One of the tools our staff uses when we coach individuals and teams is CliftonStrengths, perhaps better known as the StrengthsFinder assessment. If you are even marginally familiar with this tool, you will likely agree Joseph had the strength of Responsibility. 

Here is how the CliftonStrengths website explains this strength: 

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it.

This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. ([https://bit.ly/3fT24aq])

This certainly sounds like Joseph, doesn’t it? 

Responsible Joe knew how to get things done, done right, and done well. Verses 3 and 4 are the natural outcome of the kind of life Joe lived. “When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.”

Success is the byproduct of responsible living and working. However, responsibility is no guarantee bad things will not happen as we see in the middle of this chapter. A designing woman, the Boss’s wife, wanted Joe to demonstrate a little irresponsibility. Joe’s Responsibility would not allow it. The irresponsible wife made an accusation landing Responsible Joe in jail.

What was it like for Joe in jail? Take a look at verses 20-23:

Joe was not only responsible, but he was also consistent. He was a man of integrity and character. He was who he was wherever he was. Everywhere he was, everything he did, success followed. 

If someone had interviewed Joe later in life and asked him the secret of his success, he probably would not have mentioned his strength of Responsibility. He most likely would have said what verse 3 says: “the LORD gave him success in everything he did.” We see this again in verse 23: “the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.”

Flip the page to the next chapter and see Responsible Joe running things inside the prison. The cupbearer and baker have dreams they do not understand. Joe asks a rhetorical question, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (verse 8). 

The secret of Joe’s success was found in knowing and experiencing God in all places at all times. “He leads me along the right paths for his name’s sake,” and “Even though I walk through the darkest valley,” stand side by side in Psalm 23. They often stand uncomfortably close in our lives too, don’t they? 

Are family members making your life miserable? Live responsibly, honor God, serve others.

Have you been mistreated or abused? Live responsibly, honor God, serve others.

Have you been betrayed? Live responsibly, honor God, serve others.

Have you been left behind and forgotten? Live responsibly, honor God, serve others.

Responsible Joe’s life story declares the truth of Psalm 23:6 when it says, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”