REFLECTIONS -- First Published on 7-16-05

Fair is Fair . . .

In a prayer group once we were talking about our favorite and least favorite attributes of God.  "Least favorite", we were told, meant hard to understand or to deal with.  The first person said that for him both of them were the same attribute -- "grace", because it is so hard to believe God can be so gracious and so hard to accept God's grace sometimes -- but at the same time so wonderful when we are able to receive it.  Someone else reflected that it is very hard to live up to God's standard of holiness.  God always knew that people would not be able to be holy on their own and so God came up with the solution -- His incarnation, sacrifice and resurrection.  That is a thing of wonder and a stumbling block to so many who might otherwise be able to receive the Lord.

Another friend talked about how hard it is to be faithful and used an example from her Bible reading in Judges 11, during the week.  She said she was amazed that Jephthah was able to sacrifice his very own beloved daughter -- his only child, after a vow to sacrifice the first thing he saw when he got home from war if the Lord brought victory to him.  Jephthah was overcome with grief when the first thing he saw on returning home was his daughter rejoicing in his victory.  And like a lot of us, he probably wanted to take back his vow to God.  But his daughter wouldn't let him, and only asked that she be given two months to spend with her girlfriends before she was sacrificed.

And it seems unfair that God would hold Jephthah to his vow and that his daughter would be the one to pay.  But in the story she is in a way more faithful than her father -- to be willing to be sacrificed.  It is more touching even than the sacrifice of Isaac, because though it is an amazing example of faith in God and obedience, the sacrificed was trussed up by the strong hands of his father, and not necessarily willing to die.  So what is fair?  And can we say that God is not fair if His ways are so much higher than our ways?

When I was a freshman in high school our English teacher, Mr. Hunt, used to spring a pop quiz on us now and then, and we would whine and complain saying, "That's not fair!!!!"  And he answered us saying, "You're right.  But you'd better get used to it.  Life's not fair." 

And we whined some more and told him it should be.  Yet we were kids of privilege living high off the hog without any cares in the world, really.  We did not think that life was not fair to us in terms of having so much that we didn't work for or deserve.  We were blessed beyond measure compared to the fate of most of the people in the world and many, many in our own country.

Life's not fair.  When things come out to our advantage we don't mind that, but how often do we complain and moan when we have undeserved hard times?  Or even when things happen to us as a direct result of mistakes we make or the ways we are disobedient to God.  We often are still inclined to fuss that, "It's not fair!!" 

So that brings me back to the ideas of grace and obedience . . . righteousness and the free gift of salvation.  We can't earn it, we can't buy it, we didn't originate or request it, and the price paid for it on our behalf is beyond our imagination.

Abraham gave Isaac up in his heart and the Lord stayed his hand and returned his son to him.  The son of sacrifice begot Jacob and Esau -- one the heir of the Promise and the other aced out of it.  Was that fair?  And another human father sacrificed his only child, a daughter, to God in gratitude for God's faithfulness in delivering his chosen people from oppression.  That didn't seem fair either.  Yet God Himself gave up his "only begotten son so that all who believe in Him should have life everlasting," as Jesus is quoted in John 3:16.

Not in the least fair and the most amazing example of God's unmerited favor -- or grace -- to all of creation.  And to each one of us.  So I have come to agree with Mr. Hunt after all these years.  Life is definitely NOT fair . . . but so filled with grace that God more than makes up for the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," as Shakespeare wrote.  All that " . . . grace upon grace" John mentions in the first chapter of his Gospel is so incomprehensible because without the Lord's help we human beings are basically graceless - and our world today has little enough of it with its greed and violence and strife.

But fair is fair . . . isn't it?  Does that mean that when things are fair it is lovely . . . fair?  English is SUCH an interesting language.  Thank God for the spoken and written word -- and for being able to share thoughts and feelings and ideas across time and space.  We often have that sense of righteous indignation when we cry out, "That's not fair!"  Maybe if we had God's perspective we would be able to see it in a different light. and than the Lord that because of His grace we so often benefit that life is not fair -- and be able to humbly thank God in heaven that is true. 

I hope you have a Sunday full of praise and thankfulness for so much good in your life that is given to you by the grace of God -- unearned and unmerited favor.  Praise the Lord!  Alleluia!  Amen.