Fairness

I was going to write about adults who go trick-or-treating and how that is evidence of the entitlement philosophy that is prevalent in America, but I stumbled upon something much more interesting, at least in my mind.

Heres the predicament: Person A finds God, only because of His grace, fights the spiritual combat with the greatest zeal and bravery and, as far as any human can tell, defeats his enemy and reaches heaven. Now Person B doesn't find God, and lives his life ignorant of God's truths and, as far as any human can tell, does not merit eternal salvation. If we believe that the only way we can truly come to God in faith is through his grace then how is it that Person A receives this grace and Person B doesn't. The knee jerk reaction would be to say that Person B rejects God's grace, but that doesn't completely solve the problem. Original sin consisted in rejecting God and his commands, so isn't every human that is subject to original sin going to reject God unless they receive God's grace. It becomes apparent that God doles out grace in unequal ways. But that is kind of hard to grapple with. How could God do that?

I don't know that human reason can know. Seems to me that since God is all-powerful he could save everybody. Or that he'd just eliminate temptation. God doles out grace unequally. It makes sense in a way... we understand God through the world he created, in an effect=>cause way, taking things that the human mind can understand and applying it to something we can't. And when I look in the world I see great injustice, and how couldn't we. The world isn't fair, as this presidential election has pointed out. So then God isn't fair? What a horrible thought, that God doesn't, at least as evidenced in his actions, seem to really will the salvation of every single person he creates.

From time to time it's seemed pertinent to think of God like a parent. When I was 7 or so my dad was doing some yard work and I wanted to help him. He loaded up the wheelbarrow, which was probobly bigger than I was and I wanted to move it. Now he could have said, "thats way to heavy for you" and I wouldn't have lifted it, but he said "go ahead" and I tried lifting it and the episode ended with me lifting and pushing in vain. It didn't budge. My dad let me fail so that I could learn a lesson. Apparently I was a very self-confidant 7 year old. Even if God helps us by letting us fail, why is it that some seemingly fail and learn, and others fail and... well, they just fail.

The most frustrating line I've every run into as a student is "wisdom begins in bewilderment", because it lends absolutely no help to understanding the topic at hand. But that is the juncture I'm left at. God loves all of his creation with an infinitely perfect and unselfish love that man can never return. And it is clear that love is shown most convincingly and surely in action. So why wouldn't God give everybody the grace to be saved? I understand that he did in Adam and Eve and that they were allowed to reject God because of their free wills, which are a great gift, but why doesn't God give everybody such a clear opportunity to reject him? If Mother Teresa were to think of murdering somebody she would be overcome by a tremendous moral dichotomy, but a young gang member doesn't seem to have such a incredibly grave dilemma presented him. And yet he is culpable for it all, even though he didn't really make the same kind of choice Mother Teresa did.

It's just not fair that the kids get Halloween candy, and when your 32 you don't get it! But is even less fair that some people seemingly have better odds at salvation than others.