Does everything happen for a reason?

Since Benjamin passed, I’ve been thinking a lot about the reason for everything and why things went down the way they went down.  Things could have gone any number of ways–why this way? I’ve been trying to look for the bigger purpose and the larger lesson. In meditating on these things, I’ve posted at least two links on Facebook to articles about how everything doesn’t happen for a reason. These sort of posts intrigue me because I used to be the person who walked around, musing about how everything happens for a reason, that every event that takes place was simply meant to be. But then my son died. And now I don’t think that way anymore.

On one hand, I think many things do happen for a reason. I believe God puts us in certain circumstances and causes us to meet specific people for very real reasons. And we can choose to lean into His promptings and follow His plan for us, or we can opt to go our own way and do our own thing apart from Him. Either way, God isn’t perched on a throne up in heaven watching us from afar, kicking back and waiting to see how things will pan out. He’s with us, living in us by His spirit, involved, interested, invested, in control of our lives, big and small events alike. God is all knowing, ever present, all powerful. But there’s another powerful being at work–Satan. Of lesser power than God, Satan is still very strong, very real, pure evil, enemy of God. We know that once Jesus returns to abolish evil once and for all, Satan will be defeated and our spiritual battle will end.  But until then, we are at war.  Ephesians 6 tells us that our struggle is “against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

So God doesn’t cause “bad things” to happen, but He allows them to happen. I think one reason He allows bad things to happen is simply a result of man’s sin dating back to the Garden of Eden. When the fall of man happened, when Adam and Eve chose to deliberately go against the commands of God, mankind was cut off from God as we know it and left to go our own way. Man went from alive to dead, whole to broken, perfect to flawed. God didn’t create Adam and Eve as little robots to control. He created them as human beings, made in God’s own image, but with minds of their own, free will to choose God–or not. And Adam and Eve chose God, until something seemingly more attractive came along. They were forced with a decision to make–listen to their God, or…don’t. And Satan talked a big game, and it sounded fun, enticing, exciting. And so the choice was made. And it wasn’t God making the choice, it wasn’t God with some big bad Reason.

So man sinned. Something bad happened.  And with bad things come consequences. Man was cut off from God, cursed, given over to the choice we made, the “freedom” that has us bound in chains, tied to death. Was that God’s plan? Did He have a reason? Did He hope all along that we’d forsake Him? That doesn’t sound like my God. My God didn’t will for his beloved creation to spit in His face. He wasn’t surprised by Adam and Eve’s choice, but I know He was saddened and grief stricken.

So what does God do when things go bad? He doesn’t sit there and shake his head. He did what only God himself could do–He died for us. He sacrificed His own Son, Himself, to take our place of death.  The perfect sacrifice, the blood spilled to wash us clean. God worked for our good and His glory in the midst of the brokenness and the hell. He didn’t plan for man to sin (though He wasn’t surprised), he didn’t will for us to choose death over life (though He knew we would). But we did.  The bad thing happened.  And He knew it would, because He’s God, but He didn’t stop it.  Maybe He didn’t stop it because He wants us to make our own choice.  He gives us the freedom to choose Him–or not.  Maybe He didn’t stop it because He knew He’d be able to redeem the situation.  Maybe both reasons, and more. Either way, He stepped in and provided a way for us.  He provided a Rescuer, a Redeemer.  He gave Himself to make a way for us to be in right standing with Him again.  My God acted real big.  And it wasn’t easy for Him.  He had to become man, suffer, and die.  God had to watch His son die.  Why would He do such a thing for man, who turned our backs on Him?  “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8.

So in looking at the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, I have to believe that no, not everything happens for a reason.  There’s no reason for man to turn their backs on God, or for ISIS beheading people, or kids enslaved in sex trafficking, or babies suffering and dying.  When I think about Benjamin and how he suffered each day of life and ended up with nearly every organ system in his body failing and dying a slow, terrible death, I’m angry.  I’m furious!  But I can honestly say I’m not angry at God.  Confused, yes.  And I think there’s room for confusion and questions.  But the anger is not there, and I’m relieved for that.  I can direct my anger at this broken world and let it fuel the fire for my passion and hunger for heaven.  I have no hope in this world.  Rather, my hope is in my God, who, although not the cause of the world’s evilness, provides a Rescuer through it all, works for the good of those who love Him through it all.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” Titus 2:11-14