There are people, Job’s friends included, who think that things even out in the end. That if you wait long enough, that guy who cut you off in traffic will get a flat tire; or the person who lied about you will someday be lied about; that there is a circular balancing act in the universe that eventually makes things fair. Karma, baby. What goes around comes around.

But the truth is, life is not fair. It will never be fair. As long as there is evil in the world, bad things will happen to good – and bad – people. Good things will happen to good – and bad – people.

Job reminds us to take our eyes off our circumstances, and especially other’s circumstances, and focus on God. Listen to what he says:

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (19:25-27)

What is it you yearn for? An easier life? Revenge? Or is God Himself, seeing His hand in everything that happens in your life, the yearning of your heart?