Not Fair!

Washington, D.C. is having a blizzard. Here in Northern Indiana where it is SUPPOSED to snow, just a few flakes are floating to the ground like they had all the time in the world. Is this fair? No, it is not. I’m sure the folks in Virginia, D.C., Maryland, and surrounding areas would agree on that. Not fair. I may be mugged even by my best friends for saying this, but I don’t think it’s fair to me either. I like snow. Even when I have to shovel it.  I am a northerner. I have lived for forty years in places where it never snows, so I need to make up for lost time. Not fair.

So the world is not fair. We don’t get what we want all the time, even when we deserve it. And often we get what we don’t deserve.

So what can I do about it? In the case of the snow, I could just grouse about it. But not out loud so as not to lose my friends. Or I could move to Alaska, as my sister-in-law has already done. She says that’s really the best solution. Or I could learn to accept what I cannot change, and give thanks for what I do have.

This snow thing is just a whim of mine, though. Some people don’t even get what they actually need, like a warm place to be and a hot meal to warm up with when it snows. Injustices lurk in every part of human society, even here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. Young girls are enslaved in the sex industry. Youngsters in some neighborhoods are forced into gangs, which then prey on others. We tolerate corruption in our elected leaders and in our court systems. People can’t get jobs. For some of those who have jobs, employers are unfair. Football stars make millions while school teachers preparing the next generation have to work second jobs to feed their families. “Somebody” made off with billions of dollars from the Social Security system, so seniors who paid into their retirement funds for decades may not have the money they need after they retire. Including me. Countless pre-born babies are being murdered by their own mothers. And all of that is without even touching on ISIS or sweatshop manufacturing in southeastern Asia, or the orphans in Haiti.

So what can I do about that stuff? Moving to Alaska doesn’t seem appropriate. I could decide to accept these things as stuff I cannot change, but is there anything I could do to change them? Even if all of them were changeable, I personally do not have the resources to contend for all of them. The barrage of information which arrives at my desk almost daily doesn’t move me to work, but rather to “compassion fatigue”. I get tired just thinking about it. I could give money so some organizations working for “the cause”. I could work myself. I could organize protests, send out literature, write to my congressman. But even if I worked 20 hours a day I still could not fix it all. I’m just me, still struggling after all these years with my own bad habits.

Truth is, I can’t change other people. I can’t even change myself. Only God can change people’s hearts. And even if I could change others, I couldn’t possibly solve all the world’s problems. Jesus said that the harvest is ripe, but there aren’t enough workers, so we should pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send out workers into His harvest. I can do that. I can also pray that He will show me which part of the harvest He wants me to work on. Then I need to suit up and get out there. Jesus is the Messiah, not me, but if I ask Him he’ll let me go along on some of His adventures.

At least today I won’t have to plow through snow to do it. Gotta give thanks for what I don’t have.