him into slavery. He even named his son the Hebrew word for "forget." Why do you think he did this? Why does it sometimes feel easier to try to forget than to face our pain head on? What are some of the methods you've used or seen others use to try to forget?
- When we repress our pain, it often comes out in unintentional ways, like the material that squeezes out the sides when a hydraulic press applies pressure. When have you experienced this or seen it happen in others?
- The sermon argued that, in order to heal, the first step is to be honest about our pain, face it head on, and stop trying to forget. Mackenzie shared that, for her, that meant starting therapy. What has that first step looked like for you in the past?