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Sunday, October 16, 2011

It Isn't Fair

“Why did this have to happen?” the elderly mother asked me as I was leaving the hospital. Her youngest son lay there dying of cancer. It had aggressively depleted his body mass until he was barely recognizable even to those who knew him. I hugged her, and transparently told her, “I don’t know; but I do know that it’s not fair.” Sickness isn’t fair. Death isn’t fair. A mother waiting to bury her son isn’t fair. I realized I was walking dangerously close to an area that I am definitely not an expert.



As the family and I sat together in the hospital room over the next few days we talked. We talked about how it isn’t fair. That it wasn’t supposed to be this way. Where did this come from? Why? What did he do to deserve this? All the questions that come out of pain, sorrow, loss, helplessness, and fear.


But they’re right. It isn’t fair, but it is reality. It wasn’t supposed to be, but it is.


God told Adam and Eve that eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would bring death but they were deceived and they did – and it did – and it’s not fair but it is reality. The war had begun; the battle for our lives was on. But God promised He would take care of it. He had a plan to fix it. It would take time but it would come. (Genesis 3)


When Jesus tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but would have eternal life, that is what He’s talking about; the promise God made to fix it. Death. Life. God has a plan.


The apostle Paul talks about the last enemy to be destroyed by Christ would be death. (1 Corinthians 15:26) Until then, it isn’t fair. It wasn’t supposed to be that way but it is.


So here we are, living and dying dependant on the grace of God through His Son Jesus. And all the while we’re fighting over which religion is the best one or the right one and how people should think like this or that. We’re broken in our relationship with God, our Creator, and we’re in the line of fire between God and His enemy, Satan. This world is a broken, messed up place and so are we…but God...didn't send a religion into the world to fix the problem - He sent us His Son!


Jesus said in John 3:17 that He did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it. Basically, He knows it’s not fair; things aren’t right like they should be. Injustice, sickness, death, dysfunction, all are rooted in the disobedience that came from the beginning and leads to death. Jesus said in Luke 4 that He came to bind up broken hearts, set free the captives, bring joy for sorrow, give sight to the blind, and proclaim that God is for us and not against us.


Until we put our faith and belief in Christ, we sit in an unfair, unjust world. One day, God will wipe away all tears from our eyes and there will be no more sickness, death, pain, or sorrow. (Revelation 21:4)


Until then…


“For sin is the sting that results in death…but thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 15:56-57


It isn't fair, but that's why God came to us with life beyond what we think we know and understand. He knows.