“Life is Unfair!”
Have you ever thought or said this in frustration of what has been happening in your life? You may be surprised, but that is exactly what someone could be saying when they look at your life. Yes, despite the trials, grief, or injustice you face.

Pastor Ann Chan of Covenant Evangelical Free Church, Singapore in a short retreat at CCF last year said that if we compare our lives to the unrealistic portrayals in the media about what constitutes happiness, completion, and success, we are bound to feel discontent but if we compared ourselves to the women who were forced into sex slavery or into female genital mutilation, or those affected by the latest natural or terrorist disasters, we would feel differently. A renewing of the mind gives us a fresh perspective on our circumstances.

There is an email circulating of a story of a man who complained about the cross (burden or suffering) he received in life. He was given a chance to trade it in for another cross. So he was asked to enter a room containing different types and sizes of crosses. Finally, he saw the smallest one of all that he could find and that’s what he chose. When he picked it up, it was the one that had his name on it. It turns out that everyone else had heavier crosses to bear and he had the lightest, yet he was so burdened that he wanted something else.

In Luke 14, Jesus said, 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Here, Jesus taught that His disciple or student or follower ought to carry his or her own cross, nothing coming in between: not a relationship, not difficulty.

It would help us to bear the cross we are given when we remember that God equips us with what is needed to overcome the challenges we face. This Facebook post of Anne Graham Lotz seventeen hours ago is an apt word of encouragement: “God will never expect more from me than the Holy Spirit will do in and through me.”

May our minds be renewed with God’s perspective that because He equips us for what we face, we are more than conquerors in our situation.