{"id":2153,"date":"2015-09-03T05:34:43","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T11:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/?p=2153"},"modified":"2015-09-02T14:02:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T20:02:20","slug":"fairness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/fairness\/","title":{"rendered":"I don’t use this F word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ll never forget the first cuss word my son brought home from school. It was the first grade and this mild, quiet blonde-haired blue- eyed little boy uttered a word that had never been spoken in our home. The shocking thing was how easy it rolled off his tongue, a parrot simply mocking the words of another.<\/p>\n

He was surprised at our reaction, his innocence and ignorance in play.<\/p>\n

We quickly scrubbed the offending word out of his vocabulary. Other words would find their way from the world and each time, we had to nudge the language back to wholesome.<\/p>\n

However, there was one particular word that, even though it was banished, it still kept finding a way back in various forms. We called it the \u201cF\u201d word<\/p>\n

\u201cFair.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Among all the despicable words out there, this is the one that never seems to go away. You find it\u00a0everywhere, from the Kindergarten class, to the demonstration on Main Street\u00a0to the stage for the highest office in the land. It dominates the office, seeps into the marketplace and rotates in the cul-de-sacs of our neighborhoods.<\/div>\n

One thing I know \u2014 Life will never be fair<\/h4>\n

Just think of the way the word dominates politics these days. The war on classes will continue to escalate, with fairness the rallying cry. We are told that there should be fairness in employment and housing and opportunity. I\u2019m all for that, but I know one thing about life and\u00a0that it\u2019s really never totally fair.<\/i><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll always have someone who will slight us, who won\u2019t like us for our faith, or our stand,\u00a0or our adherence to principle. We\u2019ll be overlooked, ignored and forgotten. We\u2019ll get a sickness, or have a spouse leave, or get fired for no good reason. \u00a0We\u2019ll be discriminated against for our skin color, our politics, or our weight.\u00a0It\u2019s going to happen to the best of us.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, in our home, we called it the \u201cF\u201d word. It was never to be used or inferred. I told my sons that life never has, and never will be, fair.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Fairness\"<\/a>Mercy I\u2019ll take. Grace I\u2019ll cherish. But I really don\u2019t want fairness.<\/h4>\n

We were never promised a fair society, or a world that had equal opportunity for all. And actually, such a world would defy our human nature. At our core we only think about justice when an injustice has been done against us. We only think about a level playing field when ours is disadvantaged. Most see life with a narrow scope, limited to only a very selfish perspective.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the real question. Do we really want fairness?<\/i><\/p>\n

Jesus said the last will be first, and the\u00a0first<\/a>\u00a0be last.\u00a0That\u2019s not fair.<\/i><\/p>\n

We\u2019re told that the worker who starts late in the day will get his\u00a0full pay<\/a>.\u00a0That\u2019s not fair.<\/i><\/p>\n

We\u2019re told that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.\u00a0That\u2019s not fair.<\/i><\/p>\n

Honestly, it isn\u2019t fairness that I want, because if I get what I deserve, it won\u2019t be all that good. Mercy I\u2019ll take. Grace I cherish. But please, not fairness.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Photo by Michael Coughlin <\/a>via Flikr CCI, Graphic by David Rupert<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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