Everything happens for a reason

I don’t think that I believe the statement above. It is true, everything does happen for a reason, a cause and then the subsiquent effects, but when people say this statement they typically mean something much different. Mostly they are making a commentary about how everything that happens, God makes it happen and we should just sorts accept that. In a sense they are setting God up so that when later things don’t go their way, they have a right to be pissed off. It seems like more often than not God is extremely hands off, with the occasional shift or movement here and there. God seems to me like he allows things to play out and to teach us through experience and only intervenes when he sees fit. The difference between God intervening and not seems maddening though because it seems to follow no human logic. To complicate things, one thing that we tend to overlook are the trials that are in our lives. We tend not to see God in them until we come out of them and hand hindsight. What’s funny is a trial can be you having a lot or very little. The Rich Young Ruler who comes to Jesus had everything but failed at the trial God had for him, but the Apostle Paul had almost nothing and clearly succeeded. So when things happen don’t act as if God is actively pouring down wrath upon you. He may be, but God seems to be way more interested in the person you are becoming and the ways that you are growing than the current situation you find yourself in. If you can accept where you are, and work hard where God plants you, I believe that you will find peace.