From the Pulpit: Just things
We have been tackling, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” After last week’s article, we are left with “Why do things happen to people?” But I wonder if we are actually asking, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Life is frustrating and disappointing when it feels like the people who don’t follow the rules or are not nice to others or don’t work as hard get rewarded. It looks like their life is better than ours and that seems unfair. We spend much of our life feeling like “the grass is always greener” on the other side of the fence. When I was a teen, my aunt gave me a beautiful wall hanging of the poem Desiderata written by Max Ehrmann in 1927. One line has always stuck with me from that poem, “If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”
God tells us this as well in Galatians 6:3-5, “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.” But even that warning doesn’t help us. We start looking at others to see if they think they are something and then use this verse to remind them that they are nothing. Unfortunately, that reasoning could be used against us as well. We are looking for that person that deserves the rewards that we receive on earth, but there is no one.
In Philippians, Paul writes about how if anyone has a reason for boasting, he has even more. He lists all the things he has done well, “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” We can list, like Paul, all the reasons why we think we are deserving of greatness. We follow the rules, we are nice even when we don’t want to be, we work hard, and on and on. But there is only one person who ever lived a perfect life that would be deserving of a reward, Jesus. And what did He get for His perfect life? Crucified. There is no comparison equivalent to His sacrifice in our lives. But we can still boast!
Jesus died on the cross for us, to save us from our sin. In that, we can boast. The Lord tells us in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.”
The Lord loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us. We are His children and heirs to eternal life through Him. There is no comparison, THAT is THE thing to boast about and is THE best thing that has happened TO all people.
