My Talk at the FRWY last night....

So without any further ado....

Quite often I wonder why life doesn’t seem very fair. Yakno, we talk a lot about justice, and I would hope that most of us try and pursue justice for ourselves and others, but it doesn’t always seem to be present. In my own life, I have things that don’t seem to just. It doesn’t seem very fair that no matter how hard I work at school, my grades won’t be as great as my brother’s or sister’s. It doesn’t seem very fair that some students at my school have their tuition fully paid for, but I wasn’t given that luxury. To put those complaints in perspective though, there are many more harsh and severe injustices in the lives of people I know and hear about. I wonder why friend A had to be let go because of the recession. I wonder why friend B had to lose a friend or family member so close to them. I wonder why friend C had to get sick. All these thoughts lead me to feel down sometimes thinking that life’s not fair, justice isn’t really present. And I wonder, what am I supposed to do to feel okay about that? How am I supposed to believe and serve a so-called loving God when he didn’t create a just world?
Now before I go any further, I must make a couple brief comments. I by no means intend on approaching the topic of injustice with any form of answer to why it exists, I just thought my words might possibly be appreciated. Also, I do not mean to be insensitive to anyone’s hurt or experience of injustice and I hope I don’t come across in this manner.
So the reason I say all of this is because I find it quite challenging to identify with God and appreciate him when I see and experience so much injustice. And I hope now, to discuss an idea that helps me in my efforts to identify and appreciate him.
You see, the passage I chose to refer to in my talk, is Philippians 2:5-13. This is actually thought to be a verse from an early Christian hymn or creed that Paul placed in his letter. In this verse, it states that Jesus emptied himself and chose to become nothing. He then proceeded to go through death as a human, and specifically death on a cross as the text says. I highlight this verse because it tells us something about Jesus’ character and experience. Jesus endured suffering and injustice just like us. And he chose it. He chose to have life not be fair. In other parts of the Bible, we learn that Jesus was rejected by his family, his hometown, and even one of his closest disciples, Peter. And he died a more terrifying death than I would like to think about. I say this because the fact that Jesus experienced injustice makes me appreciate him more and helps me to identify with his love for us.
Also, I think it is fair to assume that God, the Father, must suffer in a similar capacity. The biblical narrative teaches us that God gave us as humans freedom to choose what to do and value with our lives. And when we reject his love, abuse his creation, or treat others like dirt, I can’t help but think he suffers too.
Now I say all this for a reason. And that reason is not because I claim to understand why injustice exists in this world. It sure doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. I really wish life seemed a little more fair for us all at times. But I do find a significant bit of solace and comfort in knowing that our God suffers and experiences injustice just like us. He knows what its like yakno? And not only that, but he chose to experience this so in a lot of ways we wouldn’t have to. I don’t mean to sound cheesy, I just think God becomes a little more likable when I think of things this way.



I tried to keep it pretty honest and candid. Along with keeping it short haha.