When I was young and still living at home with my mom - a single mother raising four kids, at times below the poverty line in America - I used to whine once in a while about not having what the other kids had. I wanted the new BMX bicycle, the new action figure, the new “cool” sneakers; but, being on the lower income side of things, these desires often went unfulfilled. I used to ask my mom about our situation and she’d say, “Hey, Eddie, nobody ever said life was fair.” Without getting into the relative term “fair,” I’m glad she imparted that wisdom to me at a young age. I remember thinking also, at her prompting, “Hey, it could be a lot worse, right?”

Comparing ourselves to one another is always a losing proposition. If we think we compare favorably, we tend towards a superiority complex. If we compare poorly, we tend towards malcontent. Both tendencies are forms of arrogance, which, according to the Word of God is a source of cursing, not blessing. Besides, what God considers better is unnatural to human thinking, confusing in the absence of faith.

As I’ve matured, I’ve realized that God’s choices are perfect in every way. Yes, yes, I know, “duh,” right? All I can say is that knowing something to be true academically and living in that truth are two very different realities. I know a lot of people who have read in the Bible that God’s ways are perfect and that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8); but yet, they remain torn up on the inside, miserable, confused, resentful, even, because they don’t like the life God has ordained for them.

We need to own our misery. We need to understand its roots. Deliverance is but a change of perspective away. Reading the Bible always helps.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.
— John 9:1-7

This is an incredibly edifying passage because it reminds us that God’s purposes are served in ways that don’t always make sense to rational humans, at least not immediately. Jesus’ disciples jumped to a poor conclusion that sin was the root cause of this man’s blindness (apparently, they held the false belief that all suffering is the result of personal sin). Jesus gave them truth that resulted in vital perspective and deliverance from their bondage (just consider if you believed that every person with a physical malformity is cursed because of some personal sin - how wide are the implications?). Jesus informed them that this man’s blindness was foreordained by God in order that He could be healed as a point of validation for Jesus being the Messiah.

God will ordain what man considers “unfair” in order to accomplish His will. So-called “maladies” from man’s natural viewpoint often exist for God’s glory. Consider the person born with no arms or legs and yet has a spirit that soars far above those born with all of their appendages. Consider the victory from God’s perspective when a person born blind can see! Not only is this a metaphor for spiritual healing at salvation, but also for the blast of godly perspective offered up to those who simply open their eyes to the ways of God. While its results are unnatural, God will give sight to the humble. “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).

When our eyes are opened to the Truth, we begin to understand the purposes of God. This is in accordance with God’s will, “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

And when we had all fallen to the ground, I [Paul] heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
— Acts 26:14-18

You have to ask yourself, in regard to the curing of the blind man in John 9, what is the greater miracle: the healing of the man’s physical blindness or the healing of the disciples’ spiritual blindness? Which is of greater value, eternally? In retrospect, do you think the disciples learned a valuable lesson that day? What was it, exactly? Was it, minimally, that man ought not make assumptions about God’s ways? Might we say that what man considered a curse was actually a blessing in the end, not just for the blind man but for all the witnesses of the miracle performed through him? Ought we defer our judgements to God instead of sowing misery in ourselves by jumping to conclusions? These are all good questions for all of us to ponder.

Is it fair that God inflicts pain in the lives of some and not others? Maybe the better question is more fundamental than that; for that is a loaded question, riddled with human rationalism, teetering on the precipice of disrespect towards God’s divine ways. I think the better question is a borrowed one: “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means” (Romans 9:14)! If someone is suffering for no apparent reason of their own making, we must trust God’s judgment in the absence of all the facts. I’ve met so many people in my life that have become tremendous witnesses to God’s grace and love as a result of being born different, or suffering in some unique way (e.g., being abused as a child). In the end, God’s will be done, right? Isn’t that what matters most? We can’t see the end from the beginning, but God can.

If we’re puzzled, we have to focus our attention on solving the right puzzle! Brute force human rationalism is like trying to fly with a shovel - it’s the wrong tool for the job. Likewise, trying to put God in a box so we can understand Him is futility at best - the most puzzling thing about humanity is that we persist in trying just that, to exhaustion! Deliverance comes when we accept that we don’t have all the facts, and we may never have them, which isn’t puzzling at all.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.
— Proverbs 3:5-8

Whenever we struggle reconciling the pain and suffering in this world, of what we might consider “unfair,” we must rely on faith to deliver us. Human sense is the wrong tool for the job, no matter how intentionally we employ it. We can’t kick in the door of wisdom and understanding, it must be opened by God as a result of our “knocking” with humility.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
— James 1:2-8
Love in Christ,

Ed Collins