Does the Universe Owe Us Anything

I was recently lamenting with a friend how easily I fall apart when things don't go my way.  He gently and graciously reminded me that "the universe doesn't care about fairness."  Because that's how the meltdown goes, you know?  Of course it is the day that the kids are sick and the big meeting got moved up at the last minute that SEPTA is running late.  Why, universe...why me and why now?

As parents, it's important to instill in our kids a sense of fairness.  We are also pre-disposed to guard our little ones from getting overwhelmed.  So when someone is having a bad day, we ease up on them or we do something nice for them.

Ah, but the universe isn't above piling it on just when we feel we can least afford to bear it.  Part of the rude awakening of becoming an adult is coming to this realization.  Yet how many times have we resisted this, whining "it's not fair" or falling apart long past when we should have grown beyond such childish thinking?  Or how many times have we rolled our eyes at someone younger than us who is acting this way, thinking they ought to realize by now that the universe doesn't owe us anything.




In the construct above, I have yet to mention the presence of God.  Depending on whether you believe and in what you believe, that may change how we think of our circumstances.  So let me flip the question from "does the universe owe us anything" (answer: no, because it doesn't care) to "does God owe us anything?"

Clearly the answer is "it depends."  Much of what we complain about, no matter how good we are at couching it in spiritual terms, is #1stWorldProblems rather than anything that we should get huffy towards God for allowing us to suffer through.  To be clear, God cares when our car breaks down or our water heater unexpectedly breaks or our child breaks her arm.  Nor is God constrained as we are, in resources or empathy, such that He doesn't have time for these problems because He's dealing with people who can't afford a car or home, or kids with far worse ailments.  Yet it is part of life to deal with difficulties small and large, and to think otherwise is a decidedly modern Western affluent perspective that is not the experience of the vast majority of God's people yesterday or today.

There is another aspect of fairness, though, that warrants deeper exploration.  If we love someone who consistently under-appreciates that love or does worse.  If we do a good deed away from the spotlight of private praise or public accolades.  If we forsake the comfortable and easy and self-serving path and take on some long, thankless, and painful labor of love.  Does God owe us in these cases?

Here I think we are getting at the profound difference that should be seen in the life of the true believer.  It is a theme that appears multiple times in Jesus' teaching.  He compels His followers to "love your enemy," remarking that even really evil people love those who love them.  Elsewhere He tells us to "go the extra mile," or to give our coat too when someone is trying to take our shirt.  Of course, His most piercing call is that we lay down our very lives, as He did.

The promise - in the here and now of the comfort of Him walking alongside us, and in the hereafter of eternal glory - is meant to outweigh the price.  But it takes real faith to step into that sacrifice.  For we will not enjoy comfort or gain or praise.  Sometimes we may even experience discomfort or loss or ridicule.  The universe may be crushingly ambivalent to our plight.  And the world may not care when we launch out in costly obedience.  But God will reward, today and tomorrow.  So may be endure and even exalt in unforeseen difficulties small and large.  And so may we make the big decisions, however private or public, to walk the narrower and harder path of faith, knowing it is indeed the path to life.