Why Does Life Seem So Unfair?

Questioning God

It’s so unfair. Have you ever said that to God? Or even if you haven’t said it, did you think it? I know I have. Sometimes it just seems so unfair what you’re going through in life and all the struggles you have after everything you’ve tried to do for God. And yet you think: This is what’s happening? Really, Lord?

Or sometimes you look at other people who don’t seem to be doing the right thing at all, and yet God really seems to be blessing them. Sooner or later, life is going to seem really unfair. And even if it doesn’t seem unfair for you, you see somebody else’s situation, maybe somebody you care about, and it really seems unfair for them.

I love the answer that Psalm 73 gives to this question of the fairness of God. It’s the story of Asaph. He felt like things were so unfair, and it really caused him to lose his grip on his faith. He almost slipped away from God entirely. It was a really close call for him because he looked around, he saw people that were evil, and they seemed to be really wealthy and super healthy and very popular. They were getting all kinds of likes and follows, and it seemed so undeserved. These were the evil people, the people that God should be punishing. And here he was trying to serve the Lord.

I Have My Doubts

Philip Graham Ryken

This book examines 10 Bible stories that address faith and doubt, reassuring readers that doubt is normal for Christians and that God can use times of uncertainty to renew their faith.

He was a worship leader in his community, and honestly, he felt like God should be doing a little more for him than God seemed to be doing. Sooner or later in this fallen world, with all its troubles and all the struggles we go through, most of us are going to feel like life is unfair. I think that’s why this psalm is so helpful, because after Asaph says out loud to God all the things that he thinks are really unfair, he surprises us a little bit in the middle of his psalm because he says, If I had said all of that . . . . And suddenly, you realize this was all a big hypothetical.

If he had complained to God and if he had talked about how unfair God was, then he would’ve lost his faith. But actually, it didn’t happen. And something amazing happened to Asaph. He went to worship, even though he didn’t really feel like it and didn’t feel particularly close to God. He knew that the only place he could really meet with God and get answers to his spiritual questions was to go to a place of worship where he could continue to hear God’s word and continue to sing God’s praise—even if he didn’t feel particularly praiseful at the moment. Asaph didn’t back away from God when he had questions about God’s fairness. He leaned in, and he was willing to listen and to see.

When we struggle with the fairness of God, we should go back to worship.

And as he was there in worship, he suddenly realized, This isn’t going to end well for people that don’t follow God. God is a God of fairness and righteousness. He is a God who rewards those who are faithful to him.

And he reached a place of peace and settledness, and he said at the end of his song, It’s good for me to be in this place where I’m near God.

It’s good for us to be near God too, and it’s particularly good for us to be near to Jesus Christ. Jesus went through the most unfair things that have ever happened. He was the sinless Son of God, and yet he was wrongfully condemned. He was put to death in an excruciatingly painful way. None of it was deserved. If anybody could say, This isn’t fair, it was Jesus of Nazareth. He was willing to go through all of that for our forgiveness so that we could be reconciled to God and so that in the end, God would do what is just in the way that he deals with sin, but in a way that would be just and also show mercy.

When we struggle with the fairness of God, we should go back to worship. We should go back to the cross. We should stay near to God—not go far away from him—and trust in the fundamental fairness and grace of God that he has shown to us in Jesus Christ.

Philip Ryken is the author of I Have My Doubts: How God Can Use Your Uncertainty to Reawaken Your Faith.

Philip Graham Ryken (DPhil, University of Oxford) is the eighth president of Wheaton College. He preached at Philadelphia’s Tenth Presbyterian Church from 1995 until his appointment at Wheaton in 2010. Ryken has published more than fifty books, including When Trouble Comes and expository commentaries on Exodus, Ecclesiastes, and Jeremiah. He serves as a board member for the Gospel Coalition and the Lausanne Movement.