One of the hardest things to cope with is seeing injustices happening in the world. You see people hurting and dying, yet you are helpless to be able to help. You can be filled with indignation but what do you do when life is unfair? It can be that things are spiraling out of control in your life because of someone else. You can be dealing with death, trauma, and pain. You may be a victim of someone else’s mistake and misdeeds. So where is justice?
We are born into this world to a set of parents in certain family life. We don’t get to choose how much money our parents have or where in the world that we grow up in. Until we are old enough, there are very few life-changing choices that we can make. For many people in different parts of the world, even as adults they are not able to make their own choices. But the truth is, are we truly in control of our life?
What Do You Do When Life Is Unfair
It only takes turning on the news or reading an article to hear of the atrocities happening in the world. As much as there are reports of the worst tragedies, there are ones we may not even know about. It can be even worse when situations affect you because the people that you love are hurting. But instead of drowning ourselves in a pit of despair, let us remember what is really happening. Let us remember some truth.
Know That This Is Not Our Home
Read: James 4:14, 1 Chronicles 29: 15
Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. - James 4:14
In James chapter 4, we find a comparison of this life as one that easily vanishes like a vapor or a mist. Throughout the Bible, we are told that this world is not our home.
We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. - 1 Chronicles 29:15
We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace. We are foreigners, whose days on earth are short-lived. We are not to love this world because this is not our home. That’s great news because that means our home is elsewhere.
Read: John 14:2, John 18:36, Philippians 3:20
My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? - John 14:2
Our home is waiting for us on the other side, where Jesus has already prepared a place for us. Jesus’s kingdom is in heaven, where we belong and where our true citizenship lies.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, - Philippians 3:20
Remember Who Is On The Throne
Even as Christians, we need this reminder daily. We tend to want to play God, thinking we will do all in our power to correct what is unfair. We try to balance the bad with what we think is good. But it doesn’t always work out and there are situations too great and too out of control.
As the Spring Revolution is taking place in Myanmar where peaceful protesters are being killed by deadly weapons, I needed this reminder. Every day, the country is becoming more and more like a slaughter-house. People are being taken from the darkness of the night to being brutally killed in the lightness of day. You hear of children’s lives taken in their parent’s arms and too many families saying goodbye to their loved ones too soon. It can be hard to breathe, reading and seeing each new article as it is posted.
I want to play God and I ask Him all the time what is taking Him so long to act. How can He be allowing this to happen? Is He not hearing me and the many men and women all over the world crying out to Him?
Read: Psalm 47:8, Psalm 89:14, Revelations 22:13
God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. - Psalm 47:8
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. - Psalm 89:14
Then I go to the truth of His word and it says that God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. And that righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne; love and faithfulness go before Him. If that is the true situation and the foundation of God’s throne is justice, does my lack of faith change the truth? When God says I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, does He not speak the truth? Just because I doubt does not mean that His throne is doubtful.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. - Revelations 22:13
Revisit What Happened Before The Resurrection
Read: Mark 15, Mark 16, Psalms 45:6, Revelation 21:4
As this post is appropriately going live on Good Friday, let us remember what happened on that day. Jesus, the light of the world, the lamb of God who was sinless was beaten and hung on the cross. How much more unfair can it be that injustice won, taking the life of the Son of God, who came to give life. Darkness fell as Jesus took His last breath. Oh, the heartbreak that Mary and his disciples must have felt. What hopelessness must have overwhelmed Jesus’s followers.
Each passing hour, each passing day, corruption and unjustness won. Death hovered over, thinking it had overtaken. Until something happened on the third day. As we know, that glorious day when Jesus rose from the dead was a victory that cannot be undone. He defeated death once and for all, securing life with Him forever.
As I lay hopeless, wondering what do I do because life is unfair, I remember that Friday. As the terrible enemy grins, thinking he won over good, justice, mercy, and love, the truth was that Friday was temporary. The enemy didn’t know what was coming on Sunday. And what happened on that Sunday was permanent.
"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom." - Psalms 45:6
So what does this mean for us right now? While we can’t see what God is doing and we can’t know how he will bring about His purpose with whatever situation that we are going through, we can trust. We will have troubles and sufferings in this world. We may not get what we hope for in this world. But we have something even more solid than hope, we have His promise.
"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” - Revelation 21:4
Let Us Pray
Heavenly Father, we come to the feet of Your throne. It can be so hard to not know what to do when life is unfair. Sometimes we question you and even get angry with you because we can’t see what You are doing. We want you to take action right now and we wonder what is taking You so long? We fervently pray in Jesus’s name that you will come through for this situation [ whatever your current situation may be].
But God, while we are waiting, we want to resubmit ourselves to You. Help us to remember that You are God on the throne even when life is out of our control. Remind us that we are not of this world. But most importantly, help us stand on your victory, knowing that You defeat death for eternity. Build our faith and use us for Your purpose. In Jesus’s name. Amen.