Online Archives

In the back seat of God?s station wagon

Genesis 21:8-12
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39

'That?s not fair!' How many of us have heard that before? How many of us have said that before? This was practically the anthem of my childhood.

    BY ELIZABETH      I grew up with an older brother who got to
      GOLADO      do things I couldn?t. Of course, I eventually  
                      got to go to bed late, stay home alone, and drive a car, just like he did, only later. But try telling that to my five-year-old self wearing a hand-me-down shirt two sizes too big. My mother said, 'Don?t worry, you?ll grow into it.' But when?

We face so many situations in our lives that are unfair. We face problems we don?t deserve, we suffer consequences we did not cause, and we experience sorrows borne of others? failings. This makes us angry, because we?ve been doing our best to live righteous lives.

We keep an invisible account sheet of 'points' in our brains. We tally up all of our accomplishments, subtract our failings and then expect to make some kind of withdrawal from our 'account.' When we are denied something we truly want, we say, 'Why can?t I have it, God? It?s not fair. I?ve been saving up points for months.' We want to say as the Psalmist does in Psalm 86, 'Show me a sign of your goodness. When my enemies look they will be ashamed.' Show me the money, God.

But that?s not how the Kingdom of God works. Reading the passage from Genesis 21:8-12, I?m picturing Abraham driving down I-95 on his way to Florida in a station wagon piled high with luggage, Sarah beside him and Isaac and Ishmael in the back seat. (Okay, maybe I?m projecting here, but use your imagination.)

The kids are fighting ? again ? and he doesn?t know how to solve it. Ishmael is taunting little Isaac, who won?t stop crying, but who probably provoked Ishmael in the first place. Try as he might, Abraham can?t ever quite get things 'even Stephen.'

As their father, he has done his best to try and make their lives fair, but he couldn?t possibly do that, considering how different his two sons? situations are. Multiply the complexity of the problem by a few billion ? and get a bigger station wagon ? and you see the difficulty God has in making our lives 'fair.' It?s impossible.

But what is 'fair,' really? The Kingdom of God is not a giant high school reunion, is it? Are we going to get to Heaven and brag about our summer homes, our careers and our grandchildren? No. Truly, none of us deserve the wondrous gift that is everlasting life, no matter how hard we work at it, or how little.

We will be judged by standards far more stringent than our earthly achievements. After all, our yardstick is Jesus himself. As it says in Matthew 10:24, a student should be satisfied to become like his teacher. When you think about it, we would be quite bold if we even aspired to his greatness. None of us even comes close.

This Scripture reminds us that, instead of asking for fairness, or vengeance, or for the things we think we 'deserve,' we should consider asking for the patience to wait for our true reward, our final redemption. And for now, to live with the hope that someday we?ll 'grow into it.'

Elizabeth Golado is a member of Union Bridge UMC in New Windsor.