When It Just Isn’t Fair

3 days ago

4 min read

You’re folding the laundry, but in your mind, you’re having the conversation you never got to have. They’ve said things about you that just aren’t true. The stories have spread, and people who once trusted you now don’t know what to believe. You never had the chance to defend yourself. But, as you play it out in your mind, you finally get to explain what really happened. They listen. They understand. The truth comes out.

By the time you’ve folded the last t-shirt, nothing has changed in your circumstances, but maybe something has changed in your heart. Maybe rehearsing the wrongs has deepened your resentment. Maybe it has you more absorbed in what they’ve done, but no closer to peace or joy.

The same thoughts keep circling.

How could they have done this?

How will this ever be made right?

This just isn’t fair.

It’s not fair, and it should never have happened. The harm was real, and acknowledging the truth about that harm matters. But defending yourself over and over in your thoughts can allow the injustice to take more from you than it already has.

Maybe it follows you to the dinner table or keeps you awake. Certainly, it interrupts a good moment with another reminder of a bad one.

Paul and Silas knew what it was to be treated unjustly. In Acts 16, Paul freed an enslaved girl from a demon that enabled her to tell fortunes. Her owners, angry that their income was gone, retaliated by dragging Paul and Silas before the authorities. They accused them of throwing the city into turmoil and teaching customs Romans were forbidden to practice. Intent on turning the crowd against Paul and Silas, the girl's owners stirred up a mob with their accusations. Paul and Silas were stripped, severely beaten, and thrown into the inner dungeon, where the jailer clamped their feet in stocks. As Paul later said, “They have publicly beaten us without a trial and put us in prison” (Acts 16:37, NLT).

That was a bad night. Imagine the conversations they could have rehearsed in that dungeon. Maybe confronting the girl's owners about the accusations they had used to turn a mob against them. Maybe standing before the authorities, demanding a trial and a chance to be heard. With their bodies aching and their feet in stocks, they could have spent the night rehearsing all the things they never got to say.

Instead, Scripture tells us, “Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!” (Acts 16:25–26, NLT).

They sang while they were still hurting. While their feet were still held in stocks. Before they knew how God would bring them through. In the dungeon, literally bound up in wrongdoing, they turned their voices and their hearts toward God in prayer and worship.

How different might our hearts feel if our laundry-folding rehearsals took that same turn?

Instead of rehearsing the wrong, turn your heart and mind toward God. Remember the ways He has cared for you, the prayers He has answered, and the hard seasons He has brought you through. Give those memories words. Let them become your song of praise.

Bring Him the injustice too. Pray honestly about what happened, what you wish you could have said, and what still hurts. Petition Him for the truth to be known and for the justice you long for. Ask for wisdom about what is yours to do and what is His alone.

Lord, You have been faithful to me. You know the whole story, and You care about what has happened. Please bring truth and justice into this situation. Show me my next step, and help me recognize Your care while I wait.

Then watch and listen for His leading. Spend time in His Word. Be willing to receive wise counsel. There may be a conversation to have, help to seek, or a boundary to establish. James reminds us that we can ask God for wisdom and trust His generosity in giving it (James 1:5).

You may not get an earthquake, but then again maybe you will. Either way, you can count on God showing up for you. As you praise, pray, and petition, trust Him to respond, even when you can’t see what He is doing. He has promised, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5, NLT). He is with you in the pain and in the waiting.

The next time you pick up the laundry and find yourself rehearsing your defense, remember Paul and Silas singing in the dungeon. Let the familiar rhythm of folding become a reminder to praise, pray, and petition, returning again and again to the One who knows the whole story and knows the way forward.