‘Seven-month old twin’s dead,’ boomed the headlines, mystery surrounding the circumstances of their deaths. We instantly feel for the parents, the family, those involved in the investigation, and finally the poor infants. A tragedy from every perspective.
I recall my eldest daughter watching the Lion King (1994) so many times we can parrot many of the lines, and the first line is written on my memory. If you recall, it features Scar (the rogue lion brother of Mufasa, the king) telling a mouse he’s about to eat, “Life’s not fair, is it?”
And that’s about it. Life plain isn’t fair.
And so where does God fit in this picture? Well, he doesn’t like it any more than we do, I suspect. (My view is backed biblically--God is a holy and compassionate deity.)
But you say, ‘Well, he’s God isn’t he? Can’t he just “fix” it?’
Well, it’s not quite that simple now. When God designed Creation and brought it to pass it was near perfect, and certainly there was less pain. He gave us choice because it’s his nature to love. Love is unconditional. But, we chose to ‘break’ the first plan; God foresaw that--enter Jesus. The contingency plan was hatched before Creation.
We have a way to God, but we must also live in this broken world until the consummation of all things according to the purposes of God alone. (The purposes of God are possibly beyond our comprehension in this life.)
End result, today’s reality: we see heart-rending pain in our world today that’s near on impossible to rationalise and we know that life is not fair. God knows it too.
It will only become fair when we reach the next life in heaven; for those choosing to accept the free offer of salvation.
Our response: we don’t throw ourselves ‘pity parties’ or engage ourselves in others’ pity parties. The sooner we learn to proactively move through these arduous times without either denying them or allowing them to be a stumbling block for us (emotionally) the quicker we’ll actually live a mature, well-adjusted life.
Of course, achieving this is a whole different story; a seemingly gargantuan challenge for many people in harrowing circumstances. But we must no less try!
When we try God sees our faith and is pleased (Hebrews 11:6); we know this because he somehow makes it easier. Our situation is buoyed by something that transcends human understanding. It isn’t easier but it feels easier.
Whether we feel life’s fair or not doesn’t matter in the long run. We are best off, however, to simply remain humbly faithful--accepting of our lot in life.
Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved.
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