Life is Unfair

“Life is Unfair” – we hear this statement a lot from young people or teenagers (but adults are not exempt from this either), men and women of all ages.

A few days ago my wife, Faye, and I watched the movie The Great Gatsby and we loved it. We find the story to be epical. I am personally a fan of a well woven story & I am not really very particular with the CG (Computerized Graphics) and other visual stuff. The story was told by Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) and he talked about a guy that he looked up to – The Great Gatsby (Leonardo Dicaprio). The story has really captured the reality of the proverb, “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Prov. 18:24)

Today my wife shared to me a funny set of clips from a famous gag site where Leonardo Dicaprio is receiving an award from Golden Globe. In the clip he was ranting (not his own words, but rants made by the creator of the clip) that he has been nominated numerous times before and never an award, and that if his life was to be turned into a film he would want Jennifer Lawrence to play the role of Leo (because she has never received an award either). He further comically said that no one in the room understood how he felt, and then apologized immediately to Amy Adams who was in the same room (because she too has never received an award despite being a great actress).

I did a little research on it and discovered that the clipping was half true. The clips were really true where Leo received the award, but it is not true that he never got an award in the past, and it is not true that he said those statements. He did get an previous awards (3 wins, 31 nominations) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Leonardo_DiCaprio

The same is true for Jenifer Lawrence (80 wins, 161 Nominations) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Jennifer_Lawrence

However, Amy Adams is quite nearing the reality claim (1 win, 5 nominations) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_awards_and_nominations_received_by_Amy_Adams

We often find ourselves in the same predicament like these famous actors and actresses. We give our best, we go the extra mile, and we strive for excellence in what we do – but nobody notices, nobody cares. That is not true! That is a huge fat lie that you have been made to believe by society. That is what you see and hear in the media. Maybe even your parents taught you that life principle. Do good and expect good things to happen, but what if after all the good you have done you still end up with the short end of the stick?

I believe that life/fate/destiny (or whatever you would like to say it in a politically correct way) in a nutshell is like a coin, there is an upside and there is a downside, and they are both part of the same coin. We need to learn that both sides are given to us by God to benefit us, to grow us, to develop us to become the man (or woman) He wants you to become – someone to radiate his likeness. 

Life is unfair – Yes. It is unfair that the victim should be punished for the crime of the offender. It is unfair that a man is acquitted of murder, and instead is given the right to ownership of the wealth owned by the father of the person he killed. It is unfair to show love to someone who hated you their entire life. 

Yes, I agree with you, it is unfair that a loving God chose to forgive you. Instead of passing judgement He chose to show grace and mercy is the same thing that God did for each of us when he gave his Son and made us heirs to his kingdom. “Unfair” is just a word that varies on the perspective of the person looking, but if you look closely we are all treated fairly and we are receiving our just reward/punishment because Jesus is just.


"You desire but you do not have, so you kill. You covet bet you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God."
- James 4:2

Facing The New Year

Every New Year's eve my wife and I spend the evening with the Villanueva Family. Every year end we would take time to look back on the previous year and count the blessings that we have received, and share our expectant dreams for the incoming year. It's a nice tradition that you might want to incorporate in your family's next New Year celebration.

Going back to my story. The latter part of our 2014 was a very rough one for us. Just when I have mustered all the confidence and courage to pursue a calling to become a full-time entrepreneur, the next thing i know is that we are hitting rock bottom. Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months. It is hard, specially if you are the bread winner of the family. The income comes and goes, but the bills remained coming. During that new years eve sharing time, it is very hard to look back at the passing year and see the blessing in it, looking passed the hard days that came by. Just to give you a view, try imagining getting laid off from your job just a few months before Christmas, or breaking up with your GF/BF, and then while you are still in that downward curve count the blessings you have received in the past 12 months. It's somewhat close to that.

But I praise God for a number of things:
1. I have been saved from my sins and was made a child of the maker of this world
2. I have been blessed with a beautiful and supportive wife
3. I have a decent honest living
4. New business partners are coming in every month.
5. A book project offer from a famous publishing house.

and the list goes on.

I am always reminded by the life of Job. Here is a man of integrity and dedication to God, that despite his circumstances he looks beyond it and sees a just and righteous father that cares for him and his well being. I always carry with me the verse in Job "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!" We are always ready to accept good things from God, but reject the bad things that happens in our life thinking that we do not deserve it. We often forget that it is through the bad/hard times that our character is developed. It is through these times also that we are tested so that our impurities will arise and is scraped away, so that we can become more and more like Christ.

Have you been faithful in the midst of trial and hardship? Keep it up! It is during these times that your praises to the one true creator comes up to him as the sweetest smelling incense.