Life Is Not Always Fair, But God Is Always Faithful Series

But God is not fair; He is just, but He is also merciful and gracious.

It was not fair that Jesus had to die for OUR sins! If life were fair, we all would be dead-stuck down by the holiness of God. Paul realized that life is not fair, and I wonder if he was glad about it because that meant he got a second chance!

We live a society that values fairness, which is a good thing; but in a fallen world, there will never be perfect fairness. Because people are sinful, there will always be judges who will judge unfairly; we will have unfair, capricious bosses; some parents who will favor one child and unfairly treat another; and just about every TV pundit will unfairly paint the positions of their opponents. Because we are not yet in heaven, even accidents and natural disasters are unfair!

We could go on and on, and despite all attempts to achieve a more fair and just society, we can never eliminate it from this earth. Christians, in particular, have been warned many times in scripture to expect to be maligned, marginalized, scoffed at, ostracized and persecuted. In fact, Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John all say that unfair treatment should be expected as the cost of discipleship!

But it's not just Christians who face unfairness.

Illus. - Charles Sykes, in his book, Dumbing Down Our Kids, talks about how our educational system is creating kids with no concept of reality and setting them up for failure in the real world. - He lists 11 rules they will not learn in school:

Rule 1: Life is not fair-get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes; learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the own bedroom closet.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Folks, here is a reality check: The real world in which we live is not a fair place. We must accept this as fact and learn how to deal with it in a healthy way.