February 10, 2024

Life isn’t fair. I feel as if I need to point that out. The man in this story did nothing wrong. There was no indication that he was a bandit himself who had robbed other people. There’s no reason to believe that he provoked these bandits or had ever done anything wrong to them. He was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and got beat up and robbed for it. He didn’t deserve to be treated like that. But it happened. Why? Because life isn’t fair.
Though most of us know this fact intuitively, we tend to forget it. That is, until WE are on the receiving end of the unfairness. Then we rage against it. “Why did I have to get fired?” “Why did I have to get cancer?” “Why did MY child have to be born with a disability?” “Why did MY spouse have to die?” We want to believe that we have control over the things that happen to us, but the truth is that there is a randomness to life that supersedes our ability to be “statistically safe.”
I have a friend who passed away some years ago. When he started having health issues, he went to the doctor. After several tests, his doctor informed him that he had acute cirrhosis of the liver. When the doctor asked him how much alcohol he drank he replied, “I’ve NEVER drank!” Just a bad liver. I have another friend who ran six miles a day and ate almost nothing but vegetables. When he developed heart issues, he asked his doctor how that was possible. The doctor said, “Bad genes.” Both of these men were good men, living for God, and doing the things they were supposed to be doing. Life beat them anyway. Because life isn’t fair.
I point this out for two reasons. One, so that you don’t feel as if you are the only one life isn’t fair to. We tend to personalize trauma and tragedy that way. But you’re not being singled out. Sometimes you’re just on the wrong road at the wrong time. Two, I point this out to remind you that these are the times when your faith will be more important than ever before. Because as hard and sad and tragic as these “highway robberies” that life throws our way are, can you imagine how difficult they would be to navigate if we DIDN’T have God? Oh yeah, that’s the other piece I want to mention. Though life isn’t fair, God is still there. And His grace and strength will see you through any unfairness life throws your way. So if life is being unfair and unkind to you today, stand strong. Life isn’t fair, but God is Good. No matter what kind of bandits you face. That’s God’s Word for you today.