Living with the hand God has dealt you …

Did you grow up with parents who, after instructing you to eat everything on your plate, reminded you there were starving children in China?

We didn’t necessarily think about how it might be “unfair” that some children didn’t have adequate food to eat while we never went without. Instead, with eight kids in our family, our idea of fairness was on full display when trying to split a soda equally — “fairly” — with another sibling. We would place the glasses side-by-side and, with great precision, attempt to ensure we got every bit as much “pop” as the others did.

After all, you had to be fair!

Trying to squeeze out fairness or justice from the circumstances we find ourselves in can, at times, be a difficult thing to accomplish. Interestingly, the Apostle Paul tells us regarding such things not to sweat it …

“Each of you should continue to live in whatever situation the Lord has placed you, and remain as you were when God first called you. This is my rule for all the churches,” 1 Corinthians 7:17.

Pastor Mitchell Dillon shares his insight regarding Paul’s comment:

According to the Apostle’s words, God has dealt every person their particular set of circumstances and has called each of us to be content in those circumstances. When I read this verse I envision a great card table, with God dealing each of us the hand we must play in life. That hand includes things like who our parents will be, where we’ll be born, what our gifts and talents will be, the doors of opportunity that will open to us — all the things in life that are given to us — all those things that are beyond our choice.

Clearly, some of us are dealt a better hand than are others, which raises the question of fairness. Isn’t it unjust of God to grant some so little while others have so much? The answer is yes, it is unfair. At least that would be the answer if God’s purpose for us were that we should be successful in life. If winning at life were God’s purpose than the way He has chosen to distribute life’s advantages is certainly unfair. But that’s not God’s purpose for us. Success in this life is the purpose that we have chosen for ourselves. God’s purpose for you and me is that we should glorify Him, something we can all do, regardless of our circumstances.

If the world would be fixed just by making it “fair,” we wouldn’t need God, we would just have to measure more exactly.

But the world — our lives — aren’t designed around fairness, or even justice. We have a single purpose for existing, which is to worship, glorify, and enjoy God, even in a broken world that is consistently unfair and unjust. But the capacity to worship, glorify, and enjoy God is unaffected by circumstances or whether or not they are fair or unfair, just or unjust. We all have an equal opportunity to obey God, and be faithful to Him, in spite of the nature of our circumstances.

The real question is, are we?

Are we we obedient and faithful in good times and bad? Do we worship Him in times of trouble and times of prosperity? Do we bring glory to Him in how we live through the myriad situations we experience in life?

Or are we unfair about our faith, demanding of God stellar circumstances before we praise Him?

By the way, there’s coming a day when the issues of fairness and justice will be moot points, as the prophet Isaiah describes the reign of Jesus Christ settling those matters forever …

“His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” Isaiah 9:7.

Scotty