“No fair!” That’s what I thought when my friend told me the story of a new friend of hers. We were talking about the difficulty and challenge of moving to a new city without friends, family or job. I think it takes quite a bit of chutzpah to attempt it.

For this new friend though, it was a piece of cake. He decided which city he wanted to live in based on proximity to relatives and good weather; he waltzed into town and looked for schools and headed to one that appeared to be in a good area. “Do you have any openings for Physical Education teachers?” he asked. “As a matter of fact, yes, and we’re interviewing right now.”

He walked out of the interview with a job and a nice coaching assignment. Now he needed an apartment. There again, he walked into a place that just happened to have a perfect opening in which he was free to move in immediately. He took it. He’s now been in the city three years and is happy as a clam.

“Well” I said to my friend, “We’re only seeing one side. No doubt he has had other times in his life that didn’t glide like butter.” She agreed. It’s tempting to view another’s life only superficially and feel we were short-sheeted. But they are probably looking at us the same way.

Life, of course, is a mixture of good and bad, easy and hard. My “no fair” must give way when I consider this: “In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider–God has made the one as well as the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14).