Finding Joy When it is Unfair

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 ESV

Last night my favorite basketball team, the Kansas Jayhawks, beat their in-state rivals, the Kansas State Wildcats.

The game was tied with 5.6 seconds left and Svi (a Jayhawk guard) made a lay-up as time expired. It was a thing of beauty, until the replay revealed that he traveled…the basket shouldn’t have counted. The game should have gone into overtime.

It wasn’t fair and to be honest there was more than just that one missed call that wasn’t fair. Let’s be real officials are human and mistakes are made and teams have to deal with the humanness of those officials. It isn’t fair.

But as a Believer can we really sincerely say that anything in life is unfair?  Isn’t claiming something is unfair like stating that God got something wrong? Like He missed something important and let something slip by that should not have happened? Doesn’t God use the sin, the muck, the “unfair” of this world to work all things out for His glory?

And if that is true then as Christians we can trust God in the unfair, looking as Jesus did for the joy set before us (Hebrews 12:2). It wasn’t fair that Jesus had to endure the cross and maybe what you are going through right now isn’t fair. But we have a joy set before us. The joy of eternity with God, of knowing in God all wrongs will be made right. The joy of bringing glory and honor to the One who deserves all praise.

Perhaps it is time fellow Believers to remove the word “unfair” from our vocabulary. And rest in the joy that is set before us regardless or our circumstances.

Father God I admit that I lose sight of the joy set before me when I complain about unfairness in life. Lord help me to trust Your ways when the circumstances of life are unfair. Help me to fix my eyes on the joy set before me rather than fixing my eyes on the joy found in circumstance. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.