Cliff bars are relatively delicious.

Okay, people, check out the first nine verses of Psalm 31. I would write it out here if I were your kindergarten teacher. Go read it yourself, lazysaurus! We're commanded over and over not to fret when we see people seemingly rewarded for doing wrong. I admit, as a chronic comparer of myself to others, I've been guilty of this a lot. I don't think I'd be able to count the times I fought and starved(figuratively speaking, of course. Food and I have a torrid love affair. Except circus peanuts. Those things are wicked-nasty) to do the "moral" thing. In the end I didn't feel one bit blessed, which (I told myself, while sulking over a comic book and a box of cookies) was okay, since virtue is its own reward, or some goody-goody baloney like that. But then I looked at others who either didn't care or seemed to be deliberately trying to live in the most immoral way possible. I am talking Brittney Spears, Dawson's Creek, Circus Peanut-level immorality. And their lives were fantastic!! That was when I had a Jonah moment and exploded at God, waved my arms, paced around, and told Him that it was all wrong, unfair, and humiliating after all I had done to watch the wicked be blessed while I struggled. Then I knocked over the best lamp in God's living room, kicked a throw rug, and stomped away while God glanced at me over the top of His newspaper, completely unaffected by my tantrum.
The whole process took a very long time to resolve, but finally God humbled me enough so that I could listen to His rebuttal. It went something like this.
"Wrong? I invented right and wrong. Keep listening and I'll tell you all about it. Fair? Be glad I'm not fair. Fair ended at the cross. Your salvation is what's unfair. Fair should be a dirty word in your vocabulary. Fair should be something you avoid at all costs. I could be fair, but I guarantee you that you wouldn't survive it. You think that behaving like my child is humiliating? It's an easy life, being a pig, lolling around in mud and pooping where you stand, but any good parent wouldn't let their child act like that. Parents that love their children bring them up to be polite and respectful, not letting them act like the pigs that are carried away by the butcher. Now stop your griping, eat your danged vegetables, and go play outside. I love you, kiddo, and I congratulate myself on creating you, but danged if you don't act dumber than a sack of snot sometimes."
God has to get krunk with me sometimes. But I gotta tell you, He knows what He's doing. And He's sure right. I do act dumber than a sack of snot.
Probably the only verse in the Bible that I just don't like is "He disciplines those He loves."
ARGH! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
If He loved me, He would zap me with insta-discipline, insta-charisma, and insta-faith. Right? RIGHT???
Wrong. We were created to be God's companions. If He creates us as we are to be with no capacity or necessity for growth, we would be pretty poor companions. It would be like a crazy scientist creating an android to keep him company. As we all know from watching Star Trek, an android without the desire or need for growth is nothing more than a part of the scenery.
....did I just nerd out for a minute, there? Sorry.
We were put in this beautiful, amazing, fallen world with the desire for growth and change, because our ultimate goal is to be the companions of God. How COOL is that? That's like your favorite celebrity (Sandra Bullock? YES PLEASE!) calling you up and saying "I want you to quit your job. I need a friend, and I think you're it. You could be my best friend full-time." But you'd have to learn to walk the celebrity walk. You'd have to look good accompanying her on the red carpet as her BFF. You'd have to know the ins and outs of a Hollywood set. You'd have to know all about all the things that interest her.
Being God's BFF is about a bazillion times harder, but infinitely more worth it. But we've got to learn how to walk the Holy walk. We've got to look good as a pure specimen of His kingdom. We've got to know the ins and outs of the Word. We've got to know about the things that touch God's heart. That takes work, people. Hard, hard work. We're humans, and we like to be lazy. I know it's one of my favorite things. But if we're not growing, we're stagnating, becoming apathetic, part of the scenery.
I make one ugly tree. The scenery thing doesn't work for me.
Neither do Circus Peanuts.