People often say with some level of dejection that life is not fair. But who promised that it would be? Who promised a paradise free from pain? Who promised that there would be justice? If we were to compact the totality of what’s real to the world readily available, then life is definitely not fair. Everyone aches. Evil men appear to prosper. Good people die young. Many people suffer without any apparent reason. Some are tormented their entire lives by pain sufficient for two or three lives. Children are butchered before taking one legitimate breath of the fresh air of this wickedly beautiful world. People are tortured, burned alive for merely holding certain harmless views. We all die, often rebel against death with utmost defiance until that final breath. Misery is the fairest thing about this world. And if the story were to end here, it would be a misery beyond all hope, beyond all purpose and meaning.
Yet, the story does not end here. This world is imbued with purpose. It exists for reasons beyond itself, not merely for the sake of fairness, but for the eternal glory of its creator. This world exists for the world hereafter. And, if not for the redemption of the life to come, the present pains and sorrows should weigh us down into an abyss of utter darkness without any hope. There is no fairness to speak of when there is no ultimate end. There are no right and wrong paths and roads if there is no ultimate destination.
Life Is Not Fair, But…
It is partly for these pangs that the world hereafter was established – that those who never had a chance at justice, would be granted the love that would deliver them from that justice; that the rest of us would look forward to the fruition of our persistent faith of the hereafter in spite of our suffering, and the redemption of the proper paths we choose to take. Yes, life is not fair, but there is something much bigger.
Far from inequity, the ultimate end will see the roses of this eternal weight of glory rise triumphantly white from the trampled mire of the injustice of this world. This temporary earthly injustice will then be replaced by the perfect eternal justice that reigns from the very being of Almighty God. Mind not how difficult it may be. In light of this, is anything unbearable?
“For these momentary, light afflictions are producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17) and comprehension.
Take solace that the very chains that bind us to this rust, these wounds, and this decay, are weaving the very character that will one day become for us our heaven-wear.
All too true. Life would not be fair without such an eternal purpose. Then again, what would “fair” even mean without God?