What is the most unfair thing that has happened to you in life? A spouse dying at a young age? Infertility? Passed over for a job promotion? Assaulted or robbed? No money to pay bills? Whew! There is a lot of unfairness in life.

As I was recently chatting with a friend I had not seen in a while, we began to talk about life. Our conversation drifted to my childhood. She already knew my story, but we talked about how unfair it is what some children are forced to endure while growing up. We continued chatting about what was currently going on in our lives, and she had tears well up in her eyes. Both of us had difficulties we were facing. She said, “Barbara Benton, you should not have to face anything else in your life. It is just not fair.”

We ended our conversation by stating our faith in God, and that we trusted Him whether life was fair or not.

There was a time in my life that I spent a lot of time and energy on being the “fair” police. When “that’s not fair” circumstances arose in my life or in the lives of those I loved, I made sure that everyone, including God, knew that what was happening simply was not fair.

The writer of Ecclesiastes said this about life, “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.” – Ecclesiastes 9:11.

The book of Ecclesiastes offers a wise perspective. Life does not work out fairly all the time even when we live a life devoted to God and choosing wisdom. Life is unpredictable, and our existence on the earth is a blip of time. We must keep an eternal perspective because this life is temporary and fleeting.

Unfairness in life does not mean that God is not in control.

The fact is that it was not fair that Jesus suffered a cruel death on the cross. I must remind myself that God was still in control when His Son was treated unfairly. He was in control when the flesh on the back of Jesus was torn apart by a cat of nine tails. God was in control when Jesus stumbled carrying a heavy cross to Golgotha. God saw the unfairness, but God was going to bring great victory from that unfairness.

God is doing the same for us. While we might not see unfairness corrected in this life, when we get to Heaven, we will see that God was always working in our lives. I love how one paraphrase stated Psalm 37:5. “Give God the right to direct your life, and as you trust him along the way, you’ll find he pulled it off perfectly!”

Life is hard. Life is unfair. God is still good, and He is working on the big picture. One day, we will see that He pulled it off perfectly! I choose faith when life is unfair.