Bless me more!

Toby Mac says, "Life may not be fair, but God is always faithful."  It is not unusual for us to seek "fairness" in life.  As a child, how many of you were challenged to "share" your toys or snack with another child?  The lesson parents everywhere have been teaching us is that of "fairness" - it is not okay for one of us to enjoy the toy or snack alone - both should partake.  Then came the dilemma of just how long you let little Johnnie or Susie play with that toy or how much of the snack you actually shared!  Too short of a time to enjoy the toy or too small of a piece of that snack brought on the onslaught of tantrum from the other person proclaiming you weren't being "fair" in your "sharing"!  Parents would try another tactic - such as making us divide the snack in two and give the other person the "first pick" of the divided snack.  They were trying to get us to share sacrificially or "without measure", but we were more concerned with sharing "equally".  Yep, life isn't always fair - even when we try our best to "equal out" whatever it is we are going through!

O Eternal God, Commander of heaven’s armies, who is mighty like You? You are completely faithful; that’s why we trust You.  (Psalm 89:8 VOICE)  

Let your heart overflow with praise to the Eternal, for He is good, for His faithful love lasts forever. (Psalm 136:1 VOICE)

In our normal "mode of operation", we seek fairness in the dealings of life.  We don't want to bear a higher tax burden than the next guy, or spend longer paying off debt than the other guy simply because our "credit" may not be deemed to be as good as the other guy's.  We want "equality" - that is probably one the biggest ways we interpret life as "fair" in society today.  I was raised on sports - loving to play softball, dodge ball, four-square, and all the other sports of days gone by which entertained kids into the dim hours of late evening on hot summer days.  We never played to lose!  We played to win - giving it all we had to see that last hit bring those runners in, the ball just graze the inside of the line, or the narrow escape of the direct hit from the red rubber ball hurtling through space toward us.  Did the game have to be "fair"?  No, in fact, sometimes we chose "teams" which gave one side of the field a little bit of an "unfair" advantage!  

I think we may have just done an injustice to our kids when someone invented this new form of "sport" in which no score is kept, everyone gets a trophy or ribbon at the end of the season, or limits are placed on just how many "runs" you can get in an inning before the other team gets a chance at bat.  We have shifted from each of us playing hard for the success of the team toward each of us contributing a little and all of us getting the same reward.  Truth be told, life is rarely "fair".  Women with young children receive the bad news of terminal breast or ovarian cancer which will take them away from their children way too soon.  Men work hard at a career, saving for retirement, only to suffer a heart attack or stroke just short of enjoying those "golden years".  Kids don't expect to endure chemotherapy or the loss of limb to the hungry cancers consuming their bodies.  Life isn't always "fair", but God is always FAITHFUL - maybe this is the lesson we should be teaching the clearest and the loudest these days!

Even when "bad stuff" happens, God's faithfulness isn't daunted, his love doesn't wane, nor does his "carefulness" over our lives slip away.  Yep, the "win" isn't always going to be there for us - sometimes we actually lose a little, but gain a whole lot more in the loss than we would have in the win.  The struggle doesn't lessen the blessing.  The trial doesn't mean there won't be any redeeming thing to come out of the hard road we travel.  What we can count on when all of life seems a little "unfair" is the faithfulness of God.  Some of us might just think when life seems a little "unfair" that God loves the other guy or gal just a little bit more - because they don't have to deal with whatever it is we are dealing with.  Nothing could be further from the truth - God's love isn't distributed to some in greater proportions than it is to others.  That would be impossible for God to do - as it is contrary to his character!  God loves us equally, supports us through trial equally, but he brings his blessing into our lives in different ways.  Rather than saying he is "unfair", we need to remember his consistency and his never-ending grace!  Just sayin!