Life isn't Fair

The closest brother in age to me is 5 years my senior. When we were growing up there were many things that he was able to do that I could not. For example, he was able to ride his bike quite a bit further than me. He was allowed to stay up later. He got to do everything first. Often times this was met with my cries of “Not fair!” Now that, in retrospect, was all perfectly fair. But certainly there were plenty of things in life, both as a child and now, that weren’t and aren’t fair. Often times our efforts to point this out are met with an all too obvious response that goes something like, “Well, life isn’t fair.” Of course it’s not fair. We all know that it’s not fair, and yet we still live life expecting it to be fair. We are still so surprised and offended when we don’t get the recognition we fairly deserve or when we are accused of something that we have not done. We still cry out for fairness even though we know it will not come.
But here’s the thing. Not only is life not fair, but God isn’t fair either, and we are so lucky that he is unfair! After all, it is certainly not fair that someone who lives a perfectly righteous life should be executed on a cross for my sins. It’s not fair that though I break the law I am still counted as righteous by God. It is not fair that I who use way too much of my portion (as if I actually had a portion I could claim as my own) of resources am still granted ever more blessings. Let us never ask God to be fair with us, for we could not handle it if he were.
So how do we handle it when life treats us unfairly? We remember that God has treated us even more unfairly and we are the better for it. I have a friend who, whenever he is asked how he is doing he replies, “Better than I deserve to be.” So true for us all.