Strange things happen in this world. Bizarre things! I remember as a child, my mom had just made a bologna sandwich, complete with Wonder Bread. Just as I was ready to take a bite – plop! – a bird had just flown over and snatched the sandwich from me.
Strange things happen. And sometimes these events don’t seem quite fair. That brings me to my theme for the issue. Sometimes life isn’t fair.
Futurist Faith Popcorn approaches this subject from a different angle. She writes about the “Right, But” Club. The “Right, But” Club is made up of people who did the right thing, but life still didn’t work out for them as they had planned.
“I exercised, but still got heart disease.” “I took antioxidants, but still got cancer.” “I spent quality time with my kids, but still their SAT scores stink.” “I went to an Ivy League school, but still I’m stuck in a job I don’t like.” “I applied for every job possible, but still I’m unemployed.”
We think we ought to have absolute control of our lives, and then comes a little bird, and plop!
Life can treat you unfairly – even if you are serving God. Philip Yancey devoted an entire book to this problem. He called it Disappointment with God. When something grossly unfair happens in our lives, what do we do? Many people blame God.
For example, there was an interesting tidbit in The Week magazine last fall. The magazine reports that after a football game, Buffalo Bills receiver Steve Johnson blamed God for letting him drop what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass. Wow! It was just a dropped pass, but Steve Johnson unloaded on God. Johnson, of course, is not alone.
We’ve all been there. Not with a dropped pass, perhaps, but there has been some time in our lives when we, too, have felt that life has treated us unfairly. And we, too, have blamed God.
Philip Yancey studied this problem at great length. He found some people caved in when they felt God let them down while others used their time of adversity as a stepping stone to a richer, fuller relationship with God.
Yancey says that when he got to the portion of Disappointment with God that dealt with the Book of Job, he decided to look around and find the person he knew who was most like Job. He found such a person.
The man, named Douglas, was a good man. He had been trained as a psychotherapist, but he gave up his lucrative practice and started to work with the poor. Most of us would agree that this was a noble endeavor. Yet after he did this, his life started to fall apart.
The first thing that happened was that his wife came down with breast cancer. On top of that, his family was involved in a serious traffic accident. A drunk driver crossed the median, and smashed into their car head on.
Yancey knew Douglas. So, when he started to write about the Book of Job, he decided to interview Douglas. He called him up and scheduled an appointment. They met for breakfast where Douglas told him some of the story.
Yancey told Douglas, “Well, Douglas, I’m writing a book about disappointment with God. I thought of all the people I know who have the right to be disappointed with God, you’re right at the top of the list. Tell me, what would you say to people who are disappointed with God?”
Douglas thought for a minute and stroked his beard. Finally he looked at Yancey and said, “You know, Philip, I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with God.”
This shocked Yancey. He asked, “How can this be?”
Douglas answered, “I learned a long time ago, and especially through this accident, not to confuse God with life. Is life unfair? You bet. My life has been unfair. What has happened to my wife, what has happened to my daughter, what has happened to me, it’s unfair. But I think God feels exactly the same way. I think God is grieved and hurt by what that drunk driver did as much as I am. Don’t confuse God with life.”
Wow! Just because you’re seeking to do the right thing doesn’t mean that life will treat you fairly. Indeed, you could be treated unfairly simply and solely because you are trying to do the right thing.
Life happens. Life can treat us unfairly. God only seeks that which is good for us. God wasn’t trying to teach Steve Johnson a lesson when he dropped that pass. Steve made a miscue. He dropped a pass. It may have been simply bad luck or bad hands, but it wasn’t God’s fault.
That brings us to the good news for the day. Resurrection faith is about living faithfully in an unfair world. Christ conquered death. What does that mean for us? Two things.
First of all when life treats you unfairly, focus on God’s promises. God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to us, but God can take everything that happens and use it to our good.
Second, look for ways an unfair event can be turned to something beneficial. Life can be unfair, but don’t confuse life with God. Trust in God’s promises. Look for ways you can turn a mess into a ministry. We can see God’s power over life’s unfairness. God is with us – even when life’s not fair.
Rev. Dan Koeshall is the Senior Pastor at The Metropolitan Community Church (The Met) in San Diego, California, themetchurch.org
