Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

Does everything happen for a reason?

I often remember…

Pangs of fear. Gnawing ache in my belly. Uncontrollable tears. The washing over of hopelessness. Lost desire to live. Plans for the end.

This was my youth.

I don’t forget the pain, the chains that once lay heavy upon my battered heart.

Standing here now at the end of long-traversed and rocky path, up a steep cliff to summit’s peak, I can turn around. I can look back. I can see.

And wonder.

And ask why…

Why did all that happen? I am sweetly well-acquainted with the many beauties borne along the way…cascade of water pouring as chutes of blessing.

But why did it have to happen that way? Why did the suffering have to go on so long? Why did my entire childhood have to be swallowed up like 1200 tons of pounding fury engulfing rocks and river below…fully and finally, in a split second, seemingly without nary a thought.

God is God…couldn’t He have done it differently without so much excruciating agony borne on my behalf?

Everything happens for a reason.

Perhaps we’ve all heard this phrase at one time or another in our lives.

It’s a string of words strung together to hang over our misery in times of great trial. That’s where we encounter it the most.

Right now, our family is in the middle of a stalled adoption as China travel remains closed . It’s a nightmare for many, their beloved child trapped overseas in an orphanage, and some have even dropped from the program and turned elsewhere.

I have a friend who was bitten by a tick at the age of 19. Months later, she could no longer walk. Decades later, she’s the worst case of chronic illness I’ve ever seen.

And my friend whose husband suddenly began exhibiting symptoms of delusion and mental illness a few months back…only to suddenly take his own life this past week…

This isn’t the suffering that just affects the day, month, or year.

This is the suffering that affects a person’s life
for years to come.

Can we look at things like this, the heart-wrenching tragedies that befall us and our loved ones, and truly believe everything happens for a reason?

Hold onto your quintessential core…In spite of the things that hurt –

Everything happens for a reason. Our lives are part of a bigger schematic design. The all-powerful Creator of the universe has a plan nothing can desist and He will work all things for the good of His people.

Does Everything Happen for a Reason? The EVIDENCE

I would consider myself extraordinarily detailed – and a prior counselor told me I possess the most complex brain of anyone he’s met. Perhaps you have someone like that in your life, or you feel that way about yourself. Yet despite the level of elaborate intricacy we may hold to, there’s One who is supremely more tedious in the tiny technicalities of life.

The Great Designer of our days and Lover of our souls…

This is the One who fails to allow even the small bird to fall apart from His will…

Who can number the individual strands on our heads (mt 10:29-30)…

Who ceases to neither slumber nor sleep – rather, keeps us in his stead (ps 121:4).

This is the One who records each and every tear, held fast in sacred bottle (ps 56:8)…

Who intricately wove each miniature element
– tiny toes, little lashes –
in our mother’s womb.
(ps 139:13-15)

Who deigns to not leave even one sheep behind… (luke 15:3-7)

Every nook and cranny accounted for. Alongside the evidence of Him holding the minutia of life in the palm of His hand, the stories of the saints speak volumes…

~How can we reason the suffering of Joseph, cruelly sold into slavery, imprisoned, falsely accused, forgotten? (gen 50:20)

~What about Moses, his life almost taken from his mother’s hand as a mere infant, yet sheer “fate” preserves the coming of the soldier? (heb 11:23)

~Consider pharaoh, who not only refused to let the Israelites go, but who experienced a hardening of the heart that only the Lord can command? (ex 10:20)

~Why did Abraham and Sarah have to wait so long for their precious baby boy? Or Hannah? Or Elizabeth?

~And Job…who can forget Job…he endured suffering many of us cannot even touch and he was the player on the stage, heaven the informed audience. (job 1:12)

These stories interweave in magnificent tapestry, displaying to behold the most majestic artisan hand behind it all…

Does Everything Happen for a Reason? The PLAN

The Creator Almighty is the one “who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (eph 1:11)

Yes – He has a plan.

His plan was in place when Adam and Eve fell in the garden and he revealed the consequences and how sin would eventually be vanquished.

His plan was set for the Israelites, who turned their backs on him time and again, and he spoke a plan for them now and for eternity.

His plan was prophesied in advance and fully enacted as the hope-filled turning point for mankind when He sent His son to die on the cross for our sins.

The One who loves us so did all this and continues to work out each individual plan, each day being “written in your book…” (ps 139:16).

And not only does He work each moment for His glory,
He works it all
– everything –
for our good.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,
who have been called according to His purpose.
romans 8:28

Planning…purposeful…passionate…

Powerful.

As Job boldly stated, nothing can thwart His plan.

Nothing can thwart His plan.

No, not even the powers of the greatest kings on the mightiest thrones, nor the principal powers of darkness that seek to darken and destroy, can stop His grand scheme.

Oh Creator who loves us so,
brushed the pen strokes of time into our life books
before we took our first gasp,
before our existence was even known…

Wow. Do we really believe a detail-oriented, planning, omnipotent God, who works everything for the good of His people, would allow even a moment to be wasted?

Not at all.

It’s in His character…His word…His promise.

MAKING SENSE OF IT ALL

Lovingly poured out onto the pages of history is the tale of a sinful people swept up in the arms of a gracious God, sweet Savior, faithful Friend.

The pages of history…

the pages of HIStory.

Creator of the world, He’s the One who had the plan all along. He’s the only One never taken off guard.

It’s not only our story, or the world’s story…it’s His story.

HIStory of perfect plan unfolding throughout generations for His ultimate glory.

Everything happens for a reason?

Yes.

But even better said –

Everything happens for God’s reason.