Fairness

by | Jul 15, 2014 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

photo(12)Anyone who has ever told you that life is fair is gravely mistaken.  In fact, to think that our lives will even come close to being fair will set us up for disappointment, disillusionment, and frustration.

First of all, when we judge what is or isn’t fair to us…whose fairness stick are we using?  Our own?  Other’s?  God’s?

I would dare say that most of the time we are using our own stick and at that point, fairness has flown out the window.

Plus, how can I even start to think about fairness in my own life when I’ve been fortunate to be born in a free country with liberties and freedoms, where many others have been born in countries torn apart by war, destruction, poverty, oppression, tyranny, persecution and cruelty??

Are any of those fair?  I think not.

The fact is that we all live in different worlds and different circumstances.  However, fairness in our own lives never comes into play because to compare our lives to others just doesn’t make sense.

Instead, it’s how fair WE ARE TO OTHERS that matters.  Additionally, it is our ATTITUDES that distinguish how well we get along in life and how we view it.

For example….

  1. Rich person lives in a world lacking true friendships and love and is lonely and hopeless.
  2. Poor person is oppressed in a warring country and is lonely and hopeless.

Both scenarios have people with feelings of loneliness and hopelessness.  We might say the rich person has it easier, but the truth is that both of the people are lonely and feeling hopeless and that makes their financial/living circumstances null and void.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

Yet, if the people in the above examples know Christ, work to help others, and give of themselves in their daily lives…I would say that they could both have the opportunity to fulfill their purpose and be joyful in it regardless of their current financial/living situations.  However, it is up to them whether they choose to wallow in their state of affairs or rise above them with God’s help!!!

Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!  Psalm 106:3

A great example our faulty human fairness stick is in Matthew 20 where Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard.  A land owner agrees to pay the workers a denarius for the day.  He sends the first ones in the morning, finds others in the third hour and sends them out, again in the sixth hour, ninth hour and then again in eleventh hour – all sent out into the vineyard to work.  At the end of the day, EACH are paid a denarius.

But he answered one of them, “Friend, I am not being unfair to you.  Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius?  Take your pay and go.  I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.  Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money?  Or are you envious because I am generous?  So the last will be first, and the first will be last.  Matthew 20:13-16

Our fairness stick usually has more to do about our desires, greed and selfishness than it does about fairness.

And the kicker is…we are ALL sinners, but God FORGIVES US ANYWAY if we repent…whether as a child or on our deathbed!!!

Doesn’t seem fair at all to God, but is definitely ALL IN OUR FAVOR.  Would you rather Him be FAIR?

The difficulty we have about fairness is that we are asked to be fair to others, but we shouldn’t expect the same because THE WORLD ISN’T FAIR.

We have to remember that if we measure others by our fairness stick, we should expect God to measure us by HIS.

Hmmm….

Makes me want to put up that fairness stick and never pull it out again!!!

I like God’s way MUCH better!!  His forgiveness and numerous second chances overrule any unfairness I will ever encounter!!!

Fair doesn’t look so hot, does it?

Some Wisdom for Today:  Proverbs 16:11 – A just balance and scales are the Lord’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *