The unfair box

I am currently reading a book by Joni Earickson Tada called 'A place of healing'.  In case you don't know Joni's story I'll give you the cliff notes.  Joni was in her late teens when she hit her head against a rock in a diving accident and has been a paraplegic ever since.  In 'A place of healing' Joni shares her amazing insights as to her understanding of divine healing and why many people do not get healed through the gifts of miracles.  It has been an amazing eye opener for me as an occassional migraine sufferer but more than just that, it has opened my eyes to so many aspects of our emotional lives. 

Joni certainly did not deserve paraplegia nor the constant pain she feels now from the continuing collapse of her spinal column and she certainly did not commit any sin for which she was being punished, it was simply an accident, a very unfair accident!  She could choose to live with bitterness but has rather chosen the path of destiny and allowing God to use her to minister to other disabled people. 

That is just it though, in life some things are simply unfair.  It does not mean that God caused the incident but rather that He can redeem any situation and use it for His glory if we will allow Him to work in our hearts. 

But what if it is not an accident and someone has deliberately done something to hurt you?  It may be relationally, legally, physically and whatever it was it has caused you a tremendous amount of pain.  Do we have to forgive?  Absolutely, otherwise Christ's unfair death on the cross for our salvation would mean nothing, but we do NOT need to let that situation dominate our lives.  We have the right to draw boundaries. 

I know that I have struggled in certain areas to 'Let go and let God' take care of things but I have realized now it is because I feel in some way that if I let go then the other person has won.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In letting go it does NOT mean that the other person has won and you have lost, it does NOT mean that the other person is right and you are wrong, it simply means that they are too selfish, mean spirited or down right evil to see how much they have hurt you. 

There are times when we will be able to 'make things right' by legal means, intervention or mediation but sometimes there is just nothing that you can do in your power to fix things.  In those cases we need to learn to put those matters in the 'unfair' box, lock it tight and leave it at the feet of Jesus.