In All Fairness

Do you think the world is fair?  I bet you've told your kids once or twice 'the world isn't fair,' in one form or another.  But do you think in the depth of your existence that the world is fair?

Do you believe in sin?  Do you believe that sin pervades entire humanity?  Do you ever think about why Adam and Eve saw they were naked and were ashamed?  I think it tells us that even at the deepest and most intimate part of our own being and our relationship to others, sin is there.  Sitting.  Lurking.

I put 2 and 2 together and realize that I am here despite unfairness.  Sin.  In myself.  In my husband.  In my parents.  In the government.  Even, in my pastor.  I sit in comfort, at a computer, saying what I please, knowing I will get a hot shower soon and go for a latte, not because I worked hard or my husband worked hard or we're better people.  Because really?  I'm not such a hard worker.  Did I help create Communism??  Did I choose to have grandparents that had to leave North Korea?  Did I choose to have a brilliant father?  That came to the US to study?  That gave me the intelligence and drive to succeed?  That I actually succeeded?

Of course the answer is "No." 

I am here completely, thoroughly by The Grace of God.

Then how am I to think about the rest of the world?  Can I turn around and assume that the world is fair and that those less fortunate should just work harder? 

No.  I can't do that.  I must understand that the world is unfair.  From the moment the Serpent tricked Eve.  And in one generation, had a brother kill his brother.  Oh it was a slippery slope.

Sitting here at the top, I want my heart to be soft, to reach out, to sympathize.  How about you?