Life's Not Fair

“But the Lord has become my fortress and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.”  Psalm 94:22

About two months ago my sister and I were boarding an airplane to attend the funeral of my last living grandparent.  My dad’s mother had fought a long battle with cancer, but ultimately it was an unfortunate fall which produced a broken hip that she never was able to recover from. 

It was this mild mannered, unassuming Grandma that taught me all about fairness.  No one could have ever accused her of showing favoritism to either of her two children, nor her three grandchildren.  She was fair to a fault.  Isaac and Rebekah could have learned a lot from my Grandma and spared poor Jacob and Esau a lot of trouble!

As a child, I knew I could expect the mailman to deliver packages every December to our home with Christmas presents in it.  I also knew without reservation that the contents of my package would practically mirror in size, price, and quantity the contents of my sister’s package.  We would never be able to compare packages from Grandma and utter the annoying expression that kids often overuse,

“That’s not fair!”

What she modeled in life, she also modeled in death.  Each grandchild received a shoebox with identical contents that were personalized for the recipient.  Each box contained childhood pictures and cards from us that she had kept through the years, personal notes of memories she had with us, and a checkbook box (she never wasted anything!) that housed a financial gift of a unique, yet equal and fair amount.

However, no matter how good of a job my grandma did at modeling fairness to me while she was here, it didn’t take me very long at all to realize that Grandma might be fair, but life isn’t.

• Too many children are born everyday into families that are wrought with abuse and neglect.
• Innocent pedestrians and motorists are robbed of their lives at the hands of drunk drivers.
• Some families are blessed with more children than they can afford to feed while other families go in debt just trying to conceive one child.
• The richest country in the world is still the home to the hungry and the homeless.
• Tornadoes seem to obliterate trailer parks, yet skip right over homes that could possibly withstand the fierce winds.

And the list could go on.

It makes you want to cry out in frustration and righteous anger and say,

“God, life’s just not fair.”

David echoed our sentiments in Psalm 94.  He looked around and was tired of seeing the wicked prosper and the poor oppressed.  He wasn’t even complaining about any personal injustices that affected him directly, but rather he was pleading on behalf of the people around him who were the recipients of cruelty and unfairness.

The first part of Psalm 94, David basically says, “Enough already, God.  Do you even care what’s going on down here.  It’s time for you to do something about all of this.”

Have you ever shared those same sentiments?  Has your heart ever been burdened for the lost, evil, and unfair world that we live in today? 

David ultimately was reminded, as we should be, that when all is said and done, the Lord’s justice will prevail.  He is a just and righteous God and evil will not go unpunished. It’s also on that day when all of life’s unanswered questions about why bad things seem to happen to those who least deserve it will be answered. 

Until that day, we have a choice to make while residing in this cruel and unfair world.  We must decide, as David did, if we will take refuge in God the rock.  God is fully aware of every good and evil thing that goes on around about us.  When you see the injustices of this world, rest in the God who created this world to make right all of the wrong one day.

Life might not be fair, but God is . . . and Grandma Jean!