Fairness

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low . . . 

 - From Luke 3

The first thing we all want, for our society, is for a society that cares. We want a caring culture, a caring government, a caring community, a caring neighborhood. Caring comes first, and caring is godly love that is totally selfless and that looks out for others. It is a rarity in any human structure - and yet it is highly prized as something to be desired. 

The next element in our ideal culture is that it must be fair. We want a level playing field. But some go beyond that . . . they want level outcomes as well. To them, evidence that society is fair, is found when the results of all of our efforts are equivalent. 

But nature itself isn't fair. Even if we could eliminate all murder and death by accident, still our lifespans would be different. Some would not make it to twenty. But others would last beyond a century. But even if we all lived to our seventieth birthday, and then expired on the next day . . . our experiences would be different, naturally. We would each have different experiences with illness. 

We do not all get to marry a person that melts our heart while providing for our every needs. Our spouses do not all make us very happy and never consider divorce. 

It's not fair, not matter what we do. We cannot make it fair. 

But would we even want to? Isn't that element of risk and of mystery part of what makes life so wonderful?

We can't make it right. But God can. And God does. 

A redeemer of humanity was promised. But . . . a redeemer of, what? 

Christ redeems us from death . . . and death is our penalty for sin. Sin is our willful, selfish behaviors that do not build up others. We all die. In that, we are all equal, and the method is equitable. In eternity, whether or not we lived five years, or fifty, will not matter much. 

The Promises about Christ are replete with descriptions of valleys being filled, and of mountains being brought low. Everything gets leveled out. And so . . . in eternity we find ourselves in some setting, with everybody else - - - or at least all of those we would like to be together with. We're enjoying each other for as long as we want. As deathless beings, we will not crave the stupid, obsessive indulgences that drive our decisions in this life. 

It will all look silly. 

Fairness is something that we all want. But when we force our sense of fairness onto others; whose values may be different, well . . . that's not fair.

All you can do is treat everybody with whom you come into contact, as fairly as you possibly can. And leave the rest up to God. Because he's going to make it right.