Is God Unfair?

One of the privileges of being born in India is that you may most likely fall in love with cricket. My children and I love playing cricket. But there is something funny and weird I find when I play cricket with my two kids.

When Joy, my eldest son, does the bowling, he demands that I should hit the ball in a way that it would fall straight into his hands. If I play in a way that makes him difficult to catch the ball, he thinks I am not batting well, even playing unfair with him.

And when I do the bowling when Joe, my youngest son, does the batting, he demands that I should bowl in such a way that the ball would go straight and hit his bat, making it easy for him to hit shots. If I don’t, he thinks I am unfair with him and don’t know how to bowl.

To my kids, a good cricket player is the one who makes it easier for them either to catch the ball or to hit shots. But to us grown-ups, it sounds silly, killing the challenging excitement of the game. We also know that if they continue to play this way, they would never become great players.

Wanting God to Play as We Wish

Don’t you think, my dear brothers and sisters, many times we behave like these kids when it comes to our life with God?

We suppose God should always make our life easier and comfortable. We desire that God ought to make the path on which we walk nice and smooth. We love God to always hear us, always bless us and always keep us miles away from trials and temptations. We want God to work in our own way, at our own time and according to our own expectations. In this game of life, we want God to play according to our convenience, don’t we?

But if God makes our life a bit difficult, if He makes things harder to achieve, if He makes our path bumpy, if He allows afflictions in our lives, if He doesn’t move according to our will, if He doesn't quickly deliver us from troubles, if He doesn’t promptly answer our prayers—we think He is unfair, even unloving. We assume, if God is good, He should do things according to our expectations.

Submitting to God to Fulfill His Will
Thankfully, God doesn’t play according to our whims and desires. He knows that if He should work according to our wishes, we would never become mature and courageous in life, missing all the best He wants us to have in this life and in the life to come.

Therefore, He wants us to go through various trials and learn perseverance (Jas. 1:2-4). He wants us to confront evil so that we learn to overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). He wants us to go through despair so that we learn to depend on God alone, not on ourselves (2Cor. 1:8-9). He wants to deny to always answer our prayers quickly so that we learn to pray without giving up (Lu. 18:1ff). He wants to permit a thorn in our flesh so that we would remain humble and not become conceited (2Cor. 12:7).

Furthermore, He wants us to suffer for doing good and become more like Christ Jesus (1Pet. 2:20-23). He wants us to go through hurt and learn forgiveness (Col. 3:13). He wants us to go through discipline and reap a harvest of righteousness and peace (Heb. 12:11). He wants us to go through temptations and come out victoriously (2Cor. 10:13). He wants us to confront the flaming arrows of the evil one and extinguish them with the shield of faith (Eph. 6:16). He wants us to lose our life for His sake so that we will save it (Lu. 9:24). 

In this game of life, dear friends, God wants us to become courageous and victorious players, not run-away cowards. As He coaches us in the hard paths of life, may we humbly submit to His lordship and guidance, knowing that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

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Enquiries:

cstephendavid@gmail.com (or) stephen@tents-india.org