Fruitful in the Place That Hurt Me: Why Pain Produces More Than We Think

When Joseph named his second son Ephraim, he said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” (Genesis 41:52) That verse won’t leave me alone…in the best way.

It’s one thing to survive suffering. It’s another to become fruitful in it. Joseph absorbed wave after wave—family rejection, slavery, false accusation, and being forgotten in prison. He didn’t get to rewind life to Canaan or skip the hard chapters before standing in Egypt. In the very place that broke him, God made him fruitful.

I think about that when I write. Most of the words I carry weren’t born in easy seasons—they came from workplace battles, anxious nights, betrayals, and losses. FireScript Press exists because God met me in a place I never wanted to be and turned it into a launchpad—full of possibility, promise, and peace.

Fruitfulness doesn’t always look like escape. Sometimes it looks like roots going deeper in hard soil—because healthy roots are what make good fruit. And then, right there, God grows a harvest in the place that wounded you.

🔥 Don’t wait to leave the hard place before you believe God can make you fruitful. He grows life even in the land of suffering.