Why Is Life So Unfair? (Job 40:1-5, 42:1-6, Romans 8:28, 31-32, 38)

So, there you have three biblical principles to help you when life is unfair.

• First, remember that though life is unfair, God is good.

• Second, stay close enough to God to let Him heal your wounds.

• Third, ask God to bring some good out of your pain. 

Next to the Bible, the book that has helped me most to understand the ways of God is entitled The Will of God by Leslie Weatherhead.

Weatherhead used a strange but very helpful illustration. He said, "Let's suppose that the toddlers of the world were to have a mass meeting. Let's suppose that they could communicate quite well. The chairman, after adjusting his bib, might declare, ‘I am sure my parents don't love me. Look at my knees, all red and scratched. Your knees look as bad as mine. Will someone here propose a motion?'

"Suppose that a chubby little baby raises his hand and says, ‘Mr. Chairman, I move that we protest the carelessness of parents and demand that in the future no furniture can be made that has sharp corners, that all asphalt and other abrasive materials be banished from play areas, and that claws be removed from the paws of all household cats.' No doubt, such a motion would pass almost unanimously.

"Similarly, we sometimes complain to God saying, ‘Look at my frustrations and sorrow and pain. How can you be so callous? Don't you care?' Just as a parent's perspective is different from a toddler's, so is God's perspective different from ours. A delegation of parents could attempt to explain to these toddlers their different perspective, but I have a feeling that they would have a hard time selling it."

We are growing in maturity when we can say this: "There is much about God and this world that I don't understand. Some of it can and does break my heart. And if God were to give me all the answers, I'm not sure I could understand them. But I know the character of God because I have experienced Him through Jesus Christ. I know that God loves me. One day, when I meet Him face to face, I'll ask all my hard questions. But until then, I am simply going to trust Him."

I love that great Christian hymn written by Charles Albert Tindley entitled "Stand by Me." Let this be your prayer of faith in the midst of an unfair world.

"When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me.

When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,

Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

In the midst of tribulation, stand by me,

In the midst of tribulation, stand by me.

When the host of hell assail, and my strength begins to fail,

Thou who never lost a battle, stand by me."

1. The Commercial Appeal, Jan. 8, 2007, p. A-1.

2. Jones, E. Stanley, A Song of Ascents (Abingdon: Nashville, 1968) pp. 36-37.