Answering Life’s Toughest Questions, part 5
When bad things happen we usually exclaim, “It’s not fair!” Life really is not fair, that’s the reality we ought to accept. Injustices come through our lives in different packages; heinous crimes, discrimination, unethical politicians, even our unrecognized efforts. Now, looking at this facet of life we begin to look for reasons, we look at God and ask Him why, in His great mercy, allowed these things to happen. Take notice that God gets blamed for many things that He did not cause. When tragedy strikes, we sometimes try to sound spiritual by saying, “it must be God’s will”- as if planning our heartaches gives him much pleasure. It is true that He can stop terrible things from happening but He doesn’t, that’s because:
He has given everybody freedom of choice. When we choose to ignore what’s right, God does not force His will on us. He also allows other people free choices, and unfortunately from their mistakes they hurt us. Unlike animals that can’t choose but just to live on instinct, He made us special by allowing us to decide whether or not to follow Him, not because we have to but because we love Him.
Judgment is coming. “In due season God will judge everything man does, both good and bad.” Eccl.3:17 One day at the end of time God is going to settle the score. There will be a judgment day when all the hurt caused on innocent people will be corrected, the Bible said so.
To show us that we need a savior. The fact of the matter is that God’s will is not always done. He has a will for each of our lives, but He has given us free wills too. When we .choose to go our own way and commit mistakes, He chooses to limit Himself. And as we cause problems in our own lives we’ll get to realize how much we need Him, that He alone can make our life easy. “We all have sinned…yet now God declares us ‘not guilty’…if we trust in Jesus Christ who freely takes away our sins.” Rom 3:23-24
Because pain can develop character. Our God is more interested in our character than with our pleasure, and for that matter He is willing to use everything to mold us into the kind of person He wants us to be, and He won’t stop until we understand what He is trying to teach us. God can take situations that are totally bad and turn them around. When people use situations to destroy us God on the other hand uses it to develop us. Just think of a skilled artisan who just won’t stop cutting and snipping on an ordinary log until he gets to see a masterpiece.
Armed with these reasons the most proactive response to life’s injustices is to accept that life is unfair. Jesus himself told us that we’ll encounter a lot of sufferings in this world, but He also assured us that He have overcome the world; that He is greater than any adversity and we can trust in Him and His promises always. Do the right thing anyway! We can do this by starting within ourselves, by looking at the good things in others, in doing so we won’t capitalize on our boss’ ungratefulness, or our spouses’ coldness, and focus instead on more productive things. Lastly, let us wait for God’s reward. “These …temporary troubles are winning for us a permanent reward out of all proportion to our pain.” 2 Cor.5:17
We live in a world where people sin and hurt each other. But when we give our lives to Christ and trust Him, He sees us through each situation and gives us the ability to see how He’s going to bring it all together in the end. For now our duty is to see what God can do in our own lives for our development instead of letting the unfair things devastate us, because one day God will wipe the tears of injustice in our eyes, and that’s for sure.