It Isn’t Fair…

If I had a penny for the number of times I have said, “It isn’t fair,” I would be a rich woman. Then if I add in the times I have heard it from my kids, my friends, my family, even some of my patients (back in my nursing days) I would probably be richer than Bill Gates. Life isn’t fair. People who try hard to get ahead, scrimp and save do not always get ahead. Cancer attacks young, old, mommies, daddies, and babies alike. I often want justice, but most of the time there is no black and white, fair and unfair. I have seen it with my kids.
“Mooooommmmm! He kicked me,” she bellows reverberating through the house.

NOT FAIR!

“What did you do to him?” I investigate.

“Well…”

You get the point. Even though “he” shouldn’t have kicked “her” there is a back story and the back story is often soiled gray. Both have some culpability and most of the time there isn’t someone who is innocent.

However there are the inexplicable things that come in life. The young child who has cancer, the older woman fighting her third battle with the dreaded disease, the freak accident, or a tsunami that devastates a region. It isn’t fair. So we call out to God. We tell Him, it isn’t fair. Why me, them, or why this situation? God, You are all-powerful so why? Often God doesn’t answer why. So what do we do with our whys? We can hang onto our sense of justice and shake our fist at God or doctors or anyone in our paths. We can allow our whys to turn us into bitter people. People who feel wronged and robbed of something we deserve. However, there is an “or” option. We can let our whys turn our thoughts to heaven.

We have to remember sin has tainted this world. In this world, very few things are fair. That sense of injustice should increase our longing for our true home. For those of us who know Jesus as our personal Savior Earth is not our home, heaven is. Heaven, where God lives, where there is no pain, no tears, no night (Revelation 21:4, 23). Heaven, where we will know fully, our whys will be answered (1Cor 13:12). Heaven, glorious wonderful heaven, where I get to feast with God in eternity (Rev 19:9). Heaven, my true home!

So the next time we ask why, let’s use it as a reminder of what is to come. Heaven. Let us not focus only on this Earth. Let us become more heavenly minded and rest in God’s faithfulness, even when we cannot understand the why.

Oh Heavenly Father, there are so many things we do not understand and that do not seem fair. Lord we lay those things at Your feet and we pray that those reminders will help us long for heaven more. That the whys and the injustice of this world will drive us towards keeping an eternal worldview and help us to rest in Your faithfulness and loving-kindness. In Jesus’ powerful and precious name we pray. Amen.