My husband and I heard an interesting church sermon about a week ago. The pastor was talking about how life is unfair, yet we walk around thinking that it should be fair. He was referring to how we act when bad things happen in our life. The first thing we do when something bad happens is ask “why did this happen to me”, like the world is out to get us. What the pastor explained is that life is unfair because of sin, but there is a just and loving God personally involved that will work things out in His way and His time. God does not punish us, but He will see us through whatever comes our way.

I guess the reason I bring this up today, is one, its something I have been thinking about, and two, of what happened today. Our water at our house has been acting strangely for the past couple of weeks, not getting as hot as it usually is on some days, then fine on other days. We didn’t think too much of it, until my husband finally went under the house this morning to find the entire crawl space soaking wet, pipes busted, water heater busted, insulation coming down, possible floor damage, top to bottom wet, the whole nine. I woke up to this and the very first thought I had was “life is unfair” and even chuckled a little. I don’t know why that was my first thought, but maybe it was God.

Normally it would be “why us?”. We have had so many other problems, another pipe has busted in the past, we had to change thermostats on our water heater because we had no hot water, our cars have broken down I don’t know how many times, the dogs have run away multiple times, we have gotten in several car accidents, my husband has had 3 leg surgeries, we have had work done on our heating and air system because its old and needs a lot of help, both my husband and I have had doctor appointments after doctor appointments, lots of medical tests done, the list could go on and on about the “problems” we have had, all the while trying to stay sober one day at a time. Trying to be responsible adults and take care of things when they arise, instead of completely ignoring them like we did in the past.

Life is hard. When I was still drinking, that is how I thought it was supposed to be. Then when I got sober, I thought that magically all life problems would go away because I was trying to do the next right thing and I didn’t deserve karma anymore. When we still had problems sober, I got mad, because I didn’t think that was how it was supposed to be. What I am beginning to realize now, is that is life. Life is unfair, so let’s stop walking around thinking that it is supposed to be fair and that everything is supposed to go our way.

What do we do with the “unfair?” We take it by the horns, ask God for help to see us through and guide us in the right direction, and take what we need to do one day, one step at a time. So, what if we have to replace all the piping in our house, we have to replace all the insulation in the crawl space, etc. are we going to complain about it? First things first, we call a plumber and figure out the whole extent of the damage: we see what can be fixed, who we need to call next, talk to our insurance company and see what is and isn’t covered. That’s all we can do, right? That and believe that God will see us through this. Do we wallow in self-pity (which is what I normally do), or do we have gratitude that we actually have tools to deal with these kinds of things? What good will it do to wallow? None, I am slowly but surely realizing. As much as I want to say poor me, that could turn into poor me, poor me, pour me another drink and that will never make anything better. Weirdly enough, I don’t want to drink today, I don’t want to scream and shout, I actually seem to have a little bit of a smile on my face. That’s life!