It is suffering that forms character (Romans 5), and it is our character that God got into this business for in the first place. There’s a lesson, a treasure, for each of us to find. And here’s the secret that they rarely tell you in church: it can only be found at the bottom of the pit. What’s the secret? There’s a better gift than the one you lost. And it’s God himself, given to us in Christ. Not such a big secret, but the bit we sometimes miss is that we only grasp this in the muck at the bottom of the pit.

We all know how the world should be run. It’s simply obvious to us: the best people should run things, and everyone should get what they deserve. If you put that to 100 people, I suspect you would find the vast majority would agree that this an innately good idea.

They call it a meritocracy—a country ruled by those who merit the positions. Beyond politics too we would like most things to run this way. It’s attractive to most of us, but of course there is a sticking point we rarely think through: who gets to define the ‘best’?

For lots of things from ruling countries to who should organise the village fete, it is not simple to distil the definition of greatness to such a degree that we could objectively declare that Dave is invariably the best possible person to do this activity—if Dave fails then it simply couldn’t be done, no recriminations required.

To peel our hearts back another layer, it’s difficult for a deeper reason: we all inherently think we’re the best. Or, because it’s hard to sustain the cognitive dissonance required to assert that you’re the best at something without material evidence, we assume we’re distinctly above average. Of course, some of us are right—that’s how averages work—and some of us are not. Most of us are above average at some skill or ability we possess. There are a lot of people in the world so that isn’t necessarily saying a lot. We assume, without voicing it loud enough that we can hear ourselves in the quiet of our minds, that the world would be better if they let us run it.

This is what we really mean when we think the world should be run by the ‘best.’ This is why we think that meritocracies would be better: we, or someone even better than us who shares our opinions, could fix it.

Here’s the thing, friends—whether you happen to indulge in the same disgusting level of pride as I clearly do, or not—it is very good news that the world is not set up this way.

As Andrew Wilson points out in his book God of All Things: the world is not a meritocracy. The best do not get the best. The most beautiful places are not inhabited by the most morally pure or more capable people. Good food does not only get served to the pure. The rain does not only fall on those who do good.

Which is good news. As Jesus put it:

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 5.45b

We get the gift of rain and the gift of sunshine however righteous or unrighteous we are. Which, since without the gift of righteousness from the hand of Christ none of us would get a passing grade, is phenomenally good news.

The world does not run on a principle of merit. I’m glad, because I would never have seen a sunrise, enjoyed a rainstorm, tasted bread fresh from the oven, or smelled sweet peas in bloom, if it did.

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