Have you ever seen someone having success at something and it made you angry...I mean mad? The right word is angry but real word is mad. You saw them doing something that you could do or should do and they were succeeding. It might have even been that they were doing the same thing as you and you were struggling and they were soaring!
And if you are like someone else I know you started picking apart what they were doing or how they were doing it. You started listing out in your mind about how shallow they were or how ineffective they were. Or even how the people with whom they were being successful were probably fake shallow or just pretending. No? Me either. Just asking for a friend...
Well, I had one of those moments recently and I was reminded of two things. The first, everything and everyone has a season. Everyone of us goes through seasons of up and seasons of down. Seasons when what we like to do or are paid to do goes really well and we feel great! And then there are those times when our old game is exactly that, our old game. And know body seems to want to play with us anymore.
One quick observation about that. We usually over-estimate our role in our season of up and we over-estimate our role when we are down. The truth is we all have seasons when we are up and seasons when we are down. Just ask any professional athlete.
But that is true for all of us. No matter what we do or how big or small our field might be we all go through seasons.
The second thing my little mad-moment did was remind me, God is not fair. God is not being fair when we are up and God is not being fair when we are down. God is not being fair when someone else is up and we are down. Just so I am clear let me say it again. God is not fair. God is never fair.
He is always right. He is always merciful and gracious and patient. He is never fair! He never gives us what we deserve, what we've earned, or what is fair. And seeing that and understanding that is so crucial.
So the next time you see someone enjoying a different season than you. Try not to get ma... angry. Try not to start dismantling them or their season of success. Remember that God shows us favor when we need it, where we need it and how we need it. Remember the other person has been down and they will be down again and you may or may not be around to see it. But you can at least know that in the end God is always good, even in the season we are in.
