By David Miller

One semester, I had a past student (who became a friend) enroll in a subsequent upper-level class of mine. In the previous class, I saw him make remarkable progress in tackling a new subject and overcoming his fears.

After pondering some of the fear-fighting thoughts we discussed in the next class, he came to my office with a question.

“What do you do if some of your old fears start to come back?”

I was surprised by myself as I was able to give him four suggestions that came as inspiration in the moment. I don’t know if these will apply to everyone, but I think they were applicable to him (and me). I will share these four points as individual posts.

#4 Life is “ridiculously unfair.”

What if the thing we fear actually happens? What if the one thing that is non-negotiable to us is something we suddenly have to give up? Do we have faith to not get what we want? Can we accept what might seem like a worst-case scenario? If we can accept God’s will and give up our will to Him, then a miraculous transformation can occur. The gaps will be filled and we will see how, in the end, it is actually “unfair in our favor.”

Jennie Taylor, whose husband (and mayor of North Ogden, Utah) Brent Taylor was killed in Afghanistan, explains:

… Now in terms of this infuriating unfairness—another thing God has told me quite clearly is that the Plan of Salvation is ridiculously unfair. But when we get through it, we will find it is unfair in our favor, and that is one of my greatest takeaways. We pray for the miracle. We look for the miracle to cure cancer, we look for the miracle to stop the bullet, we look for the miracle to swerve at just the last moment and avoid the car accident, and all of us have stories where the miracle comes. We all know the time that we fasted and prayed for a child in our ward who was dying, and then they were miraculously cured, and we all know the time we slammed on the brakes and didn’t die, but almost could have. We have those stories.

But I’m learning that some of the greatest miracles God sends are the miracles that come after the miracle we thought we needed didn’t come. The greatest miracle in my life is that I know Brent still exists. I know God can take this horrible mortal tragedy and work it into something beautiful beyond compare. I don’t always like that. I’ll admit, in the immediate hours after my husband died, my wonderful stake president — he’s such a wonderful man — gave me a blessing. He counsels with me still all the time, checks in on us, and he kept reminding me: “Your best days are ahead. Your best days are ahead, Sister Taylor” That’s the last answer I want. I want my best days with [Brent]. I don’t want my best days without him. I don’t want my best days with him not seeing that 1-year-old become a 20-year-old or a mother or whatever future things haven’t happened.

And I think that’s where the Lord’s gentle love and guidance has helped me realize how wrong I am. My best days are ahead, and it won’t ever be without Brent Taylor. Not at all. There’s not a day I live without him, or I hope my children feel the same way. This infuriating unfairness is countered with the incredible compensatory blessings of heaven. I can’t understand them because I am mortal, but I have felt enough of a glimpse of them to know they are real.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is bigger than that unfairness. The love of God is bigger than that unfairness, his trove of blessings is bigger than every shortchanged experience we’ve had in this life.

And so that doesn’t mean it’s never sad. That doesn’t mean we don’t sometimes sit in feeling very shortchanged or brokenhearted or even just devastated, but we can have faith in the fact that that infuriating unfairness will be turned to our favor. The blessings God sends will not be able to be measured. We’ll be able to see that He did not cause everything horrible in this life, but He’s promised everything in this life can work for our good: the good, the bad, our own stupidity and mistakes, the heartache someone else causes in our life, the bitterness, the betrayal, Heavenly Father has promised all of that can work together for our good if we’ll simply let Him help us see how.

https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2021-07-06/episode-38-jennie-taylor-infuriating-unfairness-revelation-patriotism-218764