How often have we heard the expression of “Life’s not fair”? We hear it all the time whether in the media, from our parents or from each other. Most all of us usually end up agreeing with whoever made the original comment because we see so many examples in our lives of inequality or injustice in our daily lives that how could we even begin to disagree? I usually end up being the one dissenting voice in the group to offer up an alternative explanation. The alternative model I would like to propose is that life is fair. All of us are given precisely what we were told that we would get by coming to this life. The only promise that we’ve been given concerning this life is that we would receive a body and that we would all be resurrected again someday. We have also been given the promise that we all would be given an opportunity to accept or reject the gospel and to take part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Everything beyond this is just part of our life experiences which will vary from person to person.
The only time life starts to become “unfair” is when we start to define life as “one’s life experiences” and then start to compare those experiences to another. By this definition how is it fair that I was born in a wealthy, first world country while someone else was born to a life of poverty and misery in a third world country?
How is it fair that I was born into the gospel where others have to struggle for years until they finally receive their opportunity? How is it fair that I have lived a long, healthy life where others die as soon as they were conceived? By this definition one could legitimately make an argument that life is truly unfair.
However, like I said, life is exactly what we were promised it would be before we came. Although our life experiences may differ, there were never promises that ever said that they would be the same. There were no concrete lines drawn as to what our Earthly experience would be like or how long it would last. It was only promised that we would have one. Life is what we were promised it would be from the start. That being said, if this life was the only life we were given, all of this talk of it being exactly what we were promised in the pre Earth life would be of little comfort to someone who was only able to experience it for only a couple of minutes or hours. Thankfully it’s not the only life we have been given nor is it where we will be spending the vast majority of our existence in. This life is crucial and incredibly vital for us in returning to our Heavenly Father but let’s not forget the fact that it’s not the only life we’ve been given nor had. This Earthly life is but a mere moment in time in the eternal aspect of things.
Now, we also need to remember that although we will be given everything that we’ve been promised, this is no assurance that we will end up with everything being completely equal. Our previous life, this life and the life to come is much of what we make it out to be. Some will utilize their talents and although they have only been given little relative to someone else, they will be blessed as equally as those who were given more. Elder Rasband talks about this very subject in his talk Parables of Jesus: The Parable of the Talents. We may do everything in our power to be exactly who our Heavenly Father wants us to be and yet come up relatively short to others when it comes to material wealth, emotional stability, or spiritual experiences. However, as is stated in Elder Rasband’s article, as we do what we can with what we have, our talents will be added upon even more so by our Savior.
So let us remember that when we are so quick and willingly to agree that life is unfair; although our life’s experiences may differ, ultimately we all will be given the same opportunities to hear the gospel, to receive a body of flesh and bones, take part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and receive our eternal inheritances accordingly. And as I use this as my definition as to what we were promised with this Earthly experience, I believe one could very well argue that life is very much fair.
I love this!