It's Not Fair!

"It's not fair!" If you've ever raised a teenager, chances are you've heard this line many times. Every teen has friends that can go anywhere, with anyone, at anytime, wearing anything for any reason. The caring, thinking parent constantly battles the comparison conundrum. (Actually we don't, because when ours were little, we said "I'm not your friends parent - just yours - your good luck) Anyway, we adults are just as bad. I remember watching an old Candid Camera (remember that show?) where someone came into a diner and ordered a slice of pie. They were served the standard size slice with no complaints. While they ate, another "customer" came in, sat beside the original customer at the counter, and ordered the same. The waitress brought a huge piece of pie to the second customer. You know what happened right? The first customer complained of unfair treatment.

We complain of unfair this and unfair that. Taxes, pay, job responsibilities, etc, etc. But scripture holds an account of the most unfair situation of all. It also holds the lesson in how we are to see what we think are unfair circumstances.

Joseph was a young man who committed no wrong and yet was sold into slavery and then betrayed into prison. He could have whined and cried "unfair" until the cows came home (and rightly so), but he chose instead to see God's hand at work and remain faithful. In the end (after a few years), he became the second most powerful man in Egypt and saved not only Egypt, but his extended family as well. He saw that what man intended for bad, God intended for good.

So, watch what you cry "unfair" about...you may be about to save a nation.