Date: 9/23/2008
Author: Devin Pickard
Title: That's Not Fair
Spend much time around a bunch of kids, and invariably it won't be long before you hear someone scream, “That's not fair!” If you were around my house very much, you might hear, “That's not fair....I want a new Nintendo DS game.....I want to take the Cinderella lunch box instead....or Why can't I stay up longer on the phone, everyone else does”.....and of course the list could go on and on.....and it usually does. It has been my observation, though, that adolescents aren't the only ones complaining about how fair life is or is not, whether it be where I reside or somewhere else. We “grown-ups” complain as much as any other group about the degree of life's fairness....we just might not be quite as vocal about it as those swinging on the playground.
One of the first lessons we are confronted with in this ole' life at a very early age is that things will occasionally happen to us that we don't deserve. Some of these things will be very minimal in the scheme of daily life....while others can be completely life altering. Some of these incidents will blind side you by coming out of no where....while some of the rest will arrive after having been in your clear sight for quite some time. A number of our “not fair life moments” will come at the hands of complete strangers....while the most painful times will often come from the hands of those who are supposed to love us the very most. The results of most of these “not fair” occasions will at the very least leave us scratching our heads wondering “Why?”.
There are very few pages in God's Word that do not describe some type of injustice in the lives of earths earliest inhabitants. How do you think Adam and Eve felt when they learned of their youngest son's murder at the hands of their oldest son? Was it fair to Joseph's brothers that their father Jacob loved Joseph more than any of the rest of them and made no bones about it? And likewise, what must Joseph have felt when all but one of his brothers thought him better off dead than alive? Lest we forget how the family of Uriah must have felt when their loved one was taken unjustly from them at the hand's of the world's most powerful and covetous king? And, of course, the “life is not fair” poster child, Job, lost more than anyone in scripture....he lost it all. But, beyond any, Christ Jesus could have uttered the phrase “that's not fair” and been justified more than all of mankind put together. If anyone would have had good reason to be mad at this life and all that it had dealt out, it would surely have been the one who lived it perfectly. Talk about things happening that were undeserved, Christ could have written a book....oh yea, he did.
So, today when you are throwing a pity party in honor of yourself, remember there are always those around who can “one up” you. If you don't believe me, walk through the halls of Vanderbilt Children's Hospital or a nursing home sometime. Sit in on a counseling session of someone who has been verbally, emotionally or sexually abused. Talk to a single mom or dad who has been left by their mate for someone else in greener pastures. Some of you who are reading this right now know some of these situations or others like them all too well. No doubt, many of you have experienced a hurt that some of us could only imagine.....a hurt that is undeserved, and yes, unfair. As well, many of you have stood at a cross-road and had to make a decision....Will I allow this unfair treatment, whatever it is, to run and ruin the rest of my day or even the rest of my life? Will I allow it to define who I am and the possibilities of my future? Or, will I do my very best to move on....to use that circumstance as a life lesson and to not live out my days portraying myself as the “constant victim”? There is a good chance a few of us might even have to make some of these very decisions today, but look at it on the bright side.....at least we are not having to make them while hanging from a cross.
Go the extra mile - Devin