Sometimes I wish I were in charge.
I had that thought recently as ! looked in the mirror and tried to calculate how much of my skull is still covered by hair. Let's just say it's south of 50 percent and leave it at that. If I were in charge, all guys get to keep their hair, cradle to grave.
This got me thinking about other physiological inequities. In the last couple of years, I've made some significant diet and exercise changes in order to improve my health. I have all but eliminated soda, and numerous other caloric delights from my diet. while I have logged sweaty, painful hours at the gym.
It's not fair! I want to be fit but free to feast on fast food forever. If I were in charge, cholesterol and gluten would be outlawed. and everyone would get toned abs, with or without exercise.
But why stop at shallow aesthetic concerns?
A wise philosopher once suggested that with great power comes great responsibility, so I would certainly have to consider some more substantial changes. If I were in charge:
... All automobiles would deliver a mild jolt of electricity to drivers who fail to signal before turning or changing lanes .
... No one would forget where they left their wallet, purse, keys or remote control.
... Everyone gets a puppy! Everyone speaks with an Australian accent!
... Laughter would literally be the best medicine.
The more you laugh, the healthier you get. In fact, let's cancel cancer, deactivate diabetes and give heart attacks the heave-ho. If I were in charge, a laugh a day keeps the doctor unemployed, which is fine because no one is allowed to be poor anymore.
If I were in charge, things sure would be different. People who do bad things would be punished, and people who do good things would be -rewarded, Injustice would be extinct; Wi-Fi would be ubiquitous. Everything would be fair, and life would be perfect. Except, of course, it wouldn't be.
The problem with having a human in charge is that we're human. Despite assurances that my reign would be benevolent (except to those who drive slow in the fast lane), there is simply no way I could be fair to everyone or make everyone happy.
Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, and it seemed that the more he gained in wisdom, the more aware he became of his own limitations. The Message translates Ecclesiastes 8:16-17 this way: "When I determined to load up on wisdom and examine everything taking place on earth, I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you'll still never fIgure out the meaning of. what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you're not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won't get to the bottom of it."
So we look around and see a world that doesn't make sense and isn't fair. Hair leaves the places it's supposed to cover and sprouts up in places it shouldn't be. Car wrecks happen that we didn't cause (and then again, sometimes car wrecks happen that we did cause). Generous, kind people get sick and even die, far before their time (although, how are we to truly judge when that time is supposed to be?). The same election result depresses some, encourages others and leaves a whole other group mystified and uncertain about the whole process. We watch good people suffer and wonder how seemingly bad people appear to get all the breaks.
It helps to remember that God never promised .us "fair," and He is not in the habit of spelling everything out for us down here. In fact, Jesus spent a lot of time attempting to explain the near and distant future to His befuddled and impatient disciples.
John 16 is a great example of one such speech, which I can only imagine was met with sighs and shuffling and "is-he-serious" glances to each other. It's how Jesus ends the speech that should encourage all of us and restore perspective: "'I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world'" (John 16:33).
Salvation through Jesus Christ is the ultimate in "unfair." He gives grace and forgiveness and eternal life to anyone who asks for it: rich, poor, young, old, black, white, bald, bashful or bossy. I'm so glad He's in charge.
Paul Leavens - Christian Church Minister, Lindsay Ca.