Life's Not Fair

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is the end of Job. Job spends most of the book talking with his friends. They have several theologically-flawed reasons why Job is suffering. Job doesn’t buy into those ideas. Instead, he just asks God for an audience, an opportunity to plead his case. Basically, Job is saying that his suffering isn’t fair.

That’s a common complaint, isn’t it? “That’s not fair.” It’s not fair that you have to work for a particular supervisor. It’s not fair that your coworker got the promotion when you worked twice as hard. From the time that we’re children, we want things to be fair.

But look at God’s response to Job. God doesn’t say, “you’re right, it wasn’t fair.” God doesn’t even explain the reasons for Job’s sufferings. We have the benefit of the first two chapters that explain why Job loses everything—he never knew that God was proud of his faithfulness. No, God didn’t answer any of Job’s questions. Instead, He said, “who are you to question me?” “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?” (38:2) Job never learns the cosmic reason for the “unfairness”—but he does learn that he needs to trust God without questioning.

Life isn’t fair. Even though we can repeat the words, it’s still hard to accept. Joni Eareckson Tada explains that it’s like walking into a conversation and being asked for your opinion without knowing what’s been said before you arrived (Aug. 7). You don’t have all the information, and you don’t understand God’s purposes anywhere near enough to be able to judge fairness. And even if you could judge fairness, God’s version of fairness is very different from the world’s version.

As you interact with other people, it’s great when things work out well. But they often do not. Things aren’t fair. Remember that they don’t have to be. What’s important isn’t fair versus unfair. What’s important is God.