Have you ever noticed sometimes that games are just not fair? You have the victory within reach. You are on the precipice of beating your opponent into absolute oblivion. They will never play again because you beat them so badly. Then all of a sudden, one bad spin of the wheel, and it all falls apart and your opponent beats you. It just isn’t fair. The Old Testament has 613 laws, but Adam and Eve get one, that’s not fair!

In I Samuel 20 we find an interesting conversation. Saul is the first king of Israel. Jonathan is his son. David is the brother-in-law and anointed to be the next king of Israel. Saul hates David and wants to kill him. Jonathan is doing everything to keep the peace. In the ideal world, Jonathan gets to be king. In the ideal world, Jonathan has a faithful father who used to be humble. In the ideal world, there is no war with the Philistines. However, in Jonathan’s real world, he has a fallen father and a continual war with the Philistines. Do you know where Jonathan the faithful is going to die? His body is going to be laid out on the battlefield next to his dad and brothers. That just isn’t fair! Doesn’t God reward faithfulness? He did it all right and ended up lying dead next to an unfaithful father. The game of life isn’t fair.

In the ideal world, I’ll have all the answers to the tough questions. In the ideal world, all of my spiritual struggles and battles will be over. In the ideal world, I can take of care of my family with no problems. However, just like Jonathan didn’t live in the ideal world, neither do I. And neither do you. In the real world, finances are never going to be easy. I’ll always have tough choices to face and spiritual battles to fight. I don’t know about your world, except this one thing—you don’t get a perfect world either. Here is how you know you are trying to live in an ideal world: when you start prayers or sentences with, “I wish.” I wish I was married by now. I wish could do some things over. I wish my parents loved me. I wish these things wouldn’t have been done to me. I wish, I wish, I wish. When we pray like that, we are saying, “I don’t want this world. I want an alternative world.”

In an ideal world, there is no cross. In an ideal world, there is no God who comes down to walk with humanity to say “Give me your body that is racked with disease and I’ll heal it. Give me your broken pieces and I’ll put them back together.” In an ideal world, there is no pain. There is no sorrow and there is no Jesus. He decided to take fairness and empty it out. He decided to make a way where we can be in His presence for eternity. Here’s the consequence for that: on Judgment Day, it’s not fair. Because what is fair on Judgment Day is that I get what I deserve. I deserve death and destruction for eternity. No matter how much I spin the wheel, it always comes up sinner. Maybe you have a horrible home life. It’s not fair. You have been abused and you feel worthless. Sometimes the wheel does some ugly things. To the young lady or young man who isn’t married yet but you thought you would be and you feel alone, I know it hurts.

Your day of judgment is forever changed because of Calvary. But if you want Him to be fair now, you are asking Him to take back Calvary. When you begin to look at your life and begin to pray for an ideal world, you are taking the broken pieces of your life with which you are not satisfied and creating and bowing down to an idol that looks like you. We have a choice to make. The choices are—pick the work of Calvary or pick the ideal world you are dreaming up. Maybe you are thinking if I wouldn’t have been abused, God could use me. If I wouldn’t have got hurt by this person, I could love myself. Maybe you stepped out by faith to do something for God and you fell hard.

I am telling you that it isn’t fair. That’s why there was a cross. You can say, “Lord, whatever You call to me to do or wherever You ask me to go, I will go. I am going to stop saying, I wish I could do this or could do that.” Will you say, “Lord, I’ll take the cross over my ideal world?” Are you willing take that idol that looks like you and rip it down and tell Jesus you’ll take whatever He sends your way and trust Him? I’m going to stop telling God He’s unfair.

Celebrate the truth that the cross was radically unfair. Thank God for being unfair to me and not giving me what I deserve.

Andrew is a sectional youth director, youth pastor, and Hyphen director at Calvary Church in Mount Vernon, Illinois. He is married to Shayla Bevis, the coolest, best looking gal and partner in crime on the planet. He has a son, Charlie, who is just as good looking as his dad. Andrew and Shayla love all their students at Revolution Ministries and putting God in everything they do!