#dealing with unfairness

[psalmonesermons]

Dealing with unfairness as a believer

Going the extra mile

What is the most unfair thing that has ever happened to you?

You might have been passed over for a job or promotion when you were best qualified or placed to get it. Your parents might have shown favouritism towards one of your brother or sisters e.g. Jacob/Joseph. Your husband or wife has let you down badly, or you might have been accused of something you never did by your family, neighbours or even the police leading to a false imprisonment.

Personal testimony

When I was a boy, my family were quite poor and did not have many valuables. However, one time my mother received a Churchill crown (a coin), considered to be valuable. When I was a young teenager, my mother took me aside one day, and entrusted the Churchill crown to my safe keeping, I hid it in an old piece of furniture. I forgot all about it for several years, when the matter of the coin was raised at a family gathering, I could not account for it. I knew that I had not sold it or disposed of it, someone in the family had taken it! I became the butt of family jokes, such as do not give anything to him to look after, look what happened to the Churchill crown! The stigma of an unjust accusation hung over me for many years until eventually a family member gave me another Churchill crown.

This experience helped me to identify in a very small way with those suffering from injustice or unfairness.

It is not a nice feeling, when you realize that you are being treated unfairly but we must handle unfairness or sense of injustice in a Godly way. Let us turn to God’s word to learn how to cope with unfairness and injustice.

Definitions

Unfair: is not fair, unjust, or not just, biased, prejudiced, contrary to rules of the game (or life).

Matthew 5:38-45

God’s instructions on how to deal with unfairness or injustice.

Verse 41; In every situation going the extra mile, there are two parties. The one is you (in your circumstance) we always assume the Christian will be one compelled but are you the one forcing another person to go the extra mile. Make sure you are the one being forced to go the extra mile and not the other party who is doing the forcing!

Extortion (see 1 Corinthians 6:10)

Demanding more of them than is fair or necessary.

Does your spouse always have to give in?

Do you always insist on getting your own way?

This is the sin of extortion which is forcing people to go or to give more than they are willing.

Extortion is not just about money but making unfair demands on someone’s life with the threat of emotional blackmail.

Love never demands its own way. Love never is not selfish and self-seeking.

Matthew 5:41

The act of love (by going an extra mile) defuses an act of selfishness. Love covers a multitude of sins. Jesus tells us if someone forces us to go one mile, then go with him two miles. Somehow this going the extra mile neutralizes the power of selfishness.

2 Timothy 3:12

The devil has a special form of unfairness called persecution through which he tempts the believer to be ashamed of being a Christian and with the goal of getting you turn away from God and his word.

How did Jesus Christ handle his persecution and unfairness?

Acts 8:32-33 (see also Isaiah 53:7-8)

Humiliated and persecuted he did not even speak in his own defence. Jesus Christ would be tortured and killed, but because of his love for God the Father and his love for mankind he endured the ultimate injustice and unfairness and was silent like lamb before his shearers. He who was without sin, was made to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteous of God (2 Corinthians 5:31).

God the Father did not spare God the Son from great suffering in his earthly ministry. It seems that for all Christians living Godly lives, then we can expect some persecution and unfairness will come.

But don’t despair, but count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, and perseverance must develop so that you may become mature and complete, lacking nothing in your walk with God.

God although allowing some injustice in our lives, never lets us be tempted above our measure when we are hurting through injustice. We can go to God and ask for judgement in the Old Testament sense, knowing that the judge of all the earth will do right.

Psalm 7:8

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteous, according to my integrity says the psalmist. God is the one who vindicates his people.

Conclusion

When unfairness comes, walk the extra mile, show love which disarms evil or selfishness and when the pressure gets too great, then call out to the judge of all the earth knowing that he will do right.

Amen

Prayer

[zoobus]

Drafted a couple posts because I'm not sure how to say this. Young people are inexperienced and frequently obnoxious. This has always been true. Cultural shifts and new technology only mean they will be inexperienced and obnoxious in different, more visible ways. You aren't beating the grumpy old hater allegations by cloaking your kids-these-days bitching in tiktok scapegoating and alleged youth tech illiteracy.

You have forgotten all the embarrassing ways you were inconsiderate at 18. You might still be your old manager's go-to anecdote for crazy oblivious interns. All the forums you posted on begging for answers instead of reading the fucking sticky or googling it are lost to time. But nah this generation is uniquely stupid and rude, for real this time.

[darkmuffinstudios]

“please don’t hate yourself…”

(a loose, semi-correlative second part to this)

[cosmicredcadet]

A character looks straight into the camera and says "I'm not interested in romance" and people will still say "No, it's not confirmed they're aromantic!!!" "They could change their mind!!!" "it's a challenge for them to overcome!!!" "They'll have character development that makes them fall in love"

It's like they are given the most blatant answer to a character romantic orientation and they actively ignore it. all the while all it takes is subtext for people to speak as if it is fact for a character to be any other sexuality.

[sillygoofyqueer]

GUYS IT'S NOT FUCKING RAINING IN BRITAIN AND THERE'S THIS STRANGE GLOWING ORB IN THE SKY THAT SEEMS DETERMINED TO BOIL ME ALIVE SO I'M CHANNELLING THAT FEAR INTO A NEW POST FOR MAD SCIENTIST AU Okay so it's the moment you've all been waiting for (*crickets chirping in the background*), it's time for the SOUP DILEMMA. We all know how it goes - Jiang Yanli has been making Jin Zixuan soup and leaving it for him in front of his sleeping quarters. Some servant girl sees this and tries to take the opportunity to like either climb the ranks or get a way to be his wife?? Honey, the autistic pathetic man rizz is not for you. Anyway, she lets herself be near the scene when Jin Zixuan is looking around to find his mystery soup giver. He thinks that it's her because context clues imply that it's her and he's just a little guy who doesn't really think much because his little brain is currently filled with mainly spite and violence against his father.

However, the key difference this time is...not Wei Wuxian? Well, actually, it sort of is. Wei Wuxian, at the first chance he had, introduced Xue Yang to his goddess of soup, and Xue Yang is nothing if not someone who likes soup - and people who like his gege not solely based on how useful he is on the battlefield. So, he obviously likes Jiang Yanli, who has only heard rumours about Wei Wuxian without even seeing anything for herself. Now that Wei Wuxian is out of the Burial Mounds, he's allowed to roam more freely, so he does spend some time being a lil creepy creep and just following different people around. This is most often The Lads (usually Wei-gege), occasionally Lan Wangji, and very occasionally, he follows Jiang Yanli around. Then he realises that she's being sneaky for some reason, and now he's more interested, so he follows her around more often!

Through this sneaking and creeping, he learns that Jiang Yanli is leaving soup for Jin Zixuan - he personally thinks it's wasted on the golden dude, but he would never judge one of the people that he likes, so he instead focus all of that judgment for the man who doesn't notice her affections. He isn't even really that bad, like he was basically the first person to notice how Wei-gege (and him too) were being lied to even if nobody believed him, but Xue Yang has a reputation to uphold and he can't be getting buddy buddy with a guy who literally comes from a sect that would literally be wearing pure gold if it could. Anyway, he is keeping an eye on this situation, contemplating whether he could nick the soup without anyone knowing. Listen, he gets hungry easy, he's a growing kid! Plus, he can give Jiang Yanli the praise she deserves for such consistently great soup.

Wei-gege knows of his hobby and sometimes joins him when he gets bored (or is trying to hide from the others), so he's nearby while Xue Yang is peeking into the Jins' quarters to calculate the perfect time to grab the bowl of soup on a tray. There's a servant girl sort of hanging around nearby, probably eyeing up the soup for herself, which is so not fair okay. He was here first, he has dibs on it - unfortunately, Jin Zixuan comes out of his room and picks up the tray, so neither of them can have it, which is truly a shame. Wei-gege comes back from his snooping of other areas to peek in beside him, and acts much more pissy when they watch Jin Zixuan ask the servant girl something, and the servant girl nodding her head demurely. Xue Yang is ready to cut his losses and go ask Jiang Yanli for more soup without any theft, but Wei-gege is leaving their hiding place and going up to the other two.

Meanwhile, Wei Ying is ready to brawl this girl, who is trying to take credit for Jiang-guniang's brilliant cooking skills for some reason!! He ignores her offended questions about what he's doing here (insert disgusted tone with it), turning straight to Jin Zixuan and being like "oh wow, Jiang-guniang makes soup for you as well?" Jin Zixuan is all confused because wait the servant girl said that she made the soup :( Jiang Yanli is making him soup? :D He asks Wei Wuxian how he knows it's Jiang Yanli, and gets the response of "well, those are her special bowls! I get to have my soup in it if I've done all the dishes like I'm supposed to." Now he's torn between reprimanding this servant girl for lying to him and thanking Jiang Yanli for the excellent soup she's been making him, because the soup fucking rocks. Wei Wuxian makes the decision for him by being like "c'mon, she might even show you how she makes the soup!" and dragging him off.

Word gets out about this incident because one, Jin Zixuan showed up in the Jiang kitchens (nobody talks about Wei Wuxian being there so that Yu Ziyuan doesn't go literally insane) to personally thank Jiang Yanli for her efforts, and had like a wholeass conversation with her! They may be promised each other's hands in marriage, but this may be the first time they've had a conversation of their own accord! Oh, and two, Xue Yang begrudgingly goes to Nie Huaisang for an explanation because he doesn't get what's been going on and all Nie Huaisang is really good for is explaining things to him that nobody else will tell him. Of course, Nie Huaisang learns about this event and starts telling everyone because like...dude, of course he's going to tell more people about this! It's fucking cute!! Even if he does have to leave out Wei Wuxian's help in making it all happen.

Aside from a warmer relationship blossoming between Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan, this event has other impacts. Jiang Cheng, who has been like basically neutral towards Wei Wuxian because while the guy is useful and hasn't done anything wrong to him or Jiejie after hanging out with her all the time, he also did try to attack Muqin and A-die has been acting strange ever since Wei Wuxian showed up. However, he hears from Nie Huaisang that Wei Wuxian helped Jin Zixuan actually begin a conversation with Jiejie because of something to do with soup?? He doesn't get it, but anyone who helps Jiejie without any ulterior motives (at least he assumes there was no ulterior motives) gets his instant respect. He finds Wei Wuxian sitting near the edges of the war camp, seemingly rather quiet and contemplative until Jiang Cheng hesitantly steps closer, unsure if he's interrupting anything.

Wei Wuxian smiles and is like "You're Jiang Wanyin, right?" and Jiang Cheng just goes straight in for the "my mother doesn't like you." The other boy, unfazed, just shrugs a little, the resentful energy almost pulsing in his skin as he stares back at him without any concern or offense in his expression - he's used to hearing things like this after all of his time in the war camp. "Jiejie likes you though." Another shrug. "You helped her, why?" Now Wei Wuxian just looks confused. "Because I like her? I think she's cool?" A sentiment that everyone should believe, and Jiang Cheng can't help but be a little less tense near Wei Wuxian at this moment. "Nobody calls me Jiang Wanyin. They all just call me Jiang Cheng." "Well that's rude, so I'm not going to do that. I need to earn your friendship first." Nobody has ever wanted to earn his friendship before...except maybe his dogs? But they were dogs. This was another living (?) person, who wanted to be his friend.

[bvrialatsea]

dean with the most dead-eyed, hallowed out stare, sweating: he was a hero.

[psalmonesermons]

How to maintain faith in the face of unfairness: A believer's guide

Go the extra mile: it is never crowded

What is the most unfair thing that has ever happened to you?

You might have been passed over for a job or promotion when you were best qualified or placed to get it. Your parents might have shown favouritism towards one of your brother or sisters e.g. Jacob/Joseph. Your husband or wife has let you down badly, or you might have been accused of something you never did by your family, neighbours or even the police leading to a false imprisonment.

Personal testimony

When I was a boy, my family were quite poor and did not have many valuables. However, one time my mother received a Churchill crown (a coin), considered to be valuable. When I was a young teenager, my mother took me aside one day, and entrusted the Churchill crown to my safe keeping, I hid it in an old piece of furniture. I forgot all about it for several years, when the matter of the coin was raised at a family gathering, I could not account for it. I knew that I had not sold it or disposed of it, someone in the family had taken it! I became the butt of family jokes, such as do not give anything to him to look after, look what happened to the Churchill crown! The stigma of an unjust accusation hung over me for many years until eventually a family member gave me another Churchill crown.

This experience helped me to identify in a very small way with those suffering from injustice or unfairness.

It is not a nice feeling, when you realize that you are being treated unfairly but we must handle unfairness or sense of injustice in a Godly way. Let us turn to God’s word to learn how to cope with unfairness and injustice.

Definitions

Unfair: is not fair, unjust, or not just, biased, prejudiced, contrary to rules of the game (or life).

Matthew 5:38-45

God’s instructions on how to deal with unfairness or injustice.

Verse 41; In every situation going the extra mile, there are two parties. The one is you (in your circumstance) we always assume the Christian will be one compelled but are you the one forcing another person to go the extra mile. Make sure you are the one being forced to go the extra mile and not the other party who is doing the forcing!

Extortion (see 1 Corinthians 6:10)

Demanding more of them than is fair or necessary.

Does your spouse always have to give in?

Do you always insist on getting your own way?

This is the sin of extortion which is forcing people to go or to give more than they are willing.

Extortion is not just about money but making unfair demands on someone’s life with the threat of emotional blackmail.

Love never demands its own way. Love never is not selfish and self-seeking.

Matthew 5:41

The act of love (by going an extra mile) defuses an act of selfishness. Love covers a multitude of sins. Jesus tells us if someone forces us to go one mile, then go with him two miles. Somehow this going the extra mile neutralizes the power of selfishness.

2 Timothy 3:12

The devil has a special form of unfairness called persecution through which he tempts the believer to be ashamed of being a Christian and with the goal of getting you turn away from God and his word.

How did Jesus Christ handle his persecution and unfairness?

Acts 8:32-33 (see also Isaiah 53:7-8)

Humiliated and persecuted he did not even speak in his own defence. Jesus Christ would be tortured and killed, but because of his love for God the Father and his love for mankind he endured the ultimate injustice and unfairness and was silent like lamb before his shearers. He who was without sin, was made to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteous of God (2 Corinthians 5:31).

God the Father did not spare God the Son from great suffering in his earthly ministry. It seems that for all Christians living Godly lives, then we can expect some persecution and unfairness will come.

But don’t despair, but count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, and perseverance must develop so that you may become mature and complete, lacking nothing in your walk with God.

God although allowing some injustice in our lives, never lets us be tempted above our measure when we are hurting through injustice. We can go to God and ask for judgement in the Old Testament sense, knowing that the judge of all the earth will do right.

Psalm 7:8

Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteous, according to my integrity says the psalmist. God is the one who vindicates his people.

Conclusion

When unfairness comes, walk the extra mile, show love which disarms evil or selfishness and when the pressure gets too great, then call out to the judge of all the earth knowing that he will do right.

Amen

Prayer

[baldursghaik]

you might think that writing a novel is a challenge. it is not

summarizing that book in a couple hundred words though

[star-struck09]

One of my biggest regrets is that I’ve forgotten what your voice sounds like.

[tomurakii]

I kind of hate all the comparisons between kipperlily and like. Those fuckass "affirmative action fucks me over I wish I was [minority] so it would be easier" people because none of that. Is what she said. She said the bad kids already had more experience with adventuring before they got to augefort and it meant they had an advantage. Which is true. Yeah Riz was lower-class but his mum was a COP. Riz, Kristen and Fig had parents who were heroes (Sandra-Lynn is an active ranger, Kristen's parents are paladins, Sklonda is a rogue), Adaine's family was super rich and politically influential, Fabian had both. Gorgug's the only one who wasn't actively at an advantage [IN THE CONTEXT OF HAVING PRIOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HEROISM] and she didn't have shit to say about him. Kipperlily was the first person in her family to try heroism, the bad kids are largely legacy admissions.

Additionally to the people comparing it to the "anti-affirmative action" crowd: do you know what affirmative action is. The bad kids didn't receive special consideration on their admissions to aguefort or scholarships or additional financial support or extended assessment times or anything. How could she be mad about affirmative action if none of these people received affirmative action. What they DID have was knowledge about their classes that started much earlier than high school, which is what Kipperlily said in her file that she thought grading should be adjusted for because she did not have that.

To me it's less like affirmative action and more like augefort is like an IQ test. They pretend that it's fair and objective, but you can be taught how to do those things from a younger age, and if your parents took the time to teach you pattern recognition and shit then you'll do better on an IQ test than someone who wasn't trained for it and everyone will act like that makes you innately smarter when it doesn't. It just means someone taught you how to do that earlier.

Barring Gorgug, every one of the bad kids had access to information about heroism and their class at a younger age than Kipperlily did, which primed them for success in their classes. Every one of them got additional information about mysteries from their families (and even direct battle-tactics training from Bill), Riz especially with getting classified info out of his mum. Kipperlily does not have hero relatives. She's the first in her family line to attend a hero school. She knew nothing about it before her first day, meanwhile Kristen was already the chosen of Helio, Adaine had already been attending the best wizard school in the country, Fabian had already spent his whole life training with his father, and Riz was already involved in solving mysteries using info and tactics he got from his parents.

They aren't necessarily "privileged" (except Fabian and Adaine), but Kipperlily didn't say they were, she said that in the specific context of attending a hero school they had a prior-knowledge advantage. Saying they didn't is like comparing the grades of a kid who's academic career started with preschool with a kid who didn't attend until middle school and acting like one of them wasn't better prepared.

[deplcythebattery]

everyone: oh you're so lucky you get to stay home all the time!

me, chronically ill: ah. yeah. haha. lucky. i get to stay home. i don't get the fun parts of that though! i can't partake in my hobbies for more than an hour every two to three days :) i do get to watch a lot of tv though! oh you think that gets boring after a few hours? haha. yeah it fucking does. imagine that being the only thing you can do and then tell me how lucky i am

[can-i-get-a-yippee]

Mmmm, okay don’t jump me but I actually think the way they are portraying grief is actually kinda great??

Like, interweaving normal job activities and conversations and moments with the outbursts of grief is just so so realistic to how it feels.

When someone you love dies, your world is never the same. You’ll see it through tinted lens for the rest of your time here on Earth.

But the world keeps spinning. Jobs need to be done. Groceries need to be bought. Trash needs to be taken out. You don’t get to stop your normal life for long to just take a moment in grieve so you interweave your normal life with these depths of grief.

The anger. The guilt. The shame. The despair. They bubble up in the cracks of your normal life, and you’re forced to adapt to this new normal and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and then without you being aware your eyes adjust to this new shade of the life around you and even though the world you see will never be the same, you learn to love it anyway.

And this grief, it’s so new and to watch all of the 118 grapple with trying to navigate their new normal while also crashing out in the in between moments just feels,,, right

[wisteriagoesvroom]

and if i told you i’m actually kinda enjoying carlos’s fun and silly content to kick off the williams era…..

[wonder-worker]

Something I find especially entertaining about Edward IV's reign is how Scandalous™ it was.

He married a woman “whose origins broke all established conventions for English queenship” in a secret ceremony without consulting any of his lords and then made it everyone else's problem. He committed regicide, he committed fratricide, he was accused of bastardry, he was accused of bigamy and a 19-year-long sham marriage, he was accused of using necromancy against his subjects, he was accused of being enchanted by witchcraft by both his wife and his mother-in-law (multiple times). His own mother was said to "rule the king as she pleased" in the early years of his reign; after he married, he was said to be "too greatly influenced" by his wife. He knew he was hot and actively milked it for money. He was vain as fuck: “he was wont to show himself to those who wished to watch him, and he seized any opportunity that the occasion offered of revealing his fine stature to onlookers”. He knew everything about everyone. "He was more favourable than other princes to foreigners". He was “fond of boon companionship, vanities, debauchery, extravagance and sensual enjoyments”; he was "thought to have indulged in his passions and desires too intemperately”; "it was ever feared he was not chaste”. His subjects publicly gossiped about his sex life, his doctors thought he was insane. NOBODY understood how he was still competent despite all this.

Honestly, who was doing it like him?

[thebirdandhersong]

It's not so much that I object to this potential blind date boy. I haven't said yes because im NERVOUS and my heart is SORE

[iforgotwhaticalledthis]

imagine falling in love with the girl whose existence led to yours and societyy's perception of your family falling. isnt that crazy. isnt that wild.