Unfair

This evening, I caught a bus. This is a fairly normally event for me. I catch a lot of buses. It's not usually blogworthy. But this bus-boarding was blogworthy for one reason: It shouldn't have happened.

Life isn't fair. Spurred mainly by political thoughts, I've been thinking a lot about the unfairness of life. Some people are born rich while others are born poor. Some are born healthy and others ill. Some people are born in the United States of America, and others are born in countries far, far from here, physically and/or economically. There are a lot of things that are unfair about life, and there are many people who devote their lives to trying to make life fair. But I wonder, is that even possible?


Let's take wealth inequality as an example. Given that life is currently unfair in that some are born rich and others poor, it will take some correction to make life fair again. However, as we make the correction, we will have to be careful not to over- or under-correct, or life will still be unfair. And to even come close to achieving fairness in wealth distribution in the first place, we will have to accurately evaluate, and constantly re-evaluate, the arbitrary, subjective, and constantly fluctuating values of everything. If the value of dollars rises, those who own dollars will gain wealth. If property values fall, then those who own property will lose wealth. And so it goes with every other commodity on Earth. So, if we want to maintain fairness in wealth distribution, we will have to constantly re-evaluate and potentially redistribute virtually all wealth on the planet, or life will always be financially unfair. And that all assumes that involuntary redistribution of wealth is actually "fair" at all.

Thankfully, we do have some assurance that, even though life is unfair now, it will become fair later. Preach My Gospel tells us that "All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ." I'm not an authority on this subject, but I take this to mean that, in the Final Judgment, we will be compensated for every hardship we suffered unfairly, perhaps including wealth inequality and a variety of other social ills.

However, it is my opinion that, at Final Judgment, such compensation will be the last thing on our minds. When we are brought before the bar of God to be judged according to our deeds, we will pray for God to be anything but fair. We all have more skeletons in our closets than we can dig holes for, more sins in our past (and present and future) than we can ever repent of, and even though repentance is an option, that doesn't mean that it's fair. By rights, we have all disqualified ourselves for the Celestial Kingdom by proving, time and time again, that we are not always Celestial. We don't deserve mercy. We don't deserve forgiveness. We don't deserve to live in the Celestial Kingdom, but we hope for it anyway, and as many people as strive for it will get it, whether we deserve it or not.

This evening, I was wrapping up a game with my friends, and I saw a bus arrive at my stop. Fortunately, the stop was right outside the building I was in, so I was able to rush out to the bus as others were boarding it. That, in itself, was luckier than I had any right to be. If others hadn't been waiting for that bus, I would have seen it drive right by me. Still, they bought me a few seconds, and I actually managed to make it to the bus, but by the time I did, the bus driver had closed the door. Had the bus driver driven off at that moment, that would have been totally fair (or at least "fair enough," as I often say). By rights, I had missed the bus. I hadn't even been waiting at the bus stop when the bus came. I didn't deserve to catch that bus. But the bus driver let me on anyway. It wasn't fair - nothing ever is, but it was merciful, as God often is.

There is very little, if any, fairness in life. Some people have advantages; some people have disadvantages. Some people catch buses; others don't. We all have sins that disqualify us from heaven, but many people go to heaven anyway. It is all terribly, wonderfully unfair. The bus driver was not fair to me tonight, and God never is, and I thank God that he wasn't and He isn't! God is not fair. He is more than fair.