When Life Isn't Fair

When Life Isn’t Fair

Book of Job

As most of you are aware I attempt to have my sermons lined out months in advance. This morning I have something to say that has not been on the burner for that long. But I bring a message that I feel that someone here needs. I am not sure who that someone is and maybe you could share with me after the service this morning.

Someone once said:

I dreamed many dreams that never came true,

I have seen them vanish at dawn.

But I realized enough of my dreams, thank God,

To make me want to dream on.

I prayed many prayers when no answers came,

Though I waited patient and long.

But answers have come to enough of my prayers

To make me want to pray on.

I have trusted some friends who have let me fail

And left me to weep alone

But I found enough of my friends true blue

To make we want to trust on.

I’ve sown many seeds that fell by the way

The birds to feed upon.

But I have held enough golden sheaves in my hand

To make me want to sow on.

I have drained the cup of disappointment and pain

I have gone some days without a song.

But I have sipped enough nectar from the roses of life

To make me want to live on.

I bring you a message this morning that is entitled, "When Life Isn’t Fair". The truth of that statement is illustrated when we know of people who have really gotten shafted. People who didn’t deserve the kind of builder they got for their home, who took the money and went. People, who left without caring for their children, leaving them to cry and weep at night. And in this room this morning all kinds of heartaches are represented.

And most of us are good at facades. They look at us and say; "I know that is a happy family. I know they are doing great." But in every home there is a closet, maybe two. And we just simply say at times, "Life isn’t fair."

Certainly, in our lives we know of people who have been taken in the very prime of life. Late one night, the minister of the famous Bark Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts was in bed when he heard a knock at the door. He went to the door and saw a figure that was bent over seeming like it was in agony. He let him in and found the man in the dark was the President of the United States. And as Abraham Lincoln sat there in his chair weeping about the Civil War, about the apple of this eye, his only son had died. He made this statement to this preacher, "I think that I shall never be glad again."

I feel that there are some in this sanctuary this morning that have said that. "I don’t know if we can ever smile again." Some of us could cite examples from our lives; parental abuse somewhere along the line; circumstances that have left us physically or mentally impaired; unfaithfulness of a spouse; disappointment by our children; people who have had untrue accusations said about them. But nothing illustrates it better than children who receive the hard times in life or someone we really feel is innocent.

As a Christian how should I react? What should I say? What should I do when I am treated unfairly? The greatest test of the Christian life is ones attitude when LIFE DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.

For many of us life has been very smooth: health, prosperous, happy. How would you feel if the rug of security were jerked out from under you at this very moment?

Shakespeare said: "He jests at scars who have never felt a wound."

The classic example of life isn’t fair is the story of Job. The trouble is that we are so familiar with the surface of this story that we haven’t taken the time to know the depths of it. As you read the story of Job you have to be impressed by his character.

Initially, he was a very rich man. Someone once said that his livestock today would be worth $6,685,000.00, a very wealthy man. It says in Job 1:3, "he was the greatest man of all the people in the east." Some scholars speculate that Job designed and built the pyramids, one of the wonders of the ancient world.

He was not only materially wealthy. He was rich as a family man. He had seven sons and seven daughters.

But the greatest of all his riches was he was a righteous man because sometimes our riches make us arrogant and self-sufficient. Job was blameless, upright, shunned evil, and offered sacrifices. Here is a man who was respected by his peers. Here is a man who is the judge of the city.