Sunday, July 25, 2010

What is fair?

A few weeks ago I had the unfortunate opportunity to travel to Iowa for the funeral of Jason Marner. David (Jason's brother) was the one who called me on Thursday morning and told me of Jason's death. Sometimes there are no words, and sometimes that's okay. That overwhelming feeling of despair was instantly upon. Such things in life are not fair. They should not happen to one so young. I recall so many of my emotions from my 14th birthday when my cousin Shaun was killed in a car accident. We don't want to believe that this thing is actually taking place. It feels like a "cruel joke", our instant reaction disbelief.

When someone so young is taken from us we are left asking so many questions. So many questions that all point to the same big one, "Why?". It makes life seem all the more unfair. God, why was a life cut short?...Was it?


It is our instant reaction to proclaim such a tragedy, that someone at the young age of 22 (or 16) has been robbed of their life. I say, with the greatest compassion, that this is not so. They have only just began their life in Heaven with a wonderful God. Paul says in 2 Corinthians (5:1; 8) "We know that when the tent which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven. We are confident, then, and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and come to our home with he Lord." This does not take away the pain. It does not relieve the grieving in our hearts for those we love. But what joy and comfort we can find in knowing that our loved one is with God in Heaven. 


Life is more fair than we suppose. God has offered us a free gift of Salvation. A gift not without cost to Him, not without the pain so familiar to us. God sacrificed Jesus, His son, on our account. So life is not fair, not in the sense that bad things happen to good people, but rather that we are so filled with sin that we do not deserve the gift of Salvation, and yet it is ours. Jesus said, "And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah." (John 17:3) If nothing else, let the fact of eternal life drive you to share the gift of Salvation with everyone.

God knows our pain. God grieves with us. God is there to comfort us. God has made the fair, unfair.