Pondering Eternity – Part III: To Find a Way

For me to believe that God is just and fair and loves each and every one of us, I needed to understand how life could be fair even when it seemed it was not.  Whether life’s unfairness was due to inequalities or never being given a chance or both, I needed to find a way to make life fair regardless of circumstances – I needed to know that it was possible.  I was aware that I was not supposed to have all the answers and that I was supposed to have faith, but I simply could not see a loving and just nature in a God who would create a person doomed to hell by the circumstances of their life.  I knew that if I could find a way that life is ultimately fair, then God most certainly could find a way.

I cannot bring myself to believe that people are automatically sent to hell if they never had a chance to learn about God.  I cannot believe that they are condemned to eternal damnation regardless of their circumstances just because they did not officially accept God.

I would not condemn a child because it was aborted or miscarried.  I would not condemn a child that was severely mentally retarded and unable to grasp the concept of God.  I would not condemn a child who had no knowledge of God that was killed or forced to act or behave in unloving ways.  I cannot believe that they deserve eternal damnation.  I would not condemn a child who was never given a chance to learn about God, love, peace, right and wrong.  I can not bring myself to believe that any person would go to hell just because they did not have the chance to learn about and officially accept God.  If I am made in God’s image and I feel that way, perhaps God does not condemn them either.

Pondering Eternity – Part I: Life Is Not Fair

From the time I was a child, the seeming unfairness of life bothered me.

Why do some people seem to have so much while others seem to have so little?  Some people have plenty of money, food, belongings, as well as an extensive variety of luxuries available to them, while others have nothing, are starving, and are struggling just to survive.  Some people are always healthy, while others are suffering and dying or are always sick.  Some people have no physical disabilities at all, while others have missing, minimally-functioning, or non-functioning body parts and senses.  Some people never feel the effects of prejudices, while others are continuously discriminated against.  Some people have a loving, encouraging, supportive family that is always there for them no matter what, while others are abused, neglected, and abandoned.  There are even those who have all of the “riches” (money, health, body, treatment, family) and those who have all of the “poverties”.

Why is life so unfair?  Why would God give so incredibly much to some and so offensively little to others?  Why does God allow such an enormous range of inequality?  If God is truly just and if He sincerely loves each of us, why doesn’t He give us each an equal chance in life?

Maybe God does provide equality, but not necessarily in a way that is evident to us…