Perhaps you have heard the one about the attractive young woman who boarded a plane in Los Angeles heading toward New York. The young woman was tired. She knew it would be a long flight, so immediately she asked the flight attendant for a pillow and a blanket. She hoped to be able to sleep most of the way to New York.

Her head had just nestled into the pillow when an obnoxious man with a loud, booming voice boarded the plane... and sat down beside her. He tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Hi there. It's going to be a long flight, so to pass the time, would you like to play a fun game?" Politely, she declined and rolled over toward the window to take a nap. However, the obnoxious man persisted saying the game is really easy and lots of fun. He explained how the game works: "I ask you a question and if you don't know the answer, you pay me, and visa-versa." Again, she politely declined and settled into her pillow. The chauvinistic man figured that since she was an attractive young woman (and blonde at that) he would easily win the math, so arrogantly he made another offer. "Okay, how about this? If you don't know the answer, you pay me only $5.00, but if I don't know the answer, I will pay you $500.00." This caught the young woman's attention and she figured that there would be no end to this moment unless she played, so finally she agreed to play the game.

The man asked the first question. "What's the distance from the earth to the moon?" The young woman didn't say a word. She just reached into her purse, pulled out a five-dollar bill and handed it to the man. "O.K., O.K," the man said. "Now it's your turn. Ask me a question, any question." She said, "What goes up the hill with three legs and comes down with four?" The man looked at her with a puzzled expression. But then he grabbed his laptop computer and searched all his references. No luck! Next, he tapped into the Airphone with his modem and searched the net, and even the Library of Congress. No luck! Frustrated, he sends E-mails to all his co-workers and friends. All to no avail.

After an hour or more of searching for the answer he finally gave up... he tapped the young woman on the shoulder to wake her up... and he handed her the $500.00. Politely, she took the money, put it in her purse and turned away and nestled back into her pillow.

"Wait a minute," said the man. "What is the answer?" Again, without a word, the young woman reached into her purse, handed him $5.00, and went back to sleep!

Now, that's what you call "rising to the occasion"... and that is precisely what we see Joseph doing in our scripture lesson for today. With the help of God, Joseph rises to a most difficult occasion.