When Life Isn't Fair

You've heard it said. If you're a parent you probably have imparted to your kids the lesson of...  Life isn't fair. We can look around and see that there are people who get God's benefits who don't deserve it.  There are people that get rich just because they are in the right place at the right time.  There are circumstances that just don't seem to make sense.  A mother losing her only child. An upstanding man accused of a crime he didn't commit. A child abused.

The truth of the matter is what your parents taught you.  Life isn't fair is the mantra of us all...since ancient times.  Habakkuk felt that God was giving him the short end of the stick.  The Babylonians, a people more evil than himself and his nation {Judah}, were being used to punish them.  Why would God allow such a thing?  Using evil to punish His people?  Or in Habakkuk's words, "Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?"

What is God's answer? "Be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told." {1:5} It sounds like an answer, and yet it isn't.  God doesn't answer why.  He just asks Habakkuk to hold on and wait and watch. God uses the "unfair" to make our lives flourish.

God can use anything...anyone to fulfill His purpose. Even Babylonians. It may not seem fair, but it is the way of God. Fair would mean that there is no grace.  No mercy.  No love because we don't deserve it.  It just plain wouldn't be fair.  We should rejoice in a God that isn't fair.  Rejoice in One that decided to take on the punishment for Himself.  He who did no wrong to be with a people that did everything wrong. Because that which is unfair can help us flourish.

To read more about Habakkuk, click here.