Early on as a new Christian I used to believe that life should be fair because God is fair. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that while God is fair, life is not. Philip Yancey offers great insight here when he shared: “We tend to think, ‘Life should be fair because God is fair.’ But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life – by expecting constant good health for example – then I set myself up for crashing disappointment.”1
Just look around you and you will see how unfair life can be. Why are some children born blind. Why do millions of people suffer with lifelong physical pain. And why do thousands of innocent people every year die in wars. I could go on, but suffice it to say that not only can life be difficult to live but sometimes life is incredibly unfair!
Sadly, many people, including Christians, make the mistake of confusing the fairness of life with the fairness of God. They believe that since God is all-powerful and always good, then why does he allow so much unfairness, pain, and suffering in our world. Since God is a loving God why doesn’t He stop the pain and suffering that exists in our world?
A failure to properly understand why God allows evil and suffering, as Yancey shares, sets us up for crashing disappointment. I pray that the following few points will help all of us to realize that even in our sin stained world God is able to bless us even when life throws us a curveball.
First, because of sin our world has gone haywire. Sin can be a cruel taskmaster. We all know that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect environment until they sinned, causing our whole world to come under the curse of sin. From natural disasters, to physical deformities, sin has left our planet with a whole host of inequities. However, once we come to Christ, our whole outlook on life changes. We, hopefully will realize that even though sin has stained everything, God can bring blessings out of even the most trying of circumstances.
Second, I get great comfort in knowing that when I am hurting, so is God, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of me and as a result God feels my pain right along with me.
Third, I think Randy Alcorn summed up the ultimate paradox of suffering when he said: “While Western atheists turn from belief in God because a tsunami in another part of the world caused great suffering, many brokenhearted survivors of that same tsunami found faith in God. This is one of the great paradoxes of suffering. Those who don’t suffer much think suffering should keep people from God, while many who suffer a great deal turn to God, not from Him.”2
Fourth, for the Christian I believe that when suffering comes our way we need to trust God that He has a divine plan for ultimate good. And if we allow Him, we can use the suffering we go through as an opportunity to bring Him glory. So, for the Christian we can use suffering to either grow more reliant and close to God or bitter and away from Him.
And fifth, we understand as believers, that life is our training grounds for eternity. And as a result we need to trust God that He will use our trials and afflictions to advance His Kingdom and He will use us as His agents to bring great glory to His name, if we allow Him.
So Christian, what about you? Are you suffering from an illness? Have you recently lost your job? Or has your wife just had a miscarriage? In all of these unfair life situations, God has allowed them to happen because He has a master plan in which He wants to use your tragedy for His glory. Our role is to trust God that He will use our suffering in unique ways if we just turn them over to Him. So, rather than question God in these above cases with the refrain: “why me,” I much prefer to ask God how can you use these negatives to bless others and make me a God glorifying vessel!
1 151 Tremendous Life Is Not Fair Quotes (sometimes life is not fair, sad life is not fair, life is not always fair)
2 Apologetics Quotes | Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, etc. | Norman Geisler, Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, etc.
“life should be fair because God is fair.”
Or
“God is fair, life is not”
“You can tell yourself that God’s not fair, or you can thank Him that He’s not fair. If God was fair, we would be doomed and condemned.” Tripp