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I am sure you have noticed that life is not fair. When my daughter was young, she felt it was unfair that her friends had clothing, cars, money, and food we could not afford. She was especially bitter when I plowed up our front yard to grow enough food to survive the winter.
While her friends dined at fancy restaurants, we ate at McDonald's only on special occasions. We made applesauce from Lodi apples from a tree we had planted in our yard, sweetening it with saccharin because my wife was diabetic. My daughter would say, “My friends buy applesauce at the grocery store, and we have to make ours. It isn't fair!” When she was in high school, she saw her non-Christian friends driving expensive cars to school while she rode the bus.
The disparity has not changed, as the rich get richer, often at the expense of the poor. Jesus Christ said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:13).
My daughter attended a Christian college in Texas, where her professors knew her by name and often invited her to their homes. Her friends went to private universities with hundreds of students in each class and no personal relationship with their professors. Many of these friends, who had money, cars, and fancy houses, have faced serious problems with drugs, alcohol, broken marriages, and mental illness. They find it hard to believe that our marriage lasted 49 years and only ended when my wife died.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his disciples not to worry about food, water, or clothing (Matthew 6:25–34) because God would provide for them. He started this by saying, “You cannot serve God and money,” because holding to one means despising the other (Matthew 6:24). Life is not fair, but God meets our basic needs. The reward for Christians is that after this life, we will have an existence so wonderful that it will surpass anything on Earth. Those who reject God have nothing when this life ends.
In Luke 16:19-31, Jesus shares the story of the rich man and Lazarus, a beggar. When the rich man dies, he suffers, and Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom. The rich man wants Lazarus to help him, but he is reminded that he had good things in life, while Lazarus suffered. Now Lazarus is comforted, and the rich man is in pain. The bottom line is that life is not fair, but Christians have the ultimate reward in eternity.
Picture credits:
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Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website.