For the past few decades, the big trend in corporate America has been “pay for performance.” In other words, the more you do on the job or the better your results for the organization – the greater your compensation. The underlying idea of this trend has been a fundamental component of capitalism since its inception.
For example, the more a sales representative sells, the higher their bonus. When a professional athlete performs exceptionally on the field, court, track or ice, their pre-negotiated contract incentives are triggered to produce a cash windfall as well as larger advertising endorsements.
Even our children are indoctrinated into this pay-for-performance mentality when we encourage them to study and pay attention in class. Such conduct enables them to get good grades, which will enable them to graduate high school and get into a good college, followed by a good job…et cetera.
Additionally, politicians routinely play the “fair and equitable” card by playing to our dependence on this model when they claim statements such as, “everyone needs to pay their fair share for this or that program” or “those who earn the most, have an obligation to pay the most – it’s only fair”
The reason why this pay-for-performance belief is so embedded within our culture is because we think it’s an equitable and fair model for life. Simply stated, if you do good work and work hard – then you’ll be rewarded accordingly; however, if you’re a lazy slacker who causes problems and doesn’t contribute or advance the group – you won’t be.
As a culture we universally embrace "pay for performance" because we believe it’s fair.
Perhaps that’s the main reason why it's currently so uncool, unpopular and out of vogue in America to believe in God – because God is not fair. In other words, He doesn’t give us what we deserve or have earned.
Specifically, the Judeo-Christian God does not reward us for how good we are; what we can do for Him; how holy we try to be or any other religious trappings that humans try to conjure up as a way to earn our own redemption. The reason being is that we can’t earn it.
Consider the following passages from the Old Testament that explain why God is not fair as we understand and apply the concept of fairness.
- Psalm 103:10, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”
- Lamentations 3:22, “The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.”
So rather than embrace and accept this incredible FREE offer, we dismiss it as too good to be true because it’s seemingly irrational, it doesn’t make sense and we can't wrap our pay-for-performance minds around it.
Maybe that’s why it takes faith to believe that God is ultimately unfair - of that I’m fairly certain.
-----------------------------------
Click to complete version of this article on HubPages here:
God is NOT fair
To be honest, I was very intrigued by the title of this writing. When I saw it, my initial reaction was - of course he is. He is a just and a fair God...but, wow - what a way to get me thinking! With this, you are right on so many levels. In that respect, I am GLAD he's not fair - giving us what we truly deserve. Wow, that's a way to think about our being worthy of His love and salvation. I can definitely relate. Like you said, we live in a world where we are rewarded by experience and how much we know. It's hard to comprehend how, in a world where you don't get unlimited chances to either fail or succeed, that we could be loved and wanted by a God of a billion+ chances. While it does not make sense in the way we have grown to know and ultimately accept as normal, I am thankful that He is God, and loves us all the same. Anyway, thanks again for the thought-provoking writing!
ReplyDelete@Laura, I appreciate you giving this post a "chance" ;-) As always, thanks for sharing your thoughtful comments!
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. Everything happens for a reason...even bad things. God doesn't promise bad things won't happen to good people, but he does promise to comfort you, guide you through, and not to give you more than you can handle. He knows what you are capable of handling better than you know yourself. When you face something that doesn't seem fair in life you have to make the best of it. Learn from the experience. Become wiser to help better your future or maybe the future of someone else. It's a way of turning the negative into positive. There will always be negatives in life that don't seem fair. It's how you handle them that is important.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest daughter was molested at age 3. I used to wonder what did she do to deserve that? Life isn't fair. Why her?
After going through two different courts for 2 1/2 years and learning how the courts were supporting and protecting the criminal rather than the victim. I was told my daughter didn't have very many rights because she was under the age of 12 and could not give a statement in court. It was his word against hers and his was the only one that would count.
They said I had never been through a case like this before. They had been through hundreds of them and were the experts. I was supposed to let them do whatever they wanted because of that and just agree to do whatever they said.
I refused to do what they told me. It wasn't fair. A three year old should have rights, too. They may know the laws and systems better than me, but who knew my daughter better?
I was supposed to just accept a 6 month plea bargain and be done. County jail for 6 months...probably paroled in 4.
I fought the system as naive as I was to the way it worked never giving up faith and hope no matter how bad things seemed at the time. He ended up with 2 years in a state prison without parole followed by 3 years in a half way house.
Sometime we are never meant to know the reason why. Other times we can sit back and look at the past and figure out exactly why.
My daughter was very open, honest,advanced for her age, friendly, and outspoken. I believe this gave her what she needed to be able to speak up where another child might have been afraid to to do so. I was strong enough to fight the system and stand up for what I believed in while another parent may have accepted that 6 month plea bargain just wanting to sweep the family skeletons into a closet and be done with it. We were strong enough to fight the system the way it needed to be fought.
This opened the eyes of many experts at the time. As the inexperienced and naive parent who had never handled a case like this before I can not even tell you how many times I heard the different experts say to me, "I never thought of that." I was shocked. You have handled how many hundreds of cases and never thought of that? The more I heard that phrase the less shocked I became. I think we were chosen for that hard ship and long battle to open the eyes of those that needed to rethink how they did their jobs. To open minds of those who didn't want to think beyond the technicalities to see the real person and their feelings. Another victim or parent may not have had the same results we had.
Not fair...but justifiable in the end. We can't see the future to know how the end will work out for us. Only God can see that. So when things aren't fair you need to have trust, courage, and confidence. Keep going and never give up faith and hope. All will work out the the way it is supposed to in the end.
@Tammy, that's an incredible story of survival and tenacity against the odds. As you stated, often times it's our reaction to the unavoidable tragedy and loss (that affects each of us in differing degrees and ways in this life) that provides a context for healing.
ReplyDeleteWe can then extend that healing and learning to others who are in pain, which can transform the orignal hurt and loss into something else entirely. That "something else" can possibly be shared and ultimately benefit many more people than the initial, painful cause.
Thanks for being so candid. You may never know this side of eternity who it may have helped.
You're welcome. I think just sharing the story helps many to understand that God is more complex than just karma. Many are under the false impression that good things happen to good people and bad things to bad people. So many people reject Christianity based on this alone. They believe that if they are dong what it right and bad things happen then there must not be a God. So sad people quite often can not see beyond the negative enough to maintain faith throughout the bad times when they really need it the most. This is one of my favorite stories:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smilegodlovesyou.org/cake.html
@Tammy, great perspective and thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
ReplyDelete