His illnesss is wrecking his life. It is chronic, it is painful, and it is not going away. He suffers from it terribly……..and so do the people around him.
Meanwhile, my life sails along without a hitch. I like to believe that my life is going well because of the things that I have done. I’ve been smart. I’ve worked hard. I’ve made good long range plans……and executed those plans carefully.
But, there are lots of guys just like me…….guys who have worked hard and smart…….guys who are stalked by tragedy. We all have free will. We all have some control over our lives. We all have some control over our fate. The trouble is that there is a lot that is completely out of our control.
I try to help my friend……..but I can’t fix this. And I feel awful.
Why do some people lead lives that are charmed and others suffer?
I’m afraid that I can find no satisfactory answer.
And that’s not fair.
So……..what is “fair” and why do we find it so important?
The idea of fair grows out of the idea of justice. The gist of it is……..that we get what we deserve. If we do good we are rewarded. If we do bad we are punished. This also applieds to the other guy……..the guy who cut me off in traffic. We’re very sensitive about it when we don’t get rewarded for our good deeds and when the other guy doesn’t get punished for his bad deeds……..and yet we see this unfairness every day.
The desire for a world that is fair……..is one off those universal ideas that is written on our heart.
And yet……..fairness often just doesn’t show up…….in this temporal world.
I believe that our universal desire for fairness, in the face of a clearly unfair temporal world indicates that we just don’t fit here……that we really don’t belong here………that we were built for a different world.
And that is the message of the old testament.
You were created to fit into a world that is different from the world we live in. Illness, death, unfairness, possibly even time……were not a part of “plan A”. We were given rules to help this world work better……..but they often don’t work……….because we don’t follow them.
The tragedies that stalk my friend were not a part of the original design. They are a symptom of the conflict between the way we were designed and the world we find ourselves in.
Fortunately……..that isn’t the end of the story.
The world that we were created for………. the world where we will fit in……….a world that is completely fair…..does exist.
The bridge between our wrong, unfair, world and the correct world that we were created for is the new testament.
The key to reaching the place that we were made for……..a world that is completely fair……..is Jesus. And the price is very cheap.
Furthermore, once you have a place waiting in this correct world, it is much easier to deal with the unfairness of our temporal world.
It’s your call. Limit yourself to a world that you know just isn’t right or look ahead to a world that you will fit into perfectly.
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
Solomon, NIV
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John, NIV