I had a philosophical conversation with a friend recently about the shape of the multiverse, Schrödinger’s cat’s veterinarian, and other weighty topics. Ok, maybe not the first two.
The conversation was mainly about the seeming unfairness of life (and I think by inference, the unfairness of God), that some people are born into this world with so many things going against them, that they have no shot at success or happiness. There’s a few things here to dissect. The first is that yes, life is seemingly unfair, but it is fair in that it is unfair to everybody, one way or another—wait for it. The second is that God, by implication, is also unfair, even though He causes the sun to shine on the wicked and the righteous alike, and the third thing is, of course, how one measures success and happiness, a concept so objective that it precludes qualification for every person.
My argument with this way of thinking is that it ignores the very real element of personal responsibility. We do have free will. God made us that way on purpose, so that we may freely choose to love Him and our neighbor, thereby reflecting our true nature as His children. Because we have a free will, every single thing we do, every decision we make from the most trivial to the most consequential, is entirely up to us.
Yes, our genes influence our view of life and therefore our decision-making. Yes, the milieu in which we are raised has a similar influence. Yes, the opportunities presented to us, or withheld, affect what we do and what we become. Ultimately, however, there is no escaping the fundamental fact that we always have the final word on what our actions will be in response to these influences.
No doubt, there are many people in prison who blame their situation on their parents—or lack thereof, their poverty, lack of education, etc. No doubt, there are many people with disabilities, or are ill, who curse God and society for the suffering they undergo on a daily basis. And yet, there are also those who choose to react to these things differently, and so change the outcome of their lives. They refuse to blame anyone for their misfortunes, realizing that everyone they meet has some cross they are stumbling under on the road to eternity. These people choose to define themselves not by the bad hand they were dealt, but by how they play it.
One thing is undoubtedly true here: God is unfair. He is unjust. If He were fair and just, we’d all be left to our own devices, awaiting an eternity of miserable, howling loneliness. Instead, in His unfairness, and injustice, He chose to visit His poor creation and save it in spite of themselves. Every bit of it. One doesn’t have to look very far into human history to know we surely don’t deserve it.
So by way of inspiring you today, here’s an amazing video of some folks who probably have it worse than you. They certainly amaze me.
