Two men.
Joe, is a lifelong criminal. He is sexually promiscuous, doesn’t take care of his family, cheats on his taxes……and on just about everything else, uses drugs……….and to top it off…….he parks in the handicapped parking spot.
Tom, is a dedicated husband and father, he coaches little league, does volunteer work, loves his family, pays his taxes…….and when he says something…….you can count on it.
On the way home from a drunken brawl, Joe crashes his car, killing the other driver. As he sits there bleeding to death himself, he has an epiphany, accepts Christ, repents, dies and spends eternity in paradise.
Tom is very busy…….doing good. He has never given God a second thought. He knows that he is a good man……..everyone says so………his life’s work speaks for itself. One day he drops dead from a heart attack…….and spends eternity in a place that is…….to be generous……not nice.
And that is just not fair.
I used to tell my sons, “where, in your contract, does it say that life will be fair?”……..because it doesn’t say anything of the sort.
Life is not fair.
This truth is undeniable………and yet we pursue it.
So…..what is “fair” anyway? Any 6 year old can explain it. The idea of fairness is deeply rooted in our hearts. The idea of fairness is universal. It must be important for us……..it must be important to God.
Fairness says that we will all be rewarded in exact proportion to the good we have done……..and that we will all be punished in exact proportion to the bad that we have done.
But, is universal fairness achievable?
I don’t have to tell you that fairness doesn’t exist in our temporal world. We see bad people thriving every day. We try to create fairness…………but unfairness is everywhere.
But, what about eternity?
Fairness is a good thing………but here’s the problem:
We are not promised fairness on the day we enter eternity. And this offends us. After a lifetime of trying to build a fair system on earth, we reach the gate to eternity and our concept of fairness is not the key issue. Just look at Joe and Tom.
The key metric in eternity is not fairness…….good vs. bad……….which, by the way, is a continuum with thousands of shades of gray. In eternity, the key metric is relationship……with God. And this metric is black and white. It is absolutely binary. You either have a relationship with God…….or you do not.
Some day God will say to you…….either:
“Well done, good and faithful servant!”
Or
“I don’t know you!”
You can pretty much divide humanity into two groups…….those who use good vs. bad to sort out the people and ideas around them………and those who use relationship, specifically love, to sort out the people and ideas around them.
To their credit, the first group is trying very hard to improve this temporal world…..with mixed success. The second group acknowledges a flawed world and looks to God and paradise to fix things…….somewhere down the road……meanwhile they are required to do only one thing…..love………love God……love man.
We are required to send love out into the world…….sometimes it comes back to us, often we never hear from it again, and sometimes it is repaid with evil.
And this too is unfair……based on the good vs. bad metric.
But, based on God’s metric……relationship……it is wildly sucessful…….in the long run. We love our neighbor. But, even if he returns evil for it……..we build our relationship with God.
I believe that a great many people reject God because the world is unfair, based on the good vs. bad metric. This metric is appealing because it is simple. We look at the good and bad around us, add it all up, and figure that we are pretty good……..at least we are better than the other guy. And, on our narrow spectrum of good vs. bad, that may very well be true. But, on God’s much broader spectrum of good vs. bad, we just don’t measure up. Our good simply is not up to God’s standard. It’s all a question of perspective.
The relationship metric, however, is equally simple. It is extremely generous. Relationship with God means eternity in paradise. And the best part………you actually are in charge…….you get to choose your eternity………no hubris here.
YOU CHOOSE YOUR ETERNITY.
In eternity, the relationship metric is the one that counts. So…….pursue good…….flee from bad…….these things are important……..but don’t get distracted. Relationship is what counts…….relationship with your creator.
My prayer……. is that you do not reject the relationship metric because you are angry about the obvious failure of the fairness metric. Because the fairness metric is phoney……a fantasy…….it has never been legitimate………it has never been real.
Good vs. Bad……..fairness…….. is not the key to what is ahead for you.
It is the relationship metric that will determine your future………your eternity.
The choice is yours.
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus, ESV
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind”
Jesus, ESV
And in the end……..the love you take………is equal to the love………You make.
John Lennon